December 20, 2002
On Blog Sisters, Lisa English calls attention to a photo exhibition called "Family of Woman," which opened in New York and which will be traveling to Los Angeles and Minneapolis next year. The exhibit is presented by the U.S. Committee for the United Nation's Population Fund.
These are some thought-provoking quotes from that exhibit’s web site:
In a changing world, women are often the first to suffer and last to gain.
Women and children account for more than 75% of the refugees and displaced people in war, famine, persecution and natural disaster. Of the population at risk, 25% are women of reproductive age and one in five is likely to be pregnant.
Although they comprise half the world's population, women have never enjoyed their fair share of the world's resources or opportunities. Gender inequity takes many forms and crosses all cultural, religious and national boundaries. Even in industrialized countries, women earn less than men—or nothing—for the same work and more hours. Women's productivity is seldom counted in national output because much of it is unpaid or informal.
When women suffer, families and nations suffer. Discrepancies in pay favor men's salaries, although studies show that women typically keep little of their income for personal use while men keep up to 26% of their wages for personal use. Inequities in workload—with women's combined paid and unpaid work exceeding men's by as much as 30%—limit women's participation in a nation's social, cultural and political life.
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Old Comments (1)
Richard on 20 Dec 2002
I think it was Yoko Ono who said:
"Woman is the nigger of the world"
*Please note that I don't use or quote such racially charged epithets/words (reclaimed or not)lightly. IMHO, however, truer words were never spoken.