Women Issues and Topics

[yogi]

Half the world's human population bears disproportionately high burden and sorrow due to the fact of being the fairer sex. All over the world, females face more discrimination, harassment, crimes, and suppression than males; and are expected to bring the next generation of humans to life. We will dedicate this thread to bring to light such issues, and raise awareness.

[yogi]

Why Indian Fires Are Deadlier for Women (TIME Magazine)

Fire is one of the leading causes of death among young women in India — but you wouldn't know it by looking at government statistics. Or so says a study published in the British medical journal The Lancet. By examining census figures, death certificates from urban hospitals and "verbal autopsy" reports from rural communities, three researchers from Cambridge, Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University estimated that more than 100,000 women were killed by fires in a single year — more than six times the number reported by police. The study also found that young women were three times as likely to be killed by fires than male peers. "These deaths share common causes," the authors write, "including kitchen accidents, self-immolation, and different forms of domestic abuse." But because no national database exists to track such injuries or fatalities, the public-health risk has largely gone unnoticed.

Read more at the link above.

[yogi]

Why Sexism Kills (TIME Magazine)

According to a report released on Nov. 9 by the World Health Organization, millions of women die each year from conditions that could be avoided — if they were men. Apart from hazards like female infanticide and maternal deaths, women are more likely to contract HIV, suffer from depression and domestic abuse, and lack access to basic health care that could help them survive.

[yogi]

The Real Reason American Women Are So Unhappy (doublex.com)

The above article makes the case that American Women are the most unhappy, among their peers in other advanced nations. It talks about how work-life balance is extremely important for women. All developing countries should learn from the experiences of other advanced countries, and not do the same mistakes while making public policies. If they want healthy females in the workforce, then it is very important for them to understand the amount of burden and expectations, females carry, and give them proper relief at crucial periods of time.

For women, two of the most potentially life- (and mood-) altering factors are family size and work hours. American women have notable distinctions on both fronts. First, we have more babies than women in most any other developed country. While an American woman still typically has around 2.1 children over her lifetime, in other rich countries, family size has dropped significantly as women have gained access to jobs and education. More than 90 nations throughout Europe and Asia now have fertility rates well below ours. Second, even while we’ve continued to raise sizable families, American women have achieved the very highest rate of full-time employment in the world, with 75 percent of employed women working full-time.

This combination would seem to be untenable without support from government and employers, but American women get very little of that. The United States is a glaring exception in the developed world and beyond in having no mandatory paid maternity leave, no nationwide childcare system, few flexible work options, and, as we’ve heard lately, no universal health coverage. So while mothers in the Czech Republic can choose between having their paid leave stretch either from one to three years after giving birth, and every French parent can count on low- or no-cost preschool, women in the United States are bearing the brunt of working motherhood with far fewer supports.

Indeed, specific policies have a direct, documented impact on women’s mood, with the lack of paid maternity being perhaps the most obvious. Research has shown that time off from work to recover after birth can spare women some serious mental health problems.

Read more at the link provided above.

[sreddy]

This thread will be meaningless without talking about Ruchika Girhotra. With the new found media pressure, finally the system is turning its rotten wheels, and there is hope of justice.

Wikipedia entry about Ruchika's case
Times of India archive of Updates on Ruchika's case

Other recent related news:

Chidambaram 'very unhappy' with handling of Ruchika case
Ruchika molestation case: Abetment to suicide complaint filed against Rathore

'Ruchika looks sad, I hope I can make her smile'

CHANDIGARH: As kids, they would walk hand in hand down the road in Panchkula to the tennis court, humming, "Yeh dosti, hum nahi todenge, todenge dam magar tera saath na chhodenge"... They haven't.

Sixteen years after Ruchika Girhotra, then just 18, killed herself, the bond remains unshaken. For Aradhana Gupta, now 32, and a mother of two, Ruchika lives -- in her heart. She had seen Ruchika being molested by SPS Rathore, watched her get thrown out by their school, face threats and harassment. Aradhana protested, spent sleepless nights thinking about her friend and her family and even delayed marriage to take the crusade forward. In a day and age when few stop to tend helpless accident victims or care to find out who their neighbour is, Aradhana's abiding loyalty for her friend and her crusade for justice for Ruchika is a rare story of courage. Even when the odds were frighteningly loaded against this loyalty, Aradhana held out -- not just in the wake of the tragedy but for years, even when she had married and gone off to Australia.

She came back to testify against ex-DGP Rathore and on the basis of her eye-witness account, the molester was convicted -- for just six months, triggering country-wide outrage at this obvious travesty of justice. Now that the wheels of justice appears to be finally moving, and the entire police apparatus seems crowded with cowards who buckled under Rathore's might, Aradhana's heroism stands out as a ray of hope. It's a beacon that we can carry into the New Year. The friendship was forged over two decades ago at a kiosk near their house by exchanging bars of chocolate. Hours of chatting, movies, eating out and their passion for tennis only made the bond grow stronger. It transcended death, inspiring Aradhana even after Ruchika was no more. "We would often sing 'Yeh dosti...' together. Never thought it would ring so sadly true," she says.

