Thailand: Discovery of Fetuses Sparks Abortion Debate

Jennifer Cocks

November 26, 2010

3:03 pm

The discovery of over 2,000 aborted fetuses awaiting cremation at a temple crematorium in Bangkok, Thailand prompted a police investigation and re-opened policy debate on abortion. Thailand has a strict policy on abortion, allowing them only in specific cases such as “rape, incest, a threat to the mother's physical or psychological health or if the mother is underage.” As a result of the strict anti-abortion policy, underground abortion clinics with poorly educated medical technicians have increased in prevalence and the price of the procedure has also risen. Because of the inadequate knowledge of the technicians performing abortions, many women have complications and require additional medical assistance. Researchers believe that there are about 300,000 to 400,000 illegal abortions occur annually. There is strong public support for repealing the anti-abortion laws to improve women’s health; however parliament officials reject pro-abortion the bills for fear of being considered “baby killers” and because they believe the current legislation is flexible enough.

This article places the majority of the blame for the complications women suffer from having these illegal abortions on the illegality of the procedure. It also states that the majority of women seeking abortions are poorer, more marginalized citizens. The large volume of abortions occurring seems to indicate that the procedure is being used as a method of birth control. A better planned parenthood program that encouraged contraception use and increased women’s education on pregnancy prevention, especially for the poorer women of the country. This might be a better solution for Thailand since the lawmakers are unwilling to approve a bill that legalizes abortions. By preventing pregnancy, the complications resulting from the illegal abortions would be reduced and women’s overall health will improve. The article ends with the statement that contraception is available but it’s not being used. Research on public opinions and perceptions of the existing sex-ed and pregnancy prevention programs should be done to see why the programs are relatively unsuccessful.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2032414,00.html

Equal Time: Gender Equality’s Final Frontier

Jennifer Cocks

2:05 pm

November 19, 2010

This article discusses the problem of gender inequality and representation in European politics, business, and media. In many European Union member states, quotas have been instituted to increase the number of women in higher government positions; this program has overall been successful as “European Union as a whole, women now hold 26% of elected seats versus 14% in the US.” The newest concern and the primary focus of the article is highlighting the gender disparity in the boardroom of European businesses: “Only 3% of the top FTSE companies in the U.K. have female executive directors. Even [in] Sweden… only 2% of CEOs are women.” This is a trend in other E.U. nations, most likely due to the cultural emphasis on family over career. Though many businesses claim that gender is not a hiring factor, European nations are considering or have already implemented quota legislation that requires top performing companies to hire more women for upper management positions. Norway’s government offered the 600 best performing companies the choice to fix their boardroom disparities within a year or face a legal quota system requiring 40% of top positions to be held by women; failure to do so within the allotted grace period would result in the loss of the organization’s business license (businesses failed to increase women in the boardroom and Parliament is now scheduled to vote in the quota legislation). Other ideas have been recommended to reduce gender discrimination, including “the recent European Commission proposal to outlaw sexist stereotypes in the media and remove gender from insurance-premium calculations.”

I think the proposals for gender equality in Europe are progressive and liberal, especially when compared to our own governmental system. Several of my previous blogs address female representation in government, so I won’t re-hash those article responses. As far as the business quota system to introduce more women to the boardroom, I believe it is a good theory, but boardroom executives also need the knowledge and expertise to make the important strategic decisions. If women haven’t penetrated into the almost-upper management level to gain that expertise, then promoting them to high positions will be a superficial achievement that doesn’t actually benefit the women in society or the company itself. If the quota system was geared more towards boosting women’s enrollment in business colleges and universities and introducing succession policies in businesses to groom more women for the executive positions in organizations, then it would be more effective at equalizing the gender disparity of upper management. Current enrollment of women in the London Business School is in the range of 20-30 percent according to the article; education is central to the success of these business quota policies and is necessary to ‘level the playing field’ effectively. No doubt that patriarchal societies require some legal recourse to promote gender parity when cultural norms aren’t evolving quickly enough to support dramatic change; however the business gender quota seems overly aggressive- at least in the time businesses are given to rectify their disparate treatment and disparate impact. It will be interesting to see if the proposal to outlaw sexist stereotypes in media will pass, as enforcing that does run the risk of appearing like government censorship. With the growing popularity of the media, I think addressing the sexist stereotypes will eventually help European society change its cultural norms to be more egalitarian towards both sexes.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,485708,00.html

Philippine lawmakers to push family planning bill

Jennifer Cocks

November 12, 2010

4:30 pm

This past Thursday, Philippine lawmakers claimed they will attempt to pass a bill that encourages family planning. The Philippines has had recent exponential growth as the population has doubled in the last 30 years, far exceeding the economic growth of the country. As a mostly Catholic nation, birth control is not practiced; this new legislation is being introduced as a way to endorse “responsible parenthood…not [endorsing] any particular birth control method.” A representative of the women’s party stated in the article that “the proposed law will limit unsafe abortions by reducing unwanted pregnancies caused by a lack of knowledge of family planning methods.” The statistics of abortions and subsequent complications are high in the Philippines; the numbers are estimated to be 560,000 women aborting pregnancies in 2008 and 90,000 suffering complications with about 1,000 dying from more fatal complications.

