Comments for IFUW Blog

Comment on Effects of Globalization on Women in Developing Countries by komal gupta

komal gupta — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 14:55:37 +0000

globalisation further intensifies women’s insecurity ..
in this world of men spectators , there are very few women performers ..

Comment on Girls’ Access to Secondary Education by Meredith

Meredith — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:53:21 +0000

I truly feel that it is organizations, non profits, and people like this who are helping to truly make a difference in the female world. Before we can go into any community and try and help to better a woman’s life through education, we must understand their culture and what barriers we are facing. It is crucial that we continue to remind ourselves of the facts and that we are constantly trying to understand why women are being oppressed. That way, when we as a whole do step in to help, we are having a positive and long lasting impact. It is time the women as a whole start respecting one another for a global change and a communal betterment. What ECOSOC, IFUW, and IPFF is doing is truly inspirational.

Comment on Achieving full gender equality in education by connie ngobiro

connie ngobiro — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:11:28 +0000

my country is kenya am 22 in university. The number of girls who drop out of school is still very high esp. In primary level some because of poverty, early marriage,pregnancies while others stay at home to take care of their siblings some are sent of to work for other people as househelps. This has undermined their education.

Comment on Women’s Worlds 2011: IFUW Panel on Widows by Sheryl

Sheryl — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 17:18:41 +0000

Thank you for sharing. This is very informative. It amazes me of how some people think of death, especially a loved one, as being something evil. Thanks again for sharing.

Comment on AMR 2011: Addressing the needs of young people by Taroub El-Bedour / IFUW member from Jordan

Taroub El-Bedour / IFUW member from Jordan — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 19:21:34 +0000

Jordan considers a young one for those who are below the age of 30 represent about 70% of the total population and those who are between (12-30) represent about 40% of the total population.

The Jordan National Youth Strategy focuses on preparing young people for the job market; increasing the net number and variety of youth employment opportunities; increasing the productivity of young people, and motivating them to be self reliant; and eliminating discrimination with the Jordanian job market.
Strategic Objective 1. : Prepare young people for the job market according to the
markets requirements.
- Operational Objectives:
1. Reconcile training and educational systems to job market requirements.
2. Promote the role of the family in building a work culture and providing young
people with the proper career counseling.
3. Eliminate child labour.

Strategic Objective 2. : Generate new job opportunities for young people.
- Operational Objectives:
1. Focus on investment and worker support programs/initiatives aimed at replacing
foreign workers with Jordanian workers.
2. Create a National Council on Youth Employment involving representatives from the
private and public sector, and youth organisations.
3. Promote awareness of the opportunities within the Jordanian job market.
4. Foster awareness of the self employment option as a career, and establish support
and legislative mechanisms to enhance youth entrepreneurship.

Strategic Objective 3. : Provide young people with decent work opportunities.
- Operational Objectives:
1. Increase the productivity of young people and motivate them to become
enterprising and creative.
2. Eliminate all forms of discrimination in the job market.

Comment on Women’s Worlds 2011: IFUW Panel on Widows by Shirley Randell, CIR Rwanda Association of University Women

Shirley Randell, CIR Rwanda Association of University Women — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 11:25:30 +0000

In some countries in Africa, far from being regarded as wise women, widows are often seen as witches and some are killed. Part of the problem is inheritance issues, where a widow claims land. For example, it is well known in South Africa that widows in rural areas, especially those with substantial assets, have been branded as witches, chased out of their villages or even killed. This persecution has been instigated especially by youths or family members of the late husband. These women have fled to places of safety and it has been reported that there is even a forest in the North of South Africa, where these women live. What is less well known is that this phenomenon of branding older women who are widows as witches also takes place in urban South Africa. In North rural South Africa, young men have burnt old women alive,
accusing them of turning dead people into zombies in order to get ghost
workers and deprive the youth of work (Comaroff and Comaroff 1999: 285).
In most instances, witch-hunters have operated with impunity. Police
forces often side with them, or refuse to arrest them, not to be accused of
protecting witches or because they cannot find people who testify against
them. Governments too have watched from the sidelines. Except for the
government of South Africa, none has seriously investigated the
circumstance of these killings. More surprising, feminists have not spoken
up against them. They fear, perhaps, that denouncing these witch-hunts may promote colonial stereotypes of Africans as a population mired in
backwardness and irrationality. Such fears are not unfounded, but they are
misguided.
Witch-hunts are not just an African but a global problem. They
are part of a worldwide pattern of increasing violence against women that
we need to combat. (The Commoner http://www.thecommoner.org = Witch-Hunting, Globalization, and Feminist Solidarityin Africa Today, Silvia Federici, New York 2008)