Aradhana is not ready to take the credit, though. "This is the least I could do for her. I could not save her but I can fight till she gets justice," she says. She recalls her days with Ruchika: "We would practise together and remained glued to television whenever there was a match, trying to improve our strokes." Tennis was a passion but then it suddenly became a cruel reminder...Aradhana has never played tennis since the day Ruchika died. "Whenever our parents went away, we would make sandwiches together, our favourite being the tomato-onion sandwich. At a party, she made me comb my hair the way she did so that we could look like sisters. It wasn't necessary. We were like sisters," says Aradhana. All was fine in their little paradise. Till, Rathore happened and their lives changed forever. "We were left with fear, sorrow and tears. Rathore would harass her and her family. Some new problem would crop up every day in their lives. It affected me deeply. She was crumbling. I could not see her die every day," she recalls.

The girls had stopped humming their songs of innocence. "Our classmates discussed boy friends and crushes. We spoke of court cases," says Aradhana. And, it took her five years to say yes to her marriage. "My husband, Aman, had a tough time convincing me to tie the knot," she says. Aman recalls the first few years after the marriage and Aradhana's crusade: "I was apprehensive initially. I was scared as she was up against a very powerful person. But, it was my daughter's birth in 2005 that changed my outlook. When I held her in my arms, I realized what Ruchika's father had gone through. I realized the depth of the bond between Ruchika and Aradhana." And he too joined the battle.

The couple moved to Australia. But, they flew to Panchkula every time there was a court hearing, spending on their own and fighting for leave. Aradhana ran to Ruchika's photograph as soon as Rathore was convicted on December 21. "I told her, we have done it. But, the war is still on," she says. "She still looks sad. I hope I can make her smile soon."

[yogi]

Female Bankers in India Earn Chances to Rule (nytimes.com | By HEATHER TIMMONS)

MUMBAI — In New York and London, women remain scarce among top bankers despite decades of struggle to climb the corporate ladder. But in India’s relatively young financial industry, women not only are some of the top deal makers, they are often running the show. HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS and Fidelity International in India are run by women. So is the country’s second-biggest bank, Icici Bank, and its third-largest, Axis Bank. Women head investment banking operations at Kotak Mahindra and JPMorgan Chase and the equities division of Icici. Half of the deputy governors at the Reserve Bank of India are women.
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India provided the right combination of supportive, mostly male, managers and a diverse work environment that did not require them to be “one of the boys” to succeed.

This “isn’t a golf-playing, beer-drinking homogeneous culture,” said Naina Lal Kidwai, group managing director and country head of HSBC in India and a former head of Morgan Stanley’s investment bank in India. Male bankers and managers run the gamut from devoutly religious to devoted family men to late-night socialites. Women “could join the workplace on their own terms,” Ms. Kidwai said. “You still have to network, you still have to work hard, but that made it easier.” That means India is without an old Wall Street staple: Women who feel they must act like the stereotypical male banker to advance. There are no swaggering “masters of the universe” in this group. Top female managers regularly wear saris and talk openly about their children and husbands.

This article captures a very good picture of Indian corporate atmosphere. I feel that barriers to entry for women are high, especially if she comes from not so wealthy family background. But once those barriers are crossed, Indian corporate atmosphere is much better than western ones.

[yogi]

A devil's advocate perspective on emerging feminist movements by the author. The author here warns that:

"today’s most influential feminists contend that women will never fulfil their potential if they play by men’s rules." and that "it is not enough to smash the glass ceiling. You need to audit the entire building for “gender asbestos”—in other words, root out the inherent sexism built into corporate structures and processes."

The author suggests that "Women would be well advised to ignore the siren voices of the new feminism and that it would be a grave mistake to abandon old-fashioned meritocracy just at the time when it is turning to women’s advantage."

An interesting perspective. Here is the full article (from Economist.com)

[yogi]

Women in Emerging Markets: Tap Into Their Talent (bloomberg.com)

What can Pfizer — or any multinational corporation — do to better support and leverage its talented women?

I don't pretend to have all the answers, but our study suggests some useful initiatives, ranging from simple "this isn't rocket science" amendments to more complex cultural attitude adjustments. They include:

* Check the world clock. Rotate conference calls so that they are equally "inconvenient" for executives in all time zones and be sensitive to local customs regarding weekends and holidays.
* Mitigate isolation. Breaking the mold takes its toll. Senior women across the region could greatly benefit from a network where they could share advice and receive support from their peers.
* Run interference with local authorities. Many women professionals in the Middle East are unfairly disadvantaged when dealing with day-to-day demands. Create a concierge service to handle everything from electricians to emergency childcare.
* Strengthen family support. In addition to childcare, eldercare is an enormous concern in a region where dutiful daughters traditionally look after aging parents.

Multinational companies are on a journey of discovery as they mine a vast new talent source and move into emerging markets. Learning to leverage the first will be the secret to success in the second.