Ten worst countries for women

From the link above:

BEST COUNTRIES TO BE A WOMAN
Measures of well-being include life expectancy, education, purchasing power and standard of living. Not surprisingly, the top 10 countries are among the world's wealthiest.

Iceland
Norway
Australia
Canada
Ireland
Sweden
Switzerland
Japan
Netherlands
France

Intersting that the USA, that bastion of freedom and democracy, doesn't make that list. [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]

Lists like this are a double edged sword. On the one hand they give us an opportunity to point out the triumphs of International Feminism and on the other, it allows suburban soccer moms in places like Darien Connecticut to sigh and shake there heads over their chai lattes and commiserate about how the men in the majority world are so sexist and those women need their help so badly, while not taking into account the sexism in their own societies. Why don't we dispense with top ten lists and just agree that sexism is in every country, and needs to be dealt with in every country. This list only gives more credence to the idea that some nations are "bad", whilst others are "good".

Isn't there a danger of resting on our laurels to much?

People in power can use lists like these to justify ignoring the problems that the rich nations DO have when it comes to women's rights.

[ 09 March 2008: Message edited by: CMOT Dibbler ]

I wonder why Canada rated higher than, say, France? After watching Michael Moore's Sicko, it became apparent that women in that country are able to have nannies come to their homes to look after newborns and even do the laundry and paid for by the state? I don't think women and family values rate as highly in Canada. Here we get hollow promises for national daycare. I think what we will get in the end is more of the ideology, which will be big box privatized daycare as per WTO dictates.

The "Dutch Disease"...
[url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/09/AR200803... Feeds Patriarchy[/url]
By Shankar Vedantam
The Washington Post, March 10, 2008; A03

Climate change. Pollution. Financial expense.

Our gas-guzzling ways have long been associated with a variety of problems, but disturbing evidence now points to a new dimension of our love affair with petroleum: Oil consumption and high oil prices hurt the political, social and economic development of millions of women in oil-producing nations.

You read that right. The more gas you pump and the higher oil prices get, the more likely you are to harm women's empowerment.

The surprising finding, based on more than four decades of data from 169 countries, provides a novel explanation of why women in Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates still do not have the right to vote. Oil wealth, not Islam, is the primary reason that these nations have regressive gender policies, said political scientist Michael Ross at the University of California at Los Angeles.

As implausible as the connection between oil wealth and gender rights might seem, Ross's work is based on a widely observed pattern: As oil prices soar to more than $100 a barrel, oil-producing countries get rich atop a tidal wave of foreign currency. The tsunami of cash strengthens their currencies and makes it cheaper for them to buy everything from textiles to cars from other nations, instead of manufacturing such goods at home.

As a result, the economies of oil-producing nations invariably have stunted manufacturing sectors while boosting construction and services sectors. This pattern is now so familiar that it has a name -- the "Dutch Disease" -- following the reshaping of the Dutch economy after natural gas discoveries set off a boom in the Netherlands.
(...)

[ 10 March 2008: Message edited by: martin dufresne ]

quote:

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Oil wealth, not Islam, is the primary reason that these nations have regressive gender policies, said political scientist Michael Ross at the University of California at Los Angeles.[/QB]

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... as well as dollar hegemony slash imperialism. Imperialism and basic human rights mix about as well as oil and water.

William Engdahl wrote in [b]"A New American Century:[/b] Iraq and the hidden euro-dollar wars"

quote:

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[url=http://www.currentconcerns.ch/archive/2003/04/20030409.php]Because oil is an essential commodity[/url] for every nation, the Petrodollar system, which exists to the present, demands the buildup of huge trade surpluses in order to accumulate dollar surpluses. This is the case for every country but one — the United States which controls the dollar and prints it at will or fiat. Because today the majority of all international trade is done in dollars, countries must go abroad to get the means of payment they cannot themselves issue. The entire global trade structure today works around this dynamic, from Russia to China, from Brazil to South Korea and Japan. Everyone aims to maximize dollar surpluses from their export trade.

To keep this process going, the United States has agreed to be ‘importer of last resort’ because its entire monetary hegemony depends on this dollar recycling.

The central banks of Japan, China, South Korea, Russia and the rest all buy U.S. Treasury securities with their dollars. That in turn allows the United States to have a stable dollar, far lower interest rates, and run a $ 500 billion annual balance of payments deficit with the rest of the world. The Federal Reserve controls the dollar printing presses, and the world needs its dollars. It is as simple as that.

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Apparently Henry Kissinger referred to it as [i]recycling petrodollars[/i] since the oil shocks of the 1970's.

