Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Japanese Women Choosing Careers over Children

In recent years, select Asian nations have been working to close the gender gap that has been separating men and women from attaining equal opportunities socially, politically, and economically. Thanks to the Basic Act for Gender-Equal Society an equality-based government, Japan, in particular, has stepped to the forefront of the issue, finding a place above almost all other countries for female education, health, and survival. For many years now, the Japanese government has created a society where men and women can be treated equally and given similar hopes for their futures. Japanese women were even counted for over 40% of the nation’s corporate employees in 2014, an impressive statistic considering the part of the world that they are in. However, this notable accomplishment brings a serious issue to light: Japan’s population is dropping, and at quite a fast rate.


This rapid decrease in population is due to a lack of immigration and, more importantly, falling birth rates. While women are developing powerful, independent images for themselves all throughout society, they are also making decisions of staying single. For many female workers nowadays, there is the impression that “marriage is a grave”for their hard-earned careers. When a woman marries, her boss assumes that she will get pregnant, which causes a myriad of issues for her job. Once she has a child, her hours become inflexible and it becomes virtually impossible for her to balance her children and her profession. All chances for promotion stop, forcing women to make decide between raising a family and keeping her career. However, as the world economy and success pose growing challenges, women are beginning to give up more in order to survive in this competitive culture. Essentially, more women are making the decision to keep their professional life, stay single, leave behind a life as a mother. This has caused Japan’s national population to begin a downward trend. In 2014, the nation’s population dropped by its largest amount, and this decline is only expected to worsen. Currently, the population is projected to drop to 86.7 million people by the year 2060, a vast concern to people all around the world.


 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/10/22/japans-sexual-apathy-is-endangering-the-global-economy/

In attempt to fix this issue, Japanese businesses are working to find ways for their female employees to simultaneously care for their children and keep their jobs. They are attempting to create environments where women can work and watch their children. In addition, various universities around the nation are working to create programs that support women in making a return to work after childbirth. Despite all of these efforts, Japan knows that there is still much for them to do in order to save their decreasing population. Yoshihide Suga, Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan, recognizes that “It's obvious that getting married and having children is a matter of personal freedom. To create a society that is supportive of child-rearing parents is a role of government, and we are also working to realize a society where women can shine." It is clear that Japan has made great strides in what it has done for its people in recent years. But to make this nation the best that it can be is going to take a great deal more of effort than anyone anticipated.



The concept of women’s roles in society as the ones who must reproduce connects to the way that women are seen in the dystopian world of The Handmaid’s Tale. While women are now approaching the role of men’s equals in the professional world, they remain the only ones who can give birth and help to continue a healthy growth of population. Our world is still dependent on this function of females' bodies, similar to the way that the Commanders and Aunts force the women to get pregnant and have children in the novel.  

Discussion Questions:
  1. If there were a current main focus for the Japanese government, do you believe that it should be continuing to close the gender gap or working to increase the population? Why?
  2. What are more ways to allow women to marry and have children, as well as have a successful career?
  3. Why do you think profession has become a higher priority than reproduction?
Links:
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Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Planned Parenthood's Fight against House Republicans

          Going into this upcoming election season, packed with debates and interviews, it is obvious that the GOP and the Democratic Party are split on the intensely debated topic of Planned Parenthood and abortion. Planned Parenthood is non-profit organization that, “delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of women, men, and young people worldwide.”  Cecile Richards, the President of Planned Parenthood, has been fighting off critics of their mission for the nine years she has held her position as President. Richards was recently drilled by House Republicans in regards to “the organization’s use of federal funds.”


