Iraqi women wanting a stake in the government

Iraqi women have always had more rights than other Islamic women but now it seems that there are factions wanting to turn back the freedom that Iraqi women have enjoyed.

Two separate groups of Iraqi and Kurdish women showed up in Iraq’s prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari's office with a list of demands. The first set of women (the secularist) were demanding that women be allowed to "run at least 10 of Iraq’s 30 or so government ministries. They wanted the number of places reserved for women on party slates raised to 40% in future elections. Most of all, they wanted a promise of respect for women’s rights".

Then the Shi'ite women showed up in their "black abayas, the garments that cover a woman’s body from head to foot, and they had another agenda. They wanted to put aspects of Islamic law into Iraq’s legal code - including provisions that would allow men as many as four wives and reduce the amount of money allotted to women in inheritances".

Illinois case study of deadbeat dads

A new case study into the effects of politics on the societal ill of "deadbeat dads" has found that divorced and unmarried men who have children are being victimized here in Illinois.

The Galesburg Register-Mail and local politicians are quite aware they are putting divorced men in the impossible position of being the guarantors of the welfare state and the divorce revolution. They are also keenly aware that shifts in the economy cause unemployment and increased needs for welfare.

Dancing clubs are keeping Indian women fed

Another western ideal has been imported to India. Exotic dancing clubs or what at least passes for them have been popping up in various locations of India. These places are becoming major sources of income for women who are impoverished and uneducated. However, one thing that fails to change about women who work in sex industries is that there is always some level of exploitation that occurs where the women feel helpless to seek employment elsewhere.

"If the bars close down I will get my four little children toegther, pour kerosene on them and we will all commit suicide together," says Shabna, a dancer at the Ellora. "I'm not educated so I can't get any other job. What harm are we doing? We're just dancing. Is the government going to get us another job? At least we're making an effort to pay our own way in life."

Another female's oppression is another woman's freedom

A question was raised,"in this post-feminist age, 30 years after the apex of the women's movement, why are many girls so eager to participate in their own oppression"?

Anyone who has stayed up past their bedtime watching television have seen the "Girl's Gone Wild" informercials, where young and not so young women forever become immortalized in soft porn history by their club and vacation antics.

In a post-modernistic world, society dictates that modesty or being chaste are things that are no longer the norm.

Once I had to have an argument with my 15-year-old daughter on why she couldn't go to school with her stomach out, in a midriff baring top. She said all the kids were wearing them, which is an argument I used myself when I was a teen except it was not a midriff top, I wanted blue hair. I absolutely hate having to be the fashion police but as a parent of a teen-age girl in a post-modernistic society, it is needed.

Teenage girls are trying to identify with their peer groups. However, those peer groups are seeking maximum exposure as a claim to femininity.

After all, feminist are the one's who made braless, breast de rigueur but that fashion is not for everyone. If women are being oppressed by wet t-shirt contests, skimpy fashions or "Girl's Gone Wild", the Women's Liberation Movement is the root cause.

How american women are viewed

The viciousness of women

....the most malevolent modern stereotype of all is the portrayal of women as lacking any maternal instinct, having no real feelings for children, being far more interested in fame than in family and in money over marriage ... They are cutthroats who go after each other with a viciousness that was once thought to be the purview of men.

What do men in midlife want?

Some of you may have been at a retirement party where you are served a meal of stale dinner rolls, dried up chicken breast, salad that consisted of some wilted lettuce and the overly sweet birthday cake that says "Happy Retirement". Everyone says, how great the guy was as the night ppasses along.

Eventually he gets his gold watch for blah-blah years of service with his company. Then it is time to go -- dinner has been served. So what is it that the man who is about to enter midlife get? Not too much.

Men who are entering midlife are feeling left out because the traditional male is not needed anymore.

Swedish women can't pass the glass ceiling

Sweden has one of the best records for gender equality but a new report says that Swedish women are unable to pass the glass ceiling in the workforce. However, it could be possible that the reluctance of men to let go of male chauvaunistic attitudes or ideals about promotion practices could be the results of a male generated backlash. Therefore, management positions or any type of advancement for women will be seen by some men as intruding inside of the "exclusive boys club"..

"The question is not how to get women into the board rooms, it's how to get the men out," said Gudrun Schyman, co-founder of the new party Feminist Initiative, which has already prompted Sweden's major parties to raise women's work issues higher on their agenda.
A 2002 study by the European Union's statistics agency found only 3.1 percent of Sweden's female workers are managers. Twenty of the 25 EU countries had better records in the survey, which was topped by Ireland at 10.9 percent and Britain at 9.7 percent.

Temporary marriages

A new spin on arranged marriages is becoming trendy in parts of Indonesia. Young women and in some cases, girls are being solicited for temporary marriage arrangements. The females are coming from familes who are impoverished, so for a fee they loan out their daughters to men who are usually Muslim or Asian who are working in the country. Feminist in the country have begun to speak out against the practice -- they say is is equivalent to prostitution.