What You Can Do to Tackle Women’s Issues

The statistics are sobering, even disheartening. According to various world agencies women are under attack all around the world, often in ways that society simply accepts as “the way things are.” It’s hard not to get discouraged about the state of women’s issues when you see statistics like these:

-          A woman in the United States is assaulted or beaten every 9 seconds.

-          One woman in 4 in the United States will experience domestic violence in her life.

-          One woman in 3 around the world will be assaulted in her life.

-          Three out of every 4 adults in the United States know someone who is or was involved in a relationship that involved domestic violence.

Thanks to activists who have worked hard to shine a bright light on domestic violence, people are more aware of this issue than they ever have been. In reality, the light shining on domestic violence may make it seem that we are making strides toward making life better for women around the world – but domestic violence is only one of many women’s issues that affect the lives of women, children and families – and by extension, all of society – every single day.

Other Women’s Issues Are Less Visible

Many issues affect and entrap women and children far more often than they do men, but they don’t usually get the same attention as domestic violence. These include crime organizations, cartels that engage in drug and human trafficking, illegal adoptions and even Internet love/money scams that target women in far higher numbers than they do men. Not surprisingly, the thousands of women a year who are entrapped and defrauded of tens of thousands of dollars – and sometimes suffer far worse fates – are far less visible than the men who fall for Nigerian brides scams, but any woman who has ever been on a dating service can tell you about the many contacts she receives from “nice men” who “only want to make her happy.”

In February, which is a month when we often highlight efforts to combat domestic violence and violence against women, it can seem especially discouraging to feel like we have made so few strides toward eradicating these women’s issues. It’s helpful to realize how far we have come in just a few short years even if there is still so very far to go. It was in the 1990s that the last state finally changed its legal codes to make it possible to charge a husband with sexually assaulting his wife, and not much before that, it was legal to beat your wife in most states. Today, nearly every state in the country has shelters, crisis hotlines and resources for women who are trying to escape lives of violence. These are just a few things you can do to help bring the same kind of awareness to other women’s issues that activists have brought to domestic violence.

-          Learn about issues like illegal adoptions and human trafficking. The more you know, the more you can help.

-          Listen non-judgmentally when a woman comes forward to talk about her experience with these issues. It takes a unique brand of bravery to tell others how you have been abused.

-          Share your own experiences. Many people doubt that these things really happen to women or believe that they happen to “other women” who probably deserve it. When you openly share your own experiences, you put a real, public face on these hidden women’s issues and make them harder to ignore.

One Billion Rising for Women’s Issues

On Valentine’s Day in countries all around the world, women will be taking to the streets to highlight one of the most important women’s issues of our times – violence against and inequality toward women. Unlike many other people empowerment movements, the One Billion Rising movement will be using a unique method to get their message across: dance flash mobs. In more than 60 countries and dozens of cities at noon on February 14, music will suddenly ring out, women will rise from where they are working, walking and sitting and … dance.

The One Billion Rising is a project of VDay, a global movement to end violence against women. Spearheaded by Eve Ensler, Tony Award winning playwright of “The Vagina Monologues,” V-Day supports anti-violence movements around the world. For years, the group has sponsored events on Valentine’s Day, but One Billion Rising is the most ambitious undertaking yet.

Facts:

One in three women globally will be victims of violence directed against women. This includes organized violence by governments and drug cartels alike, domestic violence, kidnapping and illegal adoption rings and one-on-one physical violence against women. While we read and hear a lot about domestic violence and other violence against women, little is being done to address the root causes and attitudes that support those who commit violence.

One of those root causes is the implicit acceptance that each case of domestic violence, each physical assault, each rape and each kidnapping is a singular incident, that there is no underlying cause that erupts in multiple ways that hurt and damage women throughout the world. That denial – the refusal to admit that there is a problem – manifests itself as indifference of authorities who shrug helplessly in the face of systemic and cultural abuses against women, familial denial of domestic violence and a collective silence and lack of outrage from the general public.

