April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

feminism

The war on women

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Nicaragua has approved a sweeping new law banning abortions, even in cases where the mother’s life is at risk.

Poland debates constitutional change that could increase abortion restrictions

Should a woman be compelled to carry a baby to term when doctors tell her it will be born with no brain? Should a pregnant woman forgo potentially life-saving medical treatment for the sake of the baby she is carrying? Should a woman be forced to give birth to a child conceived in rape? Yes, yes and yes, says Leslee Unruh, the guiding light of South Dakota’s anti-abortion activists

How nice that there are people who think they should make the decision as to what another person does with their body.

In researching wage disparity it often comes up that given the same set of circumstances women and mens wages are fairly equal. Well forcing women to bear children pretty much eliminates the choice to have a similar set of circumstances.

The same people that argue for these laws also fight to make contraception illegal and consider rape a womans fault.

It is big news right now that a Muslim cleric preached that ‘loose’ women are at fault for rape, but make no mistake that same message has rung from the pulpits of Christian churches and they bear equal blame and responsibility for the messages they are giving the sons and daughters of their congregations.

The people also want to do away with welfare programs, daycare programs, advocacy programs. How exactly are these children to be raised?

What kind of life if any is that 11 year old pregnant through incest going to have? What school will she attend? Who will care for the child? How will you piece her body and psyche back together?

How do you look a woman in the face whose pregnancy is killing her and tell her that because her disease is caused by pregnancy you do not value her life and will not treat her? How do you tell any other children she might have that they will no longer have a mother because some people thought they had the right to legislate her to literal death?

At what point do we recognize that this is not a right to fetal life issue, but a full fledged war on women? A war which seeks to have a womans life under the full and total control of those making the laws and running the country and you can be damned sure that given this course none of those people will be women.

Progressive?

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Progressive;

Meaning #2: a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties

It would be wonderful to think that progressive women and progressive men are working towards a similar goal in which equality for all is one of the founding principals.

Unfortunately just as in other times of “progression” many men have change in mind just not change that requires anything from them.

In the French Revolution, women’s republican clubs demanded that liberty, equality, and fraternity be applied regardless of sex, but this movement was extinguished for the time by the Code Napoléon.

With regards to family, the Code established the supremacy of the husband with respects to the wife and children; this was the general legal situation in Europe at the time. It, however, allowed divorce on relatively liberal basis compared to other European countries, including divorce by mutual consent.

In our own progressive communities there are examples of men who just don’t get it.

They don’t get how sexist comments affect us all, they still have beliefs of female promiscuity (when was the last time that term was used on a man) they show demeaning pictures of women as if they are being clever, in short they display an ignorance unworthy of someone who would take on the mantle of progressive.

Hmm where have I seen this before?

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The Bush administration guts another set of laws and policies that protect workplace equity for women.
And this example of the Bush administration’s efforts to weaken women’s rights is not the only case. For example, the Administration has repeatedly sought to weaken the 86-year-old Women’s Bureau, the only federal agency whose work is solely devoted to the concerns of women in the workplace. Early on in the Bush administration, the Department of Labor erased all information about eradicating the wage gap from the Women’s Bureau website. Recently, it announced a plan to outsource half of the career positions at the Women’s Bureau national office, which would cripple the Bureau’s ability to advance working women’s concerns. And in 2001, the Department of Labor tried but failed to close the 10 regional offices of the Women’s Bureau.

The administration has also championed efforts to restrict the availability of overtime pay for workers, both by narrowing the categories of employees eligible for overtime, and by enabling employers to coerce their workers to take comp time rather overtime. This is especially harmful for women, because many women rely on overtime pay to supplement their inadequate wages.

Moreover, in an alarming example of selecting the fox to guard the henhouse, President Bush recently recess-appointed Paul DeCamp, an attorney who has spent his career trying to curtail legal remedies for women, to head the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Among other things, DeCamp represented Wal-Mart in trying to prevent a class of 1.5 million women — the largest employment class action ever certified — from suing the company for sex discrimination in pay and promotions.
AlterNet

Anti abortion/anti woman

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The latest tact by the anti abortionists is to say that women cannot make their own decision re abortion.

The task force took as a statement of biological and psychological fact that a mother’s connection to her unborn baby was more authentic than her own statement of desire not to be pregnant.

They trot out women who have regrets about their abortion, stats on women who have committed suicide, (perhaps the suicides had more to do with other things in their lives but lets not go there)and generally manipulate the tear ducts like a maudlin Disney film. [Read more…] about Anti abortion/anti woman

The good old days?

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Life if R.E.A.L.(ly out of touch) women get their way;

The following is from a 1950’s Home Economics textbook intended for high school girls, teaching how to prepare for married life.

1. Have dinner ready: Plan ahead even the night before, to have a delicious meal on time. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him, and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospects of a good meal are part of the warm welcome needed.
2. Prepare yourself: Take 15 minutes to rest so you will be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh looking. He has just been with a lot or work-weary people. Be a little gay and a little more interesting. His boring day may need a lift.
3. Clear away the clutter: make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives, gathering up school books, toys, paper, etc. Then run a dust cloth over the tables. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. [Read more…] about The good old days?

Good for Irene Mathyssen

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NDP demands Oda resign as Minister for Status of Women

OTTAWA – Today, NDP Critic for the Status of Women Irene Mathyssen demanded Bev Oda resign as the Minister responsible for the Status of Women. The changes Oda has made to the funding mandate for the department will severely limit the ability of organizations promoting equal rights for women. These restrictions are unacceptable. They prove that Oda is not committed to promoting the interests of Canadian women.

“The Minister refuses to face the fact that women have not yet achieved equality in Canada,” said Mathyssen. “Study after study and report after report have all come to this conclusion, but the Minister refuses to acknowledge the importance of the work that women’s advocacy groups do.

“Instead, she shuts down organizations or cripples them by cutting their funding. She does not represent women in this country. She must step down,” insisted Mathyssen.

Tuesday, Oda released the new federal guidelines for funding to women’s programs. These guidelines will eliminate federal funding for research programs and cut all advocacy and lobbying activities on behalf of women.

“This is an outrage!” said Mathyssen. “These absurdly restrictive guidelines will mean the end of essential research relating to women in Canada. Long-term and national initiatives will no longer be eligible for the crucial funding they rely on.”

The Minister’s dedication to the Status of Women file is shaky at best. The new mandate was released Tuesday; a week after the last mandate expired.

“This is a clear attack on women’s rights in this country. The conservatives are trying to silence Canadian women.” said Mathyssen. “We are moving backwards. Instead of promoting women’s equality in Canada, the Conservative government is abandoning its obligation to 52% of the population.”