Comment on Women’s Worlds 2011: IFUW Panel on Widows by Jennifer Strauss

Jennifer Strauss — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 06:51:42 +0000

In situations where widows are clearly denied full legal and social rights, then changes to custom and laws have priority. But in both this situation and ones of more subtle discrimination, fighting for the rights of women to work, to receive equal pay and superannuation benefits and paid maternity leave with the right of return to employment, offers one of the best ways to protect widows from the adverse conditions of poverty and social isolation and pressure (sometimes compulsion) to remarry. Women who have been in the workforce will have social contacts there that are not dependent on the ‘couple syndrome’. Women with adequate financial support will be more able to resist unwanted remarriage and will also have the means to seek out forms of fulfilment that might not have been available to them within the previous commitments of their marriage. Not all the effects of widowhood are negative.

Comment on Women’s Worlds 2011: IFUW Panel on Widows by Gomathy Venkateswar

Gomathy Venkateswar — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 02:39:10 +0000

I had the opportunity to attend the Inaugural Session of UN-Women in New York on June 23rd 2011, which had a Panel Discussion on the Dire straits of Widows globally, and the declaration of June 23rd hereafter as World Widows Day.
It was also the occasion of the launching a multi million dollar Foundation The Sylvie Bongo Odimba Foundation for Widows.
This was a Foundation in the name of the First Lady of Gabon, and Mme Odimba announced that the Foundation was open to all Widows across Africa, and Lord Raj Loomba who also announced his own Foundation based in London, headed by Cherie Blair(wife of ex UK Prime MinisterTony Blair ) who was also present to participate as one of the panellists in the Seminar on Widows stated that the Foundation was open to all NGOS who worked on behalf of Widows and their dependents.

The thrust given by Mme Michele Bachelet, the President of UN Women to focus on Widows and mainstreaming them into a community where they could contribute as normal citizens rather than being second class citizens, andasin some countries being totally ostracized for being unlucky for the family and being sent away to religious pilgrim centres as exiles for life.

Comment on Women’s Worlds 2011: IFUW Panel on Widows by Carolyn Cowgill

Carolyn Cowgill — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:39:37 +0000

Widows over 65 in the U.S. have received salaries unequal to men’s salaries in the same position. This inequity begins when they start their first job. So they do not build up the same amount over a lifetime that a man would earn and especially if they are in the service jobs (teaching, nursing) rather than the STEM fields (science technology, engineering, or math). If they interrupt their working years to have children, it affects their career advancement as well as their earning total. Social security in the U.S. is based on number of years worked. So this may also be affected and they may receive a lower monthly social security payment after 65 than their spouse. When their husband dies, they may not have enough money to make ends meet. Taxes on their houses keep going up faster than social security payments. Health care and prescription medicines can be far above their medicare allowance.

Comment on Girls’ Access to Secondary Education by Taroub El-Bedour from Jordan

Taroub El-Bedour from Jordan — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 20:00:28 +0000

I would like to thank IFUW for participating in this importand issue.
Secondary education for girls is essential and very important for empowering women and enhancing their roles, I deeply encourage women to enroll in science, engineering and technology sectors which will open challenges and new careers to them.

I conducded a study in my country Jordan about the challenges that face women in the ICT sector ,the target groups were women from the age of ( 17-30 ) years old. Some of the main findings were:-

1. Women still face gender stereotype concerning studying or working in ICT sector which considered to be a male profession so women tend to work hard to prove themselves and their abilities

2.Even in the ICT sector, some specialties considered female specialty such as MIS & Animation while Computer science & Engineering are male specialty.

3- Most of the participants emphasized that the employers prefer to hire male rather than females because they beleive that males are more clever and skilled in this area, they also prefer to hire unmarried women to married one due to maternity leave and family responsibilites.

But inspite of such challenges that are facing women in Jordan in the ICT sector, the enrollement of women in this sector is icreasing due to the encougment of the Jordanian government .