That silence will be broken in cities all over the world on February 14 and be replaced by the driving beat of One Billion Rising’s theme song. “Break the Chain.” Organizations from Mumbai to New York City, encompassing women from Somalia to Paducah, are participating. In some cities, there will be dozens of flash mobs. In other areas, women will travel for hours to join their sisters in a dance against violence. The goal of One Billion Rising is to engage one billion women and men in an unmistakable statement: we won’t stand by in silence anymore.

Sister, won’t you dance? Sister, won’t you rise?

The insistent chorus is one that we all need to heed if we’re to finally make inroads against women’s violence and tackle what may be one of the most defining women’s issues of our time.

Women’s Issues Are Still Underreported in the Media

If you were paying attention to the election coverage – especially if you were paying attention to it on a cable news network – you’d think that much of the vote depended on what were described as “women’s issues.” With all the focus on these so-called women’s issues, you’d think that there is a renewed focus on issues and problems of special interest to women. The truth is, though, that with a few exceptions, most women’s issues are still underreported and largely ignored by the media, both mainstream and non-traditional.

If you were to judge by the coverage on the nightly news – even during the hotly debated election months – the most important issues for women are access to birth control, reproductive health and whether or not they’re allowed to sue a former employer for not paying them the same wage they paid males in the same position when they find out about the inequality.

Occasionally, a high profile case of domestic violence – hello, Rihanna and Chris Brown – brings the problem of domestic violence into focus, but the focus soon shifts away. In the most recent high profile case – the murder of Kassandra Perkins by her boyfriend, Jovan Belcher and his subsequent suicide – the issue of whether or not the Kansas City Chiefs should have played their scheduled game the day after the murder/suicide overshadowed any discussion of domestic violence – at least until that controversy was overtaken by the outrage that Bob Costas dared to bring up gun control or domestic violence during said football game.

As a society, we have an odd and awkward relationship with the realities of abuse and crime that affects women and children more than it affects men. We acknowledge domestic violence these days, at least, and it’s politically incorrect to openly blame women for their own victimization if they are raped, imprisoned, sold into slavery through trafficking or routinely paid less than men are for doing the same jobs. In most states, the laws no longer recognize a man’s innate right to “discipline” his wife – but it’s been fewer than 20 years since the last state rescinded laws that tacitly stated it was impossible for a husband to rape his wife.

So where does this odd relationship leave us? It leaves us in a place where most American adults can reel off the facts about domestic violence – how many women are beaten or abused by domestic partners each year, that three of every four American women will be involved in an abusive relationship in their lives and that partner battering is among the most common causes of hospitalization among young adult women – but probably unable to name a single woman of our acquaintance who is a “victim” of domestic violence.

The sad fact is that being a “victim of domestic violence” has come to mean something that doesn’t evoke sympathy – something that no woman wants to admit. Despite the visibility being brought to the issue of domestic violence – and many other similar women’s issues – the women who are the most affected by it remain invisible – until they become a statistic, and then they are all too visible… but beyond help.

The Intersection of Women’s Issues and Romance Novels

Modern women’s issues and romance novels may not seem to have a lot in common on their face, especially if your view of romances was formed by the formulaic quick-reads of the 1950s and 1960s. Modern romance novels tend to be more complex, and many of them focus on events and happenings that lie at the root of problems that affect women all over the world. These issues often get little attention from the world at large but they affect millions of women in countries on all continents.

Domestic Violence

Domestic violence may be the most visible of all modern women’s issues. Statistics show that nearly one in four women will be affected by domestic violence at some point in their lives. The violence may come at the hands of an intimate partner, a parent, a roommate or even a teenage or grown child. There are shelters for women trying to escape abusive situations, and over the past decade or so, there have been a number of laws passed to help protect these women from abusive partners.