This article directly corresponds to what we’ve been talking about in class these past few weeks. Catholicism discourages birth control and as a result, the Philippines has high birth rates (approximately 26 births per 1,000 Filipinos- CIA world factbook). However, their healthcare, sanitation, and education systems have improved and reduced the death rate (approximately 5 deaths per 1,000 people- CIA world factbook). This exponential increase in population- the result of longer lives and large families- means they are in the third stage of the demographic transition model. I think this new bill will help control the birth rate and push the Philippines into the fourth stage of the demographic transition model. The bill proposal includes information about family planning and sex education which will help the women in more remote areas understand family planning methods. Since the current national philosophy of “family planning is the parent’s responsibility” isn’t effective enough at reducing population growth at the moment, this bill is necessary, despite the church’s opposition. This bill’s intention is to safeguard women and simultaneously address the population growth as family planning will reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and thus improve women’s health. With any luck, implementing the law will reduce the number of abortions necessary and thus help eliminate complications from abortions from the “top ten reasons women seek hospital care” in the Philippines.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/11/AR2010111101825.html

CIA World Factbook Stats:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rp.html

“Yes, women can”- Brazil’s first ‘presidenta’ pledges gender equality

Jennifer Cocks

November 5, 2010

11:45 am

Brazil elected its first female president, Dilma Rousseff, on Nobember 1^st. She won with 56% of votes, beating her opponent, José Serra by 12%. This is a great victory for women in Brazil, though the country still has only a small number of women in political positions. Rousseff ran with a campaign slogan of “yes, we can” which is reminiscent of Obama’s slogan and her campaign emphasized that “‘Equal opportunities for men and women are an essential principal of democracy.’” In her victory speech, Rousseff promised to advocate for additional job opportunities in “’business, civil institutions…and the whole of [Brazil’s] society.’” She is expected to promote several women who are already successful in leadership roles to government positions. Rousseff’s choice to emphasize the “’…importance of women in democracy was a major advance that went beyond emotion and rhetoric’” and promises that gender equality will be a goal of her presidency.

I read this article and thought about the great contrast between American and Brazilian politics. It wasn’t until a few years ago that we had our first female candidate (Hillary Clinton) for a majority political party, though she lost the Democratic primary election to Obama. Why has it taken so long for us to have even one female candidate for president in a majority party? Is our society more patriarchal than Brazil and other Latin American and Caribbean nations since they’ve managed to elect eight female presidents? Is there a different method used to choose Brazilian candidates that is more egalitarian and less gender-biased? Is this evidence of the glass ceiling of politics in the US? I think our inability to have a female presidential candidate is a reflection of all of the above. While it is possible that some of Clinton’s loss can be attributed to her political philosophy, I believe that the primary reason for her loss is because our patriarchal society places constraints on the expectations of women through socialization. From gender stereotypes that claim women cannot make decisions without becoming “overly emotional” and weak to the currently passive stance we have on equal opportunity employment and pay for both sexes, women, especially those in politics, face more public scrutiny and discrimination than most men in similar positions.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/01/brazil-first-presidenta-womens-rights

Malaysia Women’s Group Gets to Keep ‘Islam’ in Name

Jennifer Cocks

October 29, 2010

2:06 pm

Sisters in Islam is a prominent non-governmental organization in Malaysia. It fights for reforming women’s rights by challenging the enforcement and punishment associated with breaking Muslim morality laws. Initially Sisters in Islam was formed to stop child marriages, polygamy, and more recently to stop the caning of women who have been caught publicly drinking alcohol. Recently, the Malaysian Assembly of Muslim Youths filed suit against the women’s advocacy group, claiming that the use of Islam in its name is confusing Muslim practitioners by appearing to represent all Muslims. The High Court ruled in favor of the Sisters in Islam, stating that the Muslim Youths group had no legal basis for challenging the name.

I think the Sisters in Islam are trying to bring a modern interpretation to the acceptable behaviors and punishments of Muslim practitioners. Basic human rights and women’s rights are also incorporated in the goals of the organization. I do believe that the ‘Muslim Youths’ organization had an interesting point, that the organization’s goals do conflict with the traditional values and customs associated with Islam; I also believe that the cognitive dissonance it might bring to people that do get confused and perceive the organization as being representative of the majority of Muslims would be positive and hopefully will promote additional reforms. However, the group has challenges that I wished the article spent more time on; for instance, the Sisters were able to stop the caning punishment for women who drink alcohol in public and instead women now serve community service for the offense. But since the implementation of the alternate punishment, other moral crimes that Muslim Malaysian women commit have been adversely affected. One specific instance that the article highlighted was that women who have committed adultery are now being caned- a punishment that is new for that particular moral crime. Obviously, the ‘Sisters’ have many more trials ahead in their quest for “promoting moderation in Islam.”

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_MALAYSIA_ISLAM_LAWSUIT?SITE=FLPEJ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT