Blog 10: Yoga Helps Women With PTSD

Summary: Women who recently participated in a study to see the reduction of post traumatic stress disorder recently tried yoga. Women who were in the control study group also reported similar symptoms however researchers found. Both who were and were not affected by PTSD reported to improve emotionally. One in 10 U.S. women is affected by PTSD, yoga helps these ladies with their sleeping and flashbacks to traumatic experiences. In actuality PTSD affects women twice as often then men. 

The women’s average was forty four years old and completed a follow-up assessment one month after each session ended. The improvements were decrease in flashbacks and hyperarousal symptoms. Yoga may help regulate the endocrine system as well as the nervous system which in turn may balance issues associated with PTSD, along with stress hormones. 

Analysis: New research has been found that both women who are and not affected by post traumatic stress disorder may find a new outlet to help them through the stressors of everyday life as well as the horrific traumas they may have experienced. Yoga was studied recently to see the effects that it produces and for both the control group and study group it presented positive effects. This new finding could help women across the globe find relief through this exercise and finally receive the help needed. Many women who are in areas of war as well as high crime rate may experience PTSD dramatically more than others. This new research is promising in helping women across the globe be able to receive help without need of medicine. Women in lower developed countries may not even be able to receive medication for their traumatic experiences, and in turn yoga could greatly help especially since no need of equipment is really needed. PTSD can also make you have physical health problems, so reduction is especially important. Hopefully with well educated instructors teaching others about this new found treatment which is relatively cost efficient will help the health of women across the globe.

Source:http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/140418/yoga-may-help-women-ease-ptsd-symptoms

Blog 9: Media Against Women

SUMMARY

This article simplifies the discrimination that women in America face. Media is used in many ways such as to inform, but one way it has been used is to dehumanize women by making them aware of their inferiority. Women are depicted as a representation of sexualization in different forms of media. Most of the images used of women are altered and fabricated to make a women appear to be more sexualized or helpless. The article also states “As Susan Griffin put it in her 1971 essay on the subject, a woman in the United States is made to feel vulnerable, unable to say that she is “…free of the fear of rape.” Women are depicted more so as objects instead of human. The women used in media are often fairly thin and tall. With the average woman body dimensions not meeting the criteria of the model of course females are to feel inadequate.

ANALYSIS

This article expresses the reasons why I’ve chosen my topic of media and how it affects women and their beauty. In so many ways media defines or constructs the definition of beauty. With women in magazines, advertisements, and modeling there is a window of opportunity for the female race to dehumanized, over sexualized, and used a construct of beauty on how females should look. It presents the idea that you have to be thin, wear make-up, dress this type of way, and act thus way to be classified as beautiful. These are not what the standards should be. 

Being a Woman

Blog # 6 Africa: Gender Gap Holds Back Africa's Women Farmers - Policies to eliminate inequality, Chelsie Stinson, 3/22/14 1:58 a.m

Summary

         African women farmers make up a significant portion of the agricultural workers in Africa but yet face lower productivity outcomes from their farms in comparison to their male competition. Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda were six of the countries that were used in a report that observed the extreme differences in male and female farmer production and why these differences occurred. This gender gap issue has brought attention to women’s land rights being secured and women’s accessibility to have hired labor as a means to narrow the gap. The story goes on to share how two-thirds of Africa’s citizens livelihood rely on farming and that if women were given equal resources to advance in their farm productivity, how much of a impact it would leave on so many millions of people who go hungry every day.  Other points that have been made pertaining to the solution of the gender gap has been related to government getting involved to invest in agriculture, more specifically its’ women farmers, by looking at key policies that will effectively improve their work ethic such as but not limited to: providing training to women’s need, enhancing women’s use of equipment to reduce amount of labor work on their farm, providing community based-child care centers, encouraging women to use high quality fertilizers, and developing better educational levels in female farmers.

