Women and Power - Essay Example

Women and Power By Lecturer’s and International relations can be defined as the relationship betweendifferent countries, the roles of sovereign states, inter-governmental organizational, international non-governmental organization and Multinational Corporations. In the past years, women have been mistreated and put beneath by the men. This was not until the millennium development goals were formulated. Through these international requirements, women have risen up taking very important positions in government and other parts in the civil services such as the military (ABDEL-LATEEF & RIEKER, 2013). Without leadership and politics, these steps will not be taken but will just be talked about. Due to the fact that gender inequality is deeply rooted in well-established altitudes, societal institutions, and market forces, political commitment at the highest international and national levels is important in order to establish policies that can trigger social change and more so allocate resources that are required to achieve gender equality and women empowerment. In this regard, women have played a lot of roles in changes that have taken place all over the world (ABDEL-LATEEF & RIEKER, 2013). This can be observed in that today women highly take part in both governmental and non-governmental organizations and activities trying to push for improvement of women rights among other things. In addition, a lot of women are also involved in war as soldiers in both Africa and middle-East countries get involved in the nationalist movements. This has been contributed by the Millennium Development Goal requirement that the women’s share of seats in the national parliament and also the local government be increased. The main reason behind this was that it was evidence that the countries where women’s share of seats in political bodies is less than 30% are less all-encompassing, less egalitarian, and more so less democratic in all its undertakings. Second is the fact that women’s interests differ from those of men, and that women who were involved in the decision making process press for more priorities more than men. Next is that political opportunity is a human right and therefore nobody should be discriminated and lastly is the fact that women involvement in decision making improves the quality of governance (MHABENI, 2013). It was evidence that women are highly disregarded in the decision making process and bodies. In addition, due to these discrimination, Women in Development (WID) was initiated so as to raise issues that are concerned and associated with women in the development sphere. The liberal feminist approach has been very significant globally, and was critical in development of the language of political strategy used by Women in Development advocacies. For example the “women of Ait Abdi” started their movement of objection to break their remoteness and claim access to public transportation, roads and hospitals after seeing several women from their communities and surrounding neighborhoods giving birth on the roads. YouTube is packed with pictures and voices from these systematic and unstructured protests by women facing situations that press them to act together. According to Khadija Abnaou, a feminist and human rights activist, February 20th has led to the emergence of a new age bracket of women’s leadership, while taking grassroots women, not the elites, to the streets (KAROLAK, 2012). Fundamental issue to liberal feminism was the idea that women’s disadvantages originate from stereotyped customary opportunity held by men and internalized by women, and encouraged through various agencies of socialization. From this idea, it was evidence that this could only be eliminated by doing away with these stereotypes, for instance, by giving girls good training and more so introducing opportunity programs and ant-discrimination legislation or even freeing the labour markets (BRIDGEWATER STATE COLLEGE, 1999). One important subject of the feminist movement in early stages, especially in the United States, was equal employment opportunities for women. It is not surprising, therefore, that in revolving to development issues; exact attention was given to women’s fruitful labour, rather than social welfare and reproductive concerns. While these latter apprehensions remained the key issue to the women’s movement in majority of the northern countries, in turning to developing countries WID gave predominance to women’s creative roles and integration into the economy as a means of humanizing their status. This centre of attention on Third World women’s fruitful labour was part of a strategy intended at reformulating what women were known for in development policies. There before, majestic authorities, and post-war development agencies and NGOs, had recognized women almost solely in their roles as wives and mothers, and the policies for women were constrained to social welfare concerns such as nutritional education and home economics often referred to as the welfare approach (BRIDGEWATER STATE COLLEGE, 1999). There was scant suggestion to the labour women undertook as producers either for subsistence or for the market. This was the general policy environment within which WID was developed, and to which it was acting in its response. According to Cynthia Enloe, WID has played very significant roles in political development all over the world. This can be witnessed in different parts of Africa such as Egypt, Libya among other countries in which women have been in the frontline to bring in transitions. Very many women NGOs were developed and later operated under state authoritarianism (TICKNER, 1992). The emergent feminist movement was characterised by its merging with political movements and turning against the political power so as to fight against women depression. For instance, in the year 2011, individual women and women’s organizations came out in the forefront in the Egyptian politics. During the uprising that took place during this time, women were not left behind; instead, they matched hand in hand with the Egyptian men. The major goal was to fight against dictatorship and more so to remove Mubarak from power. In real sense, this was more than gender politics. However, during this time the women activist faced a lot of challenges. This was observed in the International Women’s Day which took place two weeks after Mubarak was removed from power. During this time, the military police subjected women activists to what they termed as virginity test as women were claimed