Blog 3 Rise in Honor Killings 2/26

The rate of deaths of Palestinian women is on the rise.  The killings of these women are shockingly committed by members of their own family.  The act of shunning one in your family has reached a dangerously, disheartening approach.  This increase of murdering one’s own family is to illustrate family honor.  In Palestinian regions it is seen as the norm to commit violence against women to be accepted within the community.  They are currently in the process of creating more laws protecting women and crimes committed against them.  Women’s rights activists are demanding their government to establish short sentences to those that murder women family member all in the sake of honor.  Several discussions have taken place regarding this issue yet still no level of significance has been created.  Government officials presented that there were more relevant issued that needed to be resolved first.  Of those government officials that downplayed this issue, were all men.  They have strict gender separation guidelines that are punishable by societal norms.  Not only are these killings committed by the woman’s own family but also they are usually brutally performed.  Executors are usually given some short sentences if any at all.  Judges in the cases involving these murders come from the same community that support these honor killings so the consequences aren’t very severe.  Because of this control over the society, it creates a never ending cycles regarding women’s rights.

These murders are formally known as honor killing which is traditional of Arab societies.  But just because something is seen as being traditional of a region, does that make it okay to still commit in today’s society?  The region is on a constant battle for freedom and human rights yet they are denying women of theirs.  This is a global social issue because it symbolizes the fight for women’s right is a never ending struggle.  No matter the region of the world there are still certain discriminations that go against women.  Even though the rate of deaths was only 26 women, it is 26 women too many that had to endure struggle and murder all for the sake of not holding their family name appropriately as constructed by society.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/rise-killings-palestinian-women-relatives-22682925

Blog 2 Feb. 14, 2014 4:55 pm

Typically when two people have a child, no matter the age, race, or relationship status, the mother takes on most of the responsibility for the care of child, while the father continues on with his regular routine of working outside the home.  This trend over the past decades have set up a disadvantage towards women and our roles in society.  Not only does the gender gap affect women in unequal pay but also in the hiring process.  Companies are becoming more hesitant in considering hiring women not due to their qualifications but because of the fact they are in the childbearing stage of their life in which possible maternity leave could come into account.  With maternity leave comes an unnumbered amount of weeks off from work.  This article presents the idea of family leave where both parents get paid time off from work while using the time to take care of and bond with their newborn child. 

This new concept of offering parents with family leave rather than just maternity leave presents the idea of families as a unit.  With both parents now taking the time to get adjusted to a newborn in their lives, the structure of gender roles become less rigid.  Through out many cultures in their world mothers are viewed as the prime caretakers of the children and the father taking the head as financial support and decision making.  By more families taking family leave, this gives the entire household a chance to not only form a strong bond with their newborn but also become more active in household activities.  This new modern idea of the parents of a newly birthed child taking paid time off from work creates an innovative generation of children that won’t view gender as being tied down to specific titles or behavior.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/dollars-for-dads/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Blog 1 Marriage and Poverty 2/7/14 3:37PM

The correlation of married individuals and poverty rates has become more evident within the past decade.  This trend is not only an ongoing issue in the U.S but countries throughout the world.  The government is aware of the pattern of marriage and decreased poverty rates within a region. It’s been researched that the more married people there are, they fewer poverty levels.  This is due to the fact of in a marriage typically there are two adults working full time or at least one adult working full time but taking responsibility of the finances of the entire family or household.  This nuclear family structure takes into account maintaining household bills, childcare, and shelter.  Whereas in a single parent home, one is left to take care of finances with outside resources and support and they still may be just barely making it to survive.  This article argues that marriage is not the solution to poverty but rather a method to stop the progression of such severely low poverty levels.

Divorce is at an increasing rate around the world.  Many individuals that have children divorce shortly after or decide not to get married at all. Divorce and poverty are both global social issues in that they correlate an ongoing difficulty of an individual’s full potential of success.  No matter the region, children living in poverty are mainly coming from single parent households or households with one parent working to financially support the family.  If the promotion of marriage succeeds throughout the world more families will face less individual struggles and separation.  Children in low income married households can benefit from being above the poverty line not only for the financial benefits but it will encourage traditional values and family systems within a working society. 

 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/magazine/can-marriage-cure-poverty.html?_r=0

Gender and Families

My name is Courtney Lilly, I'm majoring in Human Development and Family Studies and I've decided to choose gender and families as my topic for my blog.