Despite its public visibility, though, when it comes to recognizing and dealing with domestic violence in our day to day lives, there is still a remarkable shroud of silence surrounding the subject. Neighbors don’t know how to broach the subject even when they hear the beatings through the walls and floors night after night. Women hide black eyes and bruises with makeup rather than admit to a brother, sister or mother that she can’t keep her boyfriend or husband from hitting her. A large part of the problem is that society still, by and large, places some of the blame for domestic violence on the victim who is somehow not strong enough or smart enough or determined enough to get out of her situation.

Popular romance novels are increasingly taking on tough issues like domestic violence, human trafficking, illegal adoption rings and drug cartels as women’s issues – crimes and violence that affect women proportionally and substantially more than they affect men. The heroine of the modern romance novel faces these issues head on, battles them and comes out a winner. In the process, she exposes and explores the effects of violence, crime and other issues on the lives of women, both for herself and for the readers, who may be living those situations in their own lives.

By highlighting and exploring issues that affect so many women, today’s modern romance novel helps pave the way for understanding some of the thorniest women’s issues of today, and eventually, for eradicating them permanently.

Shining the Light on Women’s Issues and People Empowerment

People empowerment may sound like a buzzword, but it has a deep and profound meaning to people who are living in difficult circumstances. It involves creating and promoting policies and actions that empower people to help themselves and move themselves out of danger and disadvantage and move into safer, more fulfilling lives. People empowerment can be the key to addressing many difficult women’s issues and societal problems. By promoting policies and actions that empower women and other disadvantaged people, society engages the most important and potent allies for women and families – the women and families who most need help.

Shining the Light

The first step to solving a problem is recognizing its existence. For generations, society ignored the reality of domestic violence and accepted its existence. In some cultures, domestic violence is still an accepted part of the way the world works. In those societies, women are still viewed as property, belonging to their fathers in their youth and their husbands after they are married. Even in so-called enlightened Western cultures, women are not accorded the same rights and respect as men and lingering attitudes about a “man’s castle” and a “woman’s place” empower abusers to continue their violence rather than empowering women to escape from it. Until 1994, there were still places in the United States where a woman could not charge her husband with sexual assault. That means that as few as 20 years ago, it was still legal for a man to rape his wife. Despite that, there’s a commonly held assumption that we’ve taken on the specter of domestic abuse and are eliminating it.

In fact, crime records show that nothing could be further from the truth. Statistics show that domestic violence is one of the leading causes of death among women ages 15 to 44. One in three women report that they have experienced violence at the hands of a current or former boyfriend or spouse. One in four women of college age report that they have been subjected to intimate partner violence.

Despite this, women who are involved in relationships with abusive partners believe that their situation is unusual. They may feel that they are at fault, or that they can control the situation and their partner’s violence. They are also subjected to judgment – much of it well-meaning – about their self-esteem issues and their weaknesses. Those judgments often make it difficult for a woman to admit that there is a problem in their relationship. She knows that the moment she admits to someone outside the relationship that there is a problem with violence, the world’s view of her will change. She will no longer be a strong, adult woman living through a difficult situation. Instead, she will be a weak victim who stays in a dangerous relationship because of low self-esteem. She will be lectured, pitied and, in many cases, avoided by the people she loves and trusts.

The people empowerment route to dealing with domestic violence, and with other women’s issues such as illegal adoption and human trafficking, is to shine a light on it – not just on the horror of it, but on the strength and dignity of the women who survive it, one day at a time.

About Women’s Issues in Popular Literature

Women’s issues often loom large in the field of popular literature, particularly if you count romance novels as part of that field. While much of the reading intelligentsia looks upon romance and thrillers as pabulum, fit for consumption only by those who haven’t cut their teeth on the weightier tomes that rise to NYT bestseller status, romances and other so-called lightweight reading often tackles some of the knottiest issues facing society today. Far from being popcorn for the brain, many of today’s women’s novels provoke deep thought and touch upon women’s issues that affect millions of people around the world.