Analysis

               This gender gap has not only caused discrepancies among female farmers of Africa but has been a general pattern across the world as women have not been provided with equal access to resources like male farmers, which puts them at a disadvantage. But Africa in particular is facing direct impact to families from this form of inequality as it affects the family’s household income potentials, the amount of food that is produced to feed growing families, and creates an injustice to the women of the families.  I have to agree with the statement that was made how this issue really hinders the economic growth & food security of the continent as well as employment/business opportunities that could arise for the youth population entering the job sector.  As mentioned before, this problem is not just one affecting Africa but other countries around the world as well and if the governments of these countries, especially Africa’s, don’t step up and consider the key policies towards necessary improvements then they could eventually see detrimental backfires on their stubborn decisions to ignore the larger issue that is at stake. 

Published: March 18th, 2014

Source:  http://allafrica.com/stories/201403191389.html

Blog 3: Women are still Dying in Pregnancy and Child Birth

Summary: Health care access is a great luxury in some parts of the world and is a key contributor in the well being of many mothers. According to  the Huffington post every minute a woman dies from childbirth or problems occurring during pregnancy. These said complications are often quite preventable if a health facility was more readily available. Often in developing countries medical treatment takes several hours to reach and even once they reach it their might be a language barrier. Peruvian women in indigenous parts of the country experience these high mortality rates unfortunately. A majority of these women give birth at their home without any medical assistance and are often not educated on how to prepare for labor. Women in such remote places also do not receive proper prenatal care and often their unborn child will begin to have complications not only for the infant but for the mother as well. 

Analysis: Unfortunately mortality rates for women and their child are high due to lack of medical treatment. When a mother does die an older child will often drop out of school in order to take care of their younger siblings making it difficult to educate the remote population about not only health but helping them move up the social class ladder out of poverty. It would greatly affect remote countries mortality rates if their people were able to receive education about health factors during pregnancy which in turn would also help educate families in how to move out of poverty. With such remote areas becoming educated and moving out of poverty developing countries could soon begin to become industrialized and contributing goods globally. Mortality rates in women are quite preventable and infant death raters are not as complicated as assumptions would lead. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-pfeiffer/the-benefits-of-community-for-infant-health_b_4825486.html

http://www.who.int/features/qa/12/en/

Blog 10: New Delhi Rape

We live in a world where the unthinkable has become reality and this story is an example of that. Last week a five year old girl was raped and tortured in New Delhi. Her rapist held her for hours in an apartment in the same building that her and her family lives in, stuffed candles and a bottle of oil inside her and left her to die. The man who is being accused of raping her is a twenty two year old newlywed garment worker who was recently arrested. Sadly the authorities who are in charge of bringing justice to this family offered them money to stay quiet about the rape. On Friday hundreds of angry citizens protested at police headquarters to show their disgust, frustration, and lack of willingness to just sit back while these violent acts continue to occur with no justice. The five year old was brought to the hospital lying on a gurney surrounded by stuffed animals. She is stable but unfortunately she still has to have further surgery.

The citizens of New Delhi are outraged. There have been too many rapes that have not properly handled and too many victims left to pick up the pieces of their life after horrible attacks. Something has to be done about the system and how it is working against the victims. From children to women they are being harassed, raped, and disrespected and these acts are not just occurring in India, they are everywhere.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/world/asia/reports-of-rape-of-5-year-old-in-india-set-off-furor.html?_r=0

Ashley Lumsden

4/21/13 2:49 PM

Women's Suffrage March of 1913 to 2013

Throughout this past semester my blogs have solely focused on the rights and equality of women around the world primarily on the country of India. In the beginning I found it fairly difficult to find current events that focused only on women around the world, but also realized that that the information was there I just had to dig a little bit deeper into it all. As I was doing some research I ran into several feminist websites that focused on topics of equality and rights for all women.  On these sights other women can get together and fight their cause. Through my analysis I wanted to find a sort of connect issues that all women were having around the world including in the United States.

