It's not difficult to understand why a top dog might want to stay on top. For most of human history, females have been repeatedly marginalized by more powerful males until it's been institutionalized to a greater or lesser extent in almost all cultures.
April has been particularly difficult for women internationally. In Afghanistan a new law was passed essentially sanctioning marital rape. It states that a woman is legally obliged to have sex any time it pleases her husband, and must tart herself up at her husband's request. God's will, no doubt.
Beyond the absolutely deplorable idea that the law makes women the legal property of men, it's not difficult to see other ramifications in a culture where a woman can be stoned to death for being raped by someone other than her spouse. Who will be believed if a man reports that his wife has refused him?
In Israel, some Orthodox newspapers have gone so far as to eradicate women. Israel's new cabinet includes two women, but Orthodox conservatives are convinced that God doesn't want them to print photos of women, so some publications have replaced them with men's pictures, or simply eliminated the women from the group photo.
And in Pakistan, a young woman was publicly flogged on allegations of adultery. It's difficult to comprehend the deeply ingrained entitlement that provokes this kind of behavior in the name of God.
Since women's very existence doesn't seem to be sufficient to guarantee equal respect, one way to help protect their rights is to recognize their achievements. In the U.S., the National Women's History Project was created in 1980 by a group that noticed how few women appear in history books. They've given women's history training sessions to more than 30,000 teachers and federal program managers.
Yet women are still vastly underrepresented in Washington. Although our population includes five million more women than men, women comprise only 17 percent of Congress, even after 161 years of the women's rights movement in this country.
There's no statistical way to evaluate the overall contribution of women to a governmental body, but in business the numbers are indisputable. A 2004 study revealed that companies with the most women on their top management teams experienced better financial performance — a 34 percent higher return to shareholders — than companies with the fewest women in management.
When our country was in its formative years, John Adams, reminded by his wife to include women's rights in our country's founding documents, retorted, "We know better than to repeal our masculine systems." It took 144 years of democracy before women in this country "won" the right to vote. Over the centuries we've had to beat back laws limiting women's work hours, admission to law school, and many other restrictive initiatives, and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) never did pass.
A balanced world demands equal rights. Let's hope the 21st century's developing countries will not be as slow as the U.S. in following through on equal rights for all.
Photo courtesy Library of Congress
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