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.