Ironically just yesterday in my Black Women in America class we talked had a discussion about an important point in American history in which there was a massive suffrage March that occurred in March 1913 in which women from all over the world came together to  join hands and fight for the right to vote and women’s rights. One day before the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson. Organized by Alice Paul for the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the parade, calling for a constitutional amendment, featured 8,000 marchers, including nine bands, four mounted brigades, 20 floats, and an allegorical performance near the Treasury Building. Though the parade began late, it appeared to be off to a good start until the route along Pennsylvania Avenue became choked with tens of thousands of spectators mostly men in town for the inauguration. Marchers were jostled and ridiculed by many in the crowd. Some were tripped, others assaulted. Policemen appeared to be either indifferent to the struggling parades, or sympathetic to the mob. Before the day was out, one hundred marchers had been hospitalized. The mistreatment of the marchers amplified the event and the cause into a major news story and led to congressional hearings, where the D.C. superintendent of police lost his job. What began in 1913 took another seven years to make it through Congress. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment secured the vote for women.

It is now the year 2013 and yes we have come a long way in fighting for the rights of women and yet women are still not treated as they should be. In March of this year Delta Sigma Theta, a Greek sorority had a reenactment of this March in Washington D.C for their 100^th year anniversary. Delta Sigma Theta Sorority retraced the footsteps of their founders who participated in the Women's Suffrage March of 1913. There several thousand of the sorority's members commemorated the 100th anniversary of the march and the role the organization's 22 founders played, marching from the Capitol to the Washington Monument, diverting their route from the Mall to walk past the White House. The march was preceded by a rally that included D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier as one of the speakers.  Although the disenfranchisement and oppression of women have been taking place since the begging of time, these two events in history mark a time in which women came together from all over the world, no matter the race/ethnicity, religion, size or shape unified and stood for what they believed in.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Delta-Sigma-Theta-Reenacts-Womens-Suffrage-March-194671181.html

Blog 10

In a country where over righty percent of women, living in rural areas, depend on the land and agriculture only a small portion or ten percent of women actually own land.  Having land for many of these women and their families means having some security as well as providing food and some income for these families to live on. While there have been many strides made in women’s right through laws that have been passed but there is still a great deal of inequality when it comes to women being able to exercise those rights.  For women having land in their names leads to many more benefits than just having property and income, having land in their names means that women can get a residential certificate that allows the women to tap into “institutional credit” like banks loans. Having this certificate allows for tribal families in lower castes to be able to send their children to school with a mandatory caste certificate. In some areas of India, lie Orissa in the western part, there are programs that look to help people who need land, but there is no real help for women who are own their own with children. Families are eligible to receive land but single women even if they have children dependent on them are not able to receive land due to the fact that she is not considered the head of the household. In India the idea is that if a women is widowed or left on her own that she is dependent on family structures, but many women do not find themselves being taken care of by their families, they are actually seen as not having any rights to family property or income. The Hindu Succession Act of 1956 an act that maintains that women should receive a portion of the father or in-laws property but actually enacting this has proven to be very difficult. In light of this and many other issues dealing with single women’s rights to property the Women’s Support Centre has been created in some rural areas of India. Hopefully in  a country where the constitution states that women and men are equal, equal treatment between men and women will be reached.

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2013/04/19/a-priceless-asset-for-indias-women/

Lynne E. Davis
19 April 2013
1647pm

Blog 10 UK Women

In this article it discusses how women in the UK strive for the “perfect boobs” so they are now tattooing them which is known as “tittooing.”  This tittooing comes from the idea of brow definition, but just to the nipples, it darkens and defines them.  The article stated that it “is a process which originated as a medical procedure for breast reconstruction. Now, it serves as a cosmetic procedure for women to darken, enlarge and define their nipples and the surrounding areola.”  The ages of women getting this procedure done ranges from 18 to 25.  In the article, it explains and gives quotes from actual women who went through with this procedure, some as old as 38.  They tell how they got it because their boyfriends would like it, because they wanted bigger and darker nipples, to create symmetry between the breasts, and some to enhance the looks of the boobs after having a boob job.