          This issue was brought to light following the release of a series of videos made by Center of Medical Progress, an anti- abortion group. The series of videos aimed to convince people that Planned Parenthood was selling the tissues and organs of aborted fetuses. The videos skewed the truth which is that women who choose to, can donate the fetus’s tissues for medical research. Additionally, the Center of Medical Progress accused Planned Parenthood executives of using federal fund for lavish parties. Following these mischaracterizations, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform called for a congressional hearing. They did so as these videos sparked them to threaten to shut down the government over the federal funding of Planned Parenthood. The sad fact of all of this, is that abortion only makes up for 3% of all the services provided by Planned Parenthood and an abortion cannot be federally funded. The threat posed by House Republicans ultimately threatened to take healthcare away from millions of woman who otherwise could not afford it. The GOP threatened to shut down an organization that provides so much healthcare and health education to their target demographic, low-income and financially disadvantaged women. Richards said, “We provide really, really good health care for Medicaid patients, and we’re proud of that…”

          Cecile Richards was grilled for nearly 5 hours during the Congressional hearing, by a predominantly male committee, over the issues of abortion, federal funding, and women’s reproductive rights in general. Steve Russell, a Representative from Oklahoma said, “We’ve heard testimony today that 2.7 million received services in the last reported year…it is actually over three million, when you add the three hundred and twenty-seven thousand aborted children to that figure.” The House seems to be fixated on abortion as they attempted to defund Planned Parenthood altogether. They look past all the other services provided by this organization due to the fact that they can’t look beyond the abortions they provide. The GOP leaders are hoping to scare Americans into defunding this program, but in reality they are fighting against the women’s right to choose.  




          This issue connects to this class as it is probably the most hotly debated women’s rights issue of this decade. Similarly, The Handmaid’s Tale, depicts a dystopian future where women struggle to obtain reproductive rights, or any rights at all. This story shows how women continue to struggle for their rights and how a future, like the one in The Handmaid’s Tale, isn’t that far off from our reality. 



Discussion Questions:

Should the government be involved with women’s healthcare and reproductive rights? Why or why not?

With the House of Representatives being majority Republican and the potential for a Republican President following the 2016 election, what do you think the future holds for Planned Parenthood?

What would be an alternative for Planned Parenthood?  

Links: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/us/politics/planned-parenthood-congress-republicans.html?_r=0
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2015/08/12/for-planned-parenthood-abortion-stats-3-percent-and-94-percent-are-both-misleading/
http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/cecile-richards-the-target-at-the-planned-parenthood-hearings
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/planned-parenthood-congress-hearing_560af940e4b0dd8503099da7
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/planned-parenthood-cecile-richards_560b37f2e4b0768126ffc92c
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/
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Tuesday, October 6, 2015

FIFA 16's Inclusion of Women's Soccer Teams

The FIFA video games are known for being the best-selling sports video game franchise in the world. The new FIFA 16 game is gaining headlines and publicity for its inclusion of women’s soccer players both on the cover and in the game. Before this point, gamers only had the option to play as men’s soccer teams, and only male soccer players had been featured on the game’s cover. However, the game now offers the opportunity for gamers to play as 12 different women’s national teams from across the world, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, and the US. FIFA 16 is also being recognized for placing women on the covers of the game in versions of FIFA 16 being sold in the United States, Canada, and Australia. To decide who would be on the covers, EA Sports, the makers of the game, placed a poll on the internet so that fans could vote for who they wanted to see on the cover. The winners were each placed alongside Lionel Messi, the face of the franchise since 2013, on the game’s cover in their respective countries.

Highlighted names show the 3 women who have been featured on the cover of FIFA 16. The rest of the names are male.
In a preliminary survey, the “announcement of the inclusion of woman players was met with positive critical response from IGN,” or Imagine Games Network. When asked what he thought about starring alongside Alex Morgan on the United States’ FIFA 16 cover, Messi said, "Having women's national teams in 'FIFA 16' will be great. Alex and her team have accomplished something amazing for their country and the sport in the USA, and to share the cover with her is an honor." Not only is this good publicity for EA Sports and FIFA 16 for including women in their game, but also good publicity for the United States’ Women’s National Soccer Team, especially Alex Morgan, and women’s soccer as a whole. At an EA Sports press release, Morgan said, "It is an incredible honor to be one of the first women featured on the cover of EA SPORTS FIFA. I know people all over the world play this game and I'm really excited that 'FIFA 16' is putting such an important spotlight on women's soccer…”



There are some limitations to the women’s teams included in the game. Unlike men’s teams, the women’s national teams only have the option to play in friendly games, as well as an offline tournament mode. The game’s most popular mode, Ultimate Team, is unavailable for women’s teams. Also, when compared to the sheer amount of men’s teams and leagues represented in the FIFA 16 game, the women's representation is incomparable. The main reason for the discrepancy may be because this is the first edition of FIFA in which women are included, however, are there hopes for more women’s teams to be represented in the future?

Shown here are the covers of the FIFA 16 game in Canada and the United States, respectively.
Also, there may be an ulterior motive to the franchise’s inclusion of women in the game. Some people have argued that FIFA only included women in the game for a predicted sales boost. A main point of an argument presented by a London blogger Amanda Connelly is that “…women have played FIFA and participated in equally exciting high level sports forever…  it highlights the fact that FIFA ignored the already undervalued successes of women in sports and the women playing its game for so long.” It could be argued that FIFA only included women in fear of losing consumers, as they had been receiving requests for years to include women in the game, but in the realization that women are just now being recognized for their accomplishments in soccer, in the form of finally being given representation in FIFA 16, is a bit concerning.

Advertisement for FIFA 16's most emphasized new feature: inclusion of Women's National Teams.
The idea of there being gender inequality connects to Alex’s current event presentation, on the grounds of trying to create equality within sports. Also, the idea of one woman representing an entire group relates to when Alexa mentioned how Hayley Williams is the most well-known woman in punk rock; as Alex Morgan is essentially the face of women’s soccer in the United States, as demonstrated with her being on the FIFA 16 cover.

Discussion Questions:

1. Why do you think EA Sports waited until now to include women in their FIFA video games?

2. Only 3 out of 15 countries voted to put a female soccer player on the cover of their FIFA 16 game. What do you think could’ve caused this discrepancy?

3.  Do gender roles play a part in women being “accepted” into the sports world, as represented by their inclusion in the FIFA 16 video game?



Sources:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/28/fifa-16-to-include-womens-football-for-the-first-time
http://espn.go.com/espnw/athletes-life/the-buzz/article/13288807/alex-morgan-represents-us-women-historic-fifa-16-cover
http://www.i4u.com/2015/07/93427/alex-morgan-appears-alongside-lionel-messi-ea-sports-fifa-16-cover
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_16
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_(video_game_series)
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/fifa-16-puts-woman-on-cover-for-first-time-ever-in/1100-6429028/
http://www.i4u.com/2015/07/93427/alex-morgan-appears-alongside-lionel-messi-ea-sports-fifa-16-cover
http://thenextweb.com/opinion/2015/07/21/fifa-16-acknowledging-women-exist-isnt-something-to-applaud/
http://www.fifa.com/media/news/y=2015/m=5/news=twelve-women-s-national-teams-to-feature-in-ea-sports-fifa-16-2609581.html



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Thursday, October 1, 2015

China Striving For Gender Equality in The Near Future

China has not always been seen as the most gender equal country, whether because of societal customs or implementing rules such as the One Child Policy and the Iron Fist Campaign, but world leaders from the Chinese UN have created a pledge of money to try to create gender equality in China by 2030. According to Women UN, with the lack of ideas that China has and the rate that they are going at currently, it will take them over 80 years to finish their plan. The issues of gender inequality in China are very different than those in the US, and many of the issues are regarding prostitution. When the Communist Party of China took power in the 1940’s, they had a plan to completely get rid of prostitution, but over time the government stopped being as strict, and by the 1980’s, prostitution had become a form of industry. Also because of the gender imbalance issues and following the One Child Policy, some men have taken prostitutes as wives.



China's president, Xi Jinping who has been known to be against women's rights activists, co-chaired the meeting with the UN when they made the decision to pledge the money, which created lots of controversy, and even sparked presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to tweet and call him "Shameless". While in the UN meeting, Jinping failed to mention the five women that he imprisoned this year for trying to speak out against sexual harassment on a public bus, but did get the attention of everyone attending the meeting by announcing his ten million dollar donation to UN Women, meant to finance poverty stricken children, and train women from third world countries. When someone finally made a comment about the women, Li Junhua, the Chinese foreign minister, commented saying that they were not being detained for being woman’s activists, but for breaking basic Chinese laws. The laws that these women were breaking were unidentified, making the story seem like a cover up. Switzerland pledged to take Jinxing's donation up to fifty million dollars, and 45 other countries have promised to take action, rather than giving money to support.


(https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/648099640714391552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

The idea of women not being able to protest for their rights, and having very little say in the rules that effect them goes along with the societal ideas in Handmaid's Tale. Although we have not finished the book, you can tell that the women in that society have to follow a very strict lifestyle, and lose freedom to express themselves in the way that they might choose to outside of their societal barriers.
Questions:

 1. How do you think the rest of the UN and China will respond to this plan after finding out the president's past involvement with feminist movements?

 2. Do you think this plan, with the very little details involved in it, will be successful?

 3. Do you agree with UN Women that this plan will take longer than anticipated? Why?

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Female Infanticide


Female Infanticide is a rising problem in many countries as a result the abuse of female infants and the large role it plays in gender discrimination. By definition, female infanticide is the deliberate killing of baby girls. This abuse can come at two different times: either during pregnancy once the parents find out the baby is a girl or after the mother gives birth to the child. Depending on the time, the mother must either get an abortion, or starve the child. Granting this action does not occur in our country, it sadly does in in others; specifically in India and China. In China, in the year 2000, 40-617-103 females fell victim to female infanticide and in India, in 2001; there were 39-284-065 victims. Although both countries support female infanticide, their reasons for the abuse differ. 


            In India, female infanticide occurs because of the economic burden females bring forth. When females reach the age of maturity and are traditionally married off, approximately 18-21 years of age, they must have a large dowry in order to receive the consent from the opposing family, to the marriage. Dowry is defined as the money, property, or even goods that a bride offers her husband at marriage. This dowry may be hard for families to pay considering that 40% of the Indian population is in some form of poverty. In addition to the economic burden that a female bring to the family, once the woman get married off, they tend to leave their family’s legacy behind. As a result, females are often seen as temporary members and drainers of their family’s wealth. In many traditional Indians eyes, the negative consequences of having a female outweigh the possible benefits and therefore that ideology makes female infanticide much more understandable. The abuse females must endure is partially due to cultural traditions. The women are expected to pay a dowry; they cannot control it. In reality, these baby girls are being killed for something they cannot control. 


               However, in China female infanticide is due to the “One Child per Family” policy and because of male favorability. Back in 1979, China issued the “One Child per Family” policy for the population was already exceeding sustainable limits. In order to keep the population bearable there needed to be a policy that limited families to only one child. If a family were to have more than one child, the family would have their wages reduced and be denied some social services; thus male favorability was created and female infanticide was promoted. This policy would then slow the population rate from rising and allow the country to improve the quality of life as a whole for the Chinese population. Men are much more desire by families because they thought that a male would far exceed a female in the work force and thus receive better pay. Also, parents define males as more suited to provide for them at their old age.  


We find that the female infanticide in India connects to Callie from Middlesex by the fact that neither, the girls in India or Callie from Middlesex can control what happens to them. The girls are born girls, genetic makeup defines that; not them. Callie’s genetics cause her to change. She had no say in whether she wants to or does not want to change; her body was physically going to change no matter what.  








Discussion Questions:
1.      If male infanticide occurred rather than female infanticide, would it be more or less concerning?
2.      This problem has been around for many of years and recently the number of victims is increasing. Why do you think that is?
3.      Who do you think oversees this issue in these countries? How do you think they are trying to decrease this number?
4.      What are the long and short term consequences to India’s and China’s development due to their male-female gender imbalance?