The Stereotypical Romance Heroine

The stereotypical view of romance novels is supported by the impression of the stereotypical romance heroine, often put forth by some academician who hasn’t cracked the cover of a romance novel since they were in their teens – if even then. Thus, they cling to the notion that the typical plot of a romance novel involves some helpless-but-plucky young woman who gets herself into a series of scrapes and must be rescued by her Prince Charming. In their view, the most pressing problem faced by the main female character in a romance novel is her quest to find the right man and live happily ever after with him. Her prince, of course, is dashing, mysterious and handsome – and probably misunderstood.

To be fair, those views were once supported by the literature itself to some extent. The old-fashioned stereotypical romance novel sold women a vision of that romantic, mysterious, strong-but-silent man who was emotionally distant and often physically abusive – something for which the heroine invariably took the blame.

Today’s romance novels have a far different take on the subject, though. When they tackle subjects like domestic violence, they frequently do so with a sensitivity and strength seldom seen in more mainstream coverage of most women’s issues. Where old-fashioned romances often left women living in abusive situations helpless and guilty, today’s romances offer a variety of people empowerment – a validation of her strength and encouragement to keep on surviving.

More to the point, when romance writers tackle domestic violence and other women’s issues, such as illegal adoption, drugs, human trafficking, sexual violence and cartels, they provide a window of understanding into a world where these women are discounted, victimized and discarded. By shining a light on the strength and endurance that allows women in these situations to survive and become stronger, today’s romance novels may have a positive effect on women attempting to better themselves by escaping from their imprisoning situations.

Five Women’s Issues You May Not Understand

When someone says “women’s issues,” what comes to mind? Over the last few decades, the phrase women’s issues has become very closely associated with a couple of specific societal problems. Those particular issues include equal pay for women, quality child care for working women, access to high-paying careers and jobs, and violence against women, including domestic violence. These high profile issues that affect women barely scratch the surface, though. In fact, many social workers and others who work with women would tell you that, with the exception of domestic violence, most of these better-known women’s issues have little effect on the day-to-day lives of most of the world’s women.

On a real and personal level, though, there are a number of problems that most people would never think about as issues that affect women’s lives in unexpected but entirely predictable ways. They are also very poorly understood by most people who don’t see their effects up close and personal.

Domestic Violence

While the specter of violence against women looms large in political discussions and in the wider media, domestic violence continues to imperil millions of women every year. Despite the fact that one in every four women will be battered or abused by an intimate partner, the myths that surround domestic violence make it hard to address in a meaningful way. Far too many people, including many of those in law enforcement, still think that women in abusive relationships somehow contribute to their own abuse. Even those who are sympathetic and want to help find it hard to understand the ways that domestic violence, controlling relationships and society’s lack of resources conspire to trap women in relationships where they are at risk of injury and death.

Trafficking

Human trafficking, sexual trafficking and even drug trafficking are more prevalent problems than most people understand. Specifically, few people understand how these particular types of trafficking victimize women and children far more than they affect men. Aside from dramatic stories of “white slavery,” few people even realize just how widespread and prevalent human and sexual trafficking is in the world and in the United States. Millions of women worldwide are bought and sold to serve as prostitutes, domestic servants, nannies and wives. In fact, the mail order bride industry, which is often seen as an area where women have the advantage, often entraps women in abusive relationships and situations that are nearly impossible to escape.

Illegal Adoption

The typical movie of the week story involving illegal adoption usually focuses on the couple who is being cheated out of the child they so desperately want. More often than not, the natural mother is portrayed as a greedy woman taking advantage of the desperation of a childless couple. The reality is usually far different. In the overwhelming cases of illegal adoption, the child’s natural mother is also a victim. Opportunists in foreign countries may kidnap children or force women into bearing children to put on the black market for adopted children.

The underlying cause of all of these women’s issues – as well as many of the more visible ones discussed above – is the same: poverty and powerlessness, and the most important and vital single thing that can be done to address them is to attack and eradicate this root cause. Programs that empower women to stand on their own, earn a living and make their own way can give women the tools they need to escape poverty and abuse. Without them, most women don’t stand a chance.