to be prostitutes. It is during this time that such a person as Samira Ibrahim, who was one of the women activists was tortured. However, that was not the end due to the fact that since then, she filled a law suit against the military police (TICKNER, 1992). She was deemed to be among one of the top one hundred most influential people in the year 2012 by the TIMES magazine. In this concern, women in Tahrir Square are considered veterans and a symbol of women empowerment. In their demonstration, it was a good expression of urge to end gender discrimination in all the activities within the country and more so promote gender equality. However, despite all this efforts, it is evident that women discrimination is still there and therefore we still have a long way to go. In Egypt, the first women’s organization and the NGOs came up in the year 1923 with the formation of Egyptian Feminist Union under Huda Sha ‘arawi. Its major purpose was to raise women awareness to a point of making political and social equality with men a reality. Women’s thirst for equality can further be witnessed some time back when women were matched into the streets by their male counterparts in the early 1919 revolution to contest for British colonial power. These organizations were made of highly educated, high class social women who considered women rights as an intrinsic right in Egypt (JABRI & OGORMAN, 1999). These organizations worked closely with the nationalist political movements such as newly emerging WAFD political party. The Egyptian Movement was not religiously inclined as it instead was associated with the larger Egyptian liberal modernist experience except for Muslim Women Society that came into being in 1936. Egyptian Feminist Party was developed in the year 1948 and its major aim was to attain gender equality in social and political spheres. After the coming up of the Egyptian Free Officers and fading away of the monarchy, women organizations were rejuvenated. Feminists believed in the power of the constitution in advancing women’s rights and therefore advocated for it. However, the free officers were not in the position to give women too many chances that led to protests in 1954 after Nasser gained political power (JABRI & OGORMAN, 1999). Their protests yielded some fruits as they were granted the right to vote for the first time in history. During this time, women received some political and economic rights, but gained limited rights to equality in public life. However, women in the private areas were still subservient to their men and the family laws. During this regime, the fight against women remained untouched. This was followed by the Sadat regime. Sadat encouraged women rights and equality by promoting education, employment and in political participation. His wife, Suzanne Mubarak, played a significant role by enacting laws that enhanced rights of women in personal status law, especially on divorce matters (NAPLES & GURR, 2012). After this regime, was Mubarak who established the National Council of Women that worked closely with other women’s organisations. This was a very good start as it reaffirmed the support of women in Egypt. This was followed by such laws as the new marriage contract which provided women with financial rights among other issues concerning their marriage. In addition, more rights were granted to women by the establishment of the family court system. Moreover, feminist movements were developed to fight against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). In addition, women were given a quota for parliament participation in accordance to the Millennium Development Goals. Islamist has been pushed on by use of the representative’s women activist of the Muslim Sisterhood in parliament to mobilize and fight against all kinds of discrimination against women. In these, women’s perspective CEDAW is a manifestation of atheism that should not be encouraged and therefore an abolished form of the Egyptian legislation. Women activists have come up and networked to assist on gender equality and the rights of women to demonstrate in the Streets (NAPLES & GURR, 2012). One of the most known campaigns is the Women Graffiti which depicted women’s solidarity on the fight for their rights. Gender liberation is also depicted in the Arab Spring for Women. This is a political redress in the Arab world. Gender equality has become a very important issue in social movements of demonstrators as they moved into streets where women were well represented. From this perspective, it is argued that media had overlooked the fact that women have been in the frontline in protest. This is observed in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen. In the argument, it is evident that media did not put much attention on women since they could not be seen in such big demonstrations. Arab Spring has created a new dispensation for women as it has encouraged activism and change for women. This dispensation has given women a chance to develop and more so a fighting chance (SALIME, 2012). In reports given on the Arabs Springs that allowed women to fight for their right across the Arab world, was a sign of gender equality as an important matter in the social movement of the Arabs Spring in both their advocacy and their composition. These are evidenced by women on the street and at the same time a woman journalist accounting for it. This is a very huge step into the modernization of the Arab world as it carries its work through its women. According to different scholars, the Arab Spring will only come to pass when democracy will takes it position in countries that that have had dictatorship, and when those countries are allowed to take part in the civic life. Often, men take advantage of the women’s participation in demonstrations and later neglect them after creating a revolutionary order (SALIME Z, 2012). Therefore, we can come into a conclusion that the Arab Spring is not one thing but a multitude of different protests that bring together labour and human rights, religious and societal factors that go across the spectrum of class and gender. In the answer to where are the women watershed moment for women’s and gender rights in the Arab world signifying the western liberal democratic transitions. Second definition is the changing if any of the Arab women and being not pessimistic in terms of women’s rights and quality of life. An account where media visibility on women is given in an Arab Spring was when women played a significant role in bringing protests into success. This was a complete