Links:
http://listverse.com/2008/11/20/10-extreme-examples-of-gender-inequality/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/medical/infanticide_1.shtmlv
http://www.domesticviolenceservices.com/female-infanticide.html
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/EXTPA/0,,contentMDK:20208959~menuPK:443290~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:430367,00.html
http://www.medindia.net/health_statistics/general/marriageage.asp
http://www.glogster.com/frushee/michael-frush-female-infanticide/g-6mnv278u120he430maoh6a0?old_view=True
http://wallpaper222.com/explore/quotes-on-female-infanticide/
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/ncw-to-probe-female-infanticide-in-jaisalmer/1/142287.html

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Monday, September 28, 2015

Lack of Women in Alternative and Punk Rock Music

http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/shocking_gifs_show_serious_lack_of_female_musicians_at_festivals
 Everyone has heard about gender inequality in white collar businesses, but what about in the music industry and more specifically in the alternative and punk rock branches? Unfortunately, it occurs in this industry too. There are women in this industry however the men far outnumber the women. One of the most obvious ways to see this is at festivals and tours around the world. Warped Tour is a tour that has been around for more than twenty years. When the lineup for the 2014 tour came out, less than twenty percent of the 120+ acts included at least one woman. Other tours of this type have had approximately fifteen percent women of the acts that perform. These statistics include solo artists, female-fronted bands, and all female bands. When people think of women in the industry, they think of Haley Williams from Paramore. Paramore is not even an entirely female band in fact, Haley is the only female member in the band. When women are in these bands, they are typically female-fronted bands.   The standards for women in this industry are set way too high. Laura Watson, the writer of Mooky Chick says, "The bottom line is that the alternative music scene is still widely regarded as a male-dominated playground where women are showcased only if they meet the attractive/outlandish quota." This needs to change because women musicians should not have to be attractive or outlandish in order to chase their dreams. If they have a good sound, they should be able to make it big. Personally, I feel as if males do not have to live up the the same standards in this industry and females do.
http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/shocking_gifs_show_serious_lack_of_female_musicians_at_festivals
Not only are the statistics showing this, but the women performers are feeling isolated too. Courtney Love who is Kurt Cobain's widow feels like she is, "the last chick in alternative radio." Although she is not actually the last one, it shows the perspective of a women who is actually in the industry. When I attended the Alternative Press Music Awards in July I saw first hand the lack of females that make it big in the industry. Out of seventeen categories, only two of the winners had women in them. Haley Williams from Paramore won best vocalist and female-fronted band PVRIS won break through band. With only two of the winners having a female in them, that is approximately 11% of the winners being female-fronted bands. If you add up each individual member in every band that won against the two women, the percentage of women is shockingly small.
http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/shocking_gifs_show_serious_lack_of_female_musicians_at_festivals
Unfortunately some of the most influential people in the touring and festival business do not see the problem. Kevin Lyman who is the founder and producer of Warped Tour does not see a problem. He thinks, "There's really not a lack of women. If you've got 20 bands that have women in them out of 120 bands, that's one out of six bands." He doesn't see that there is a real problem here. If he doesn't see it, then things do not have a very good chance of changing. Also, "Alternative Press, a monthly magazine that sponsors Warped Tour, has only put a women on its cover five times in the last three years - and twice it was Haley Williams from Paramore," I do not know why the people who control the lineup of these events don't see the problem here, but it is evident that there is one. 

The creators of the gifs pictured above say, "Lady acts exist. Of course they do. However, the number of female performers and female-fronted groups, when compared the numbers of their male counterparts at music festivals, is paltry and sad." It is sad and due to the fact that the creators of these big tours and festivals don't see the problem, it is up to the public to somehow get their attention and get more women on these stages.

Discussion Questions:
1. What do you think the public can do, if anything, to get more females playing in festivals and tours? Can the public do anything to make the amount of women who make it big time, bigger? 
2. Why do you think that there are more solo female and female-fronted acts then entirely female bands? What has caused this to happen?
3. Laura Watson from Mooky Chick asks, "why is it that women are comfortable declaring their love for male bands but it's rare to see a man wearing a band t-shirt acknowledging a female artist?" So I ask you the same question why does it come so much more natural for girls to obsess over guys rather than the other way around?
4. Why are festival and tour producers acting like there are enough women performers already? What will it take for them to see that this is a real problem?  

