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.