depiction of democratization and liberalization that the movement was about to bring about (HAFEZ, 2012). An example of this account says that the women’s presence doubled more in the Egyptian protest of 2011 in relation to other protests. Therefore, women played a very vital role in the protest. Egyptian economist describes that there was no difference between men and women due to the fact that all people who were there were throwing stones and moving dead bodies (HAFEZ, 2012).Ghada Shahbandar, an activist with the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights estimated that during the protest, 20% representation was female. In the categorization of the Libyan Uprising, the questions of Gaddafi’s abuse on women come into rise due to a widespread and fundamental rally cry against the status quo dictatorship. From the press articles, it was evident that majority of hundreds of women were being raped by Gaddafi’s forces. The regime politicized rape and claimed that they were being sexually molested due to fact that their husbands were fighting against Gaddafi. To fight against this problem, the treating physician called for foreign support and domestic assistance to open up what is really happening in Libya and fight to bring justice for the women. This was also practiced in Egypt during the virginity tests that were conducted by Military police. This was used by media to fight and protest against the government in power. Women are viewed as the central point to each major Arab spring movement. The images of women activists and their roles as protestors popped up in the social media such as Twitter and Facebook via the internet. The media too played an important role by taking and reporting on beautiful women taking part in the protest and the revolution process (SIKA & KHODARY, 2012). In the west, people who recognized the protestors to be the faces of young female protestors were happy as they were not as different as many they had encountered before. In this account, women are associated with democracy and western-ness and therefore people who are to be identified with and treated as equals instead of doing away with the orientalism gender trouble of the western world gaze towards the Arab world. In this regard, this would solve the differences between the western and the Arab world. A lot of accounts on issues concerning the Arab Spring bring up issues that concern celebration of women agencies in relation to the explanation about the gender problems of the Arab world of today (SIKA & KHODARY, 2012). A combined effect of social media and youthful optimism is another account that is taken into account in Libya. This has given women prominence that they have been longing for, for decades. This is based on the fact that the traditional Arab leadership was too much concerned on male affairs rather than women. According to Michael Rubin, gender progress has been very much witnessed in the Libyan revolution (SIKA & KHODARY, 2012). In his arguments, he comments that Libya is the point on earth where the West should focus on, on issues related to the plight of women. This account celebrates the victory of the women’s role in protest while at the same time condemning the past sex oppressions in the Arab world. In the progression narratives, the most important part is the fact that women’s participation in the Arab Spring protests is an indicator of too much gain in the Libyan society. In accordance to activist and news accounts, it is very easy to translate these transitions of women where they gain by being allowed to participate in the Arab Spring movement. In addition, countries that are in transitional level can very effectively take benefit of reforms to guarantee strong participation of women in politics (DOLE, 2012). This has been observed in different countries as women join politics, are elected and even get nominated into different parliamentary seats. To achieve the Arab Spring, it has not been easy for women due to the fact that this was only achieved through external interventions such as Western government and NGOs. This is evident by the fact that majority of those struggling for change in Tunisia and Egypt are mostly the NGOs workers, campaigners, lawyers, academics and politicians (LIV TØNNESSEN, n.d.). In conclusion, it is evident that the women have really played a very important role in the development of international relation by pushing on women’s rights through various transitions in the world; women have thus acquired a share in the political sphere. This has been made possible by different mass actions witnessed in different parts of the world. However, despite these actions, women still face a lot of problems as the victims of war in the developing countries such as Africa and middle-East countries. Reference List ABDEL-LATEEF, S. Z., & RIEKER, M. (2013). Emancipatory future: women and agitational politics in revolutionary Egypt. BRIDGEWATER STATE COLLEGE. (1999). Journal of international womens studies. Bridgewater, Mass, Bridgewater State College. http://bibpurl.oclc.org/web/7333. DOLE, C. (2012). Revolution, Occupation, and Love: The 2011 Year in Cultural Anthropology. American Anthropologist. 114, 227-239. HAFEZ, S. (2012). No longer a bargain: women, masculinity, and the Egyptian uprising. American Ethnologist. 39, 37-42. JABRI, V., & OGORMAN, E. (1999). Women, culture, and international relations. Boulder, Colo, Lynne Rienner Publishers. KAROLAK M. (2012). Bahraini women in the 21st century: Disputed legacy of the unfinished revolution. Journal of International Womens Studies. 13, 5-16. LIV TØNNESSEN. (n.d.). Prospects for gender equality after the Arab Spring. http://edoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/receive/HALCoRe_document_00015063. MHABENI, B. (2013). Arab Women/ Arab Culture(s): Reflections on Feminist Multicultural Discourse in the Wake of Mona Eltahawy’s “Why Do They Hate Us?” Amherst, N.Y., Prometheus Books. NAPLES, N. A., & GURR, B. (2012). Genders and Sexualities in Global Context: An Intersectional Assessment of Contemporary Scholarship. 304-332. SALIME Z. (2012). A new feminism? Gender dynamics in Moroccos February 20th movement. Journal of International Womens Studies. 13, 101-122. SIKA N., & KHODARY Y. (2012). One step forward, two steps back? Egyptian women within the confines of authoritarianism. Journal of International Womens Studies. 13, 91-100. TICKNER, J. A. (1992). Gender in international relations: feminist perspectives on achieving global security. New York, Columbia University Press. Read More