When reading this article I was so amazed! I had never heard of women getting tattoos upon their nipples to give them a look that they felt was better.  This just goes back to an article that I previously did.  Why must women go through drastic matters in order to change themselves?  Why can’t women just be happy with what they have?  I completely understand something’s, just NEED to be changed, but the color of your nipple?   I feel as though this just may be a little too much!  But as the numbers grow in the UK of people who get this procedure and the number of doctors who will perform it I know there is only a matter of time before it reaches the US if it hasn’t already.  One question I did want to know was if this procedure was targeted towards one particular race or has it been done more on one particular race of women.  I’m looking forward to seeing where this trend will end up and if it will remain “safe” as it is said to be in the article.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10000233/Nipple-tattooing-sweeps-UK-as-women-strive-for-perfect-boobs.html

Deanna Thompson 

4/18/2013    5:44pm

Blog 10: Merkel Concedes on Quotas for Women

Women in Germany are beginning to dispute among themselves in regards to the quota of how many women should be elected into office. Chancellor Merkel, who is the first female chancellor in Germany, has filled a third of her cabinet with women; she does not, however, overtly campaign for equality in office or stress the uniqueness of her position. The European Union has enacted many gender quotas around the continent, but is just now beginning to work on Germany. Ursula von der Leyen is the biggest proponent of these quotas, and is pushing for a vote to require German management to have 30% of offices filled with women by 2020. The Christian Democratic Union, which both women belong to, has become divided between the issues.

In the general election of Chancellor closing in, Merkel decided to keep her party together and vote in favor of the quota. Critics are saying that this is deceit, because Merkel only voted for the quota to keep her party together; if she had not, they would have voted in favor of the opposition’s quota proposal (20% female board members by 2018). Katrin Göring-Eckardt, the leader of the opposing party, says that this is no way to lead policy decision for women’s rights; she claims that Merkel is doing exactly the kind of politics that corrupt men perform. Being so wishy-washy on the issue of women’s rights will not be in her favor for the next election. Merkel’s only comment is: “One learns not all women think alike”.

I thought this was a very interesting issue, and I actually side with Merkel on it. My view is this: she does not make an emphasis on having a quota because we should be hiring people based on merit, not gender. Setting a quota only adds to inequality by making it a law that only 30% of the board members for Germany’s powerful economy can be women. That makes it sound like the majority must still be led by men because they are only capable. I admire Merkel for not pushing the uniqueness of her situation. She was the one qualified and chosen by the people, it should not matter that she is female. I also thought this article was interesting, because in my last blog Merkel openly spoke out for women’s rights. She stood up for the protestors!

I think there is also a blatant favoritism shown towards von der Leyen. Von der Leyen is described as a mother of six, and daughter of an influential conservative politician. Ms. Merkel is described as being unmarried and without children. It is as if the reporter is showing approval for von der Leyen’s view of women’s rights because she has a family, so “obviously” knows more about womanhood. There was absolutely no benefit to including that information. The information about having children was only put in to make the reader biased and view Merkel as the antagonist.

Dylan Reddish
5:15pm 4/18/13
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/business/global/merkel-concedes-on-quotas-for-women.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0

Blog 10: Why U.S. can’t deliver women’s rights to Afghanistan

Why U.S. can’t deliver women’s rights to Afghanistan

In this week’s blog were back to Middle East, Afghanistan. It looks to me like the women here have a long way to go. They come far but it’s not enough. This article however focused more on how America cannot give Afghan women their rights! It has to come from within the country, America can provide help and assistance but that’s it. The author of this article, Malou Innocent, said that America has to stop promising things they can’t come through with. She said this when U.S secretary of State John Kerry met with female entrepreneurs and the captain of a women soccer team. Innocent said that even though what their trying to do is noble and good intentioned they just can’t do it. She goes on to say that if we have learned anything during the past twelve years it should be that America is not very good at spreading our western life style, especially not with a conservative culture like Afghanistan and Iraq.

Since the overthrow of the Taliban regime the quality of many women has improved but there are still very powerful people in Afghan that are conservative and very custom to traditions. President Hamid Karzai seems to not care much about the subject, and local government does the same. There have been many cases of girls being raped, tortured and even stoned to death because they tried to run away from their abusers. Sure on paper women have come a long way but in practice not so much. If the government aren’t going to enforce the laws they claim to abbey by then nothing is ever going to change.  The author of this article is seatrain that someday change will come, it might not be as soon as we wish but it will. She believes that it has to come from within the country as she put it from the roots up. We need to let them deal with their issues as a country without overshadowing them at every step.

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/02/why-u-s-cant-deliver-womens-rights-to-afghanistan/

Dalila Aguilar

4/18/13

12:36