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Monday, September 21, 2015



Marissa Mayer's Pregnancy Debate


http://www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/pregnant-workers.jpg 

      It was a monumental moment concerning women in the work place when Marissa Mayer's was appointed to be Yahoo's chief executive officer while pregnant three years ago. She is the 16th most powerful business women in the world. She has broken down many barriers of roles usually only given to men. Running a technology company raised many eyebrows and her pregnancy raised even more publicity. Marissa has now just recently announced that she is pregnant with twins. Instead of praising this incredible women for being able to maintain such a high profile job, maintain one kid and be pregnant all at the same time, the media is criticizing her decisions of maternity leave. Not only that, but they are raising questions of whether a female should be able to have such a high job and raise children at the same time. Blogs such as the Washington Post, lash out at Mayer's publicly released decision of a two week maternity leave saying, "The only way a CEO could take less maternity leave would be to deliver triplets while on mute on a conference call." Questions rose afterwards questioning if it was right for a women with such a high position to have children if they were going to be put into care for the majority of the day. Yet, a male CEO that is a father would never be linked to such a harsh question. "I think we are long overdue when it comes to redefining gender stereotypes around parental roles. Those Biases are holding women back from leadership roles," the CEO of Women Capital Markets Jennifer Reynolds said. Now although she is being looked up to as a role model, some dismiss Mayer as being an exception. But, although YAHOO does offer many more weeks than she is allowing herself, many women really do only get two weeks for a maternity leave.  (Then again Marissa did have a nursery built into her office for her first child.)  It is said that 25% of women in the American workforce are only allowed half a month with another fourth only allowed three weeks. Payment is also an issue with maternity leave. One in every two women doesn’t receive any pay during their leave. 


            Although it is understandable that Women are not working during their maternity leave, it is not a women's fault they reproduce and their bodies don’t allow themselves to return as quickly as they would like.  Many women are now being compared to Mayer and being seen as not as determined and dedicated to work since the CEO of YAHOO only needs two weeks. Maternity discrimination is also common among the work force where women are not being seen as committed as their male workers because of their fatigue and commitments with their bodies during pregnancy and child after. The Maternity discrimination campaign: Pregnant Then Screwed has been founded to help women who experienced discrimination and are afraid to return to work after their pregnancy.  Many in fact even end up quitting their jobs to afraid to go back and face the criticisms at the office.
http://www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/rotating_tabs_590x316/images/tabs/pwfa-iptab.jpg

         The topic of whether a women should be able to handle such high status jobs and maintain a child at the same time can be traced all the way back to gender roles: Mother staying home looking after children while the father works. This set up is nothing new for it is demonstrated in the books we have read so far in class such as Middlesex and Mrs. Dalloway. When Cal’s grandparents immigrated to the United States in the book Middlesex, his grandmother Desdemona spent almost all of her life at home while Lefty found work where he could. But, Lefty does show discrimination when he makes Desdemona get a job after implying she did nothing around the house. He did not realize that just because she stayed at home it doesn’t mean she did nothing. In Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa is also a stay at home mom whose mind is occupied about parties and who is inviting who to brunches. Since she does not have a respectable job many perceive her to be shallow. But like Alex mentioned yesterday, even if a women does work and commit to a job, they are not even getting paid the same amount as the men (who harass these women about their private decisions). In society, like in the case of Marissa Mayer, and in our books such as the two mentioned above, one can see that it is difficult for a women to balance work and children all while trying to avoid discrimination about their private parental decisions.

  1. Why do you think a man feels it is right to discriminate pregnant women in the workforce? Do you think it could physiologically be traced back to jealousy where women obtain the power to produce a living creature while a man cannot?
  2. Do you think Marissa Mayer’s public decision of a two week maternity leave will positively portray a women’s commitment to work or do you think it will react negatively towards women who will be looked down upon if they would like a longer leave?
  3. Do you think more men hold higher positions in the work force because bosses don’t want to take the risk of a women/mother balancing work and children?
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