The list is political. It is worse to be a woman in Afghanistan than the DRC where "a war that claimed more than 3 million lives has ignited again, with women on the front line. Rapes are so brutal and systematic that UN investigators have called them unprecedented. Many victims die; others are infected with HIV and left to look after children alone. Foraging for food and water exposes women to yet more violence. Without money, transport or connections, they have no way of escape"?

And the comment on Afghanistan ignores the invasion, occupation, and propping up of war lords?

And where is Gaza? How was that missed? Saudi Arabia and Pakistan where rape victims are punsihed with lashes or by stoning?

This list could have been produced by the CIA.

Did I dissent or something? Just to be certain I haven't inadvertently stepped on any toes: The third wave just washes all over me leaving me feeling refreshed and liberated.

quote:

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I think what "writer" means is that it is inappropiate for us guys to hog the thread and pull the conversation toward our pet peeves, theories, etc.

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Oh, so until I posted the the thread hasn't been hogged by guys ... and my pet theory. Which would include Haiti. Haiti, the poorest country on earth, its democratic government overthrown with Canadian complicity doesn't make the list of the ten worst?

Here is UNICEF stats on Haiti:
[url=http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti_statistics.html]http://www.uni...

Compare then with Nepal.

writer, don't you find it not only odd, but also very telling that the feminist threads are almost exclusively dominated by men? I don't think that makes FM or others anti-feminists, in fact I think FM and a few others are true allies. What I think though, is that these threads start out with great intentions but then women, like myself and you clearly, don't post in them because frankly, I find it too hard to compete with the other voices here (in this thread). I know nothing of Nepal, and I admit I am less than knowledgeable about specifics per country but I do know that women are second class citizens all over the world. I know that we compromise the majority, yet we are treated as a "special interest group". I know that every single country has issues with rape, domestic violence and other crimes against women. Some far greater than others.

I also know that in this lifetime, nor probably for many lifetimes, we will never see true equality. We will never see our medical, physical and financial needs be made a priority.

Why this is is obvious. I have no idea how we can change a world that is not built by us, does not run on our rules, and is openly hostile to us. The obvious answer would be to change the behaviour, thoughts and actions of the dominant voices - men. Frankly, I can't see that happening. The sense that the world can only be run by men (despite the thousands of years of fuck ups) will remain until men acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, this male dominated world experience is not working.

Rambling thoughts.

I've been patiently awaiting my kudos for not getting involved in this thread. I've been waiting, to be discretely precise, since approximately 10:54 am Pacific time on March 9, 2008.

quote:

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Originally posted by unionist:
[b]I've been patiently awaiting my kudos for not getting involved in this thread. I've been waiting, to be discretely precise, since approximately 10:54 am Pacific time on March 9, 2008.[/b]

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Wow, you are psychic!

That's a full hour before the thread was even started!!

Hey, my modest intervention succeeded in getting one more woman to post to this thread! Now I [i]really[/i] want some kudos.

quote:

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Originally posted by M. Spector
[b]Wow, you are psychic!

That's a full hour before the thread was even started!![/b]

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Off topic. Take it to the [url=http://www.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=009336]DST thread[/url].

[ 11 March 2008: Message edited by: unionist ]

[img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] @ unionist.

I think Stargazer is right. And I think how these types of threads go depends on how people approach these types of issues. Some people see a list like this and start thinking critically about our interventions in the countries that are on the list, and it becomes a discussion about western colonialism and intervention (which of course IS related). Others see this list and, as happens with most lists whether worst countries for women or ten best pop songs of all time, wonder why they don't see their first choice on the list.

I'm not sure how this thread is supposed to go. It's not clear from the opening post what direction this thread is supposed to take. But yes, probably a bunch of guys going on about world politics is not it.

Re: smelliest farts. Uh oh, I am smelling major potential thread drift here... [img]eek.gif" border="0[/img]

[ 11 March 2008: Message edited by: martin dufresne ]

I was not surprised that the US wasn't on the list.

For one, women receive only 6 weeks maternity leave! Six weeks - not enough time to even get accustomed to breast feeding.

Also, the rate of violent crime against women is quite high there, there are millions of single mothers without health insurance for themselves or their children. As well, the ratio of women in poverty compared to men in poverty is quite high.

I find it interesting that Iceland, which has a very high rate of alcoholism is on top. It certainly has a good welfare state, but if a country has a culture that promotes drug addiction, and thereby causes many women to have liver problems, shouldn't it have a lower rating on the list?

Guys? Guys.

Bafoon: Generally observed in web-based forums, the *bafoon* is a cross between a comic, a primate and a woodwind. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]