So, the report for the Fifty-second Session of the UN Commision on the Status of Women has just been released.
Here’s an excerpt from the ‘It Is Time For The World To Make Women A Priority’ press release:
“It is time for the world to make women a priority,” said Safiye Cagar, Director of Information, Executive Board and Resource Mobilization Division, United Nations Population Fund, who stressed that “everything possible” must be done to reduce the feminization of poverty and unleash the full potential of half the human race to advance peace, development and human rights. She was among the nearly 55 delegations taking the floor today who discussed action plans to promote women’s advancement, or called on Governments to increase emphasis on the gender dimensions of development.
She recalled that, at the 2005 World Summit, world leaders had agreed to key policy actions to advance women’s empowerment, including increased investments in universal education to close the gender gap in schools by 2015, and promoting women’s rights to own and inherit property and have access to resources such as land, credit and technology. To accelerate action, those leaders had also agreed to increase the representation of women in Government decision-making. Real investment in women could create ripples that brought about waves of positive change, and such change was urgently needed and long overdue, she said, calling on Governments to stand by their commitments.
Hat-tip: Feminist Allies.
I’m not sure how men have managed to hold on to the lead all this time. But, eventually, it will be time for us to step aside, and let the women take the lead.
I feel a paradigm shift occuring, slowly but surely. I think women can win. I believe women can be our leaders, forerunners, trailblazers, inventors, pioneers, great thinkers, etc.
At the same time I feel a tiny bit sad for my own gender, as we slowly decline, but women have worked so hard, and they deserve to be on top.
(I wonder if today’s baby boys are tomorrow’s tampon/jewelry/makeup/purse/nail polish/etc. sweatshop workers?)
Despite feeling sentimental about the possible downfall of the male gender, I hope the female gender succeeds. 🙂
And I also hope the male gender can adapt soon enough, and be prepared to cater to the future women who may very well eventually own the majority of real estate/land, stocks, metals, oil wells, and other assets and resources, even if we have 50/50 equal rights.
I think it’s not a matter of if, but when. An equal-rights gynocentric society.
I don’t want to come off as confrontational, but “Some Guy”‘s comment irks me a lot. I don’t think there’s a paradigm shift coming, for one. I feel like we’re sliding backwards (it’s 2008 and we’re still fighting for basic reproductive rights in the USA, not to even mention the crap going on outside the US). Two, I don’t think a female-power society is one to look forward to. It would result in all the same problems a male-power society has given us.
Saying that you think there is a forthcoming “downfall of the male gender” is exactly what the feminist movement does not need in an ally. The concept of being “prepared to cater to the future women” is silly at best and disturbing and abhorrent at worst. We are striving for equality and trying to suck up (or whatever the motivation might be) by saying otherwise only prevents the movement from drawing new, fence-sitter supporters.
Am I making sense? I’m afraid I’m being knee-jerky.
Jamie B: It’s not “confrontational” or “knee-jerky” to state your perfectly valid feelings over another person’s comment, especially when you give a polite and well-reasoned argument as to why you feel that way.
I happen to agree with you, and I’ve already explained to Some Guy why aiming for female supremacy is a bad thing. I just wasn’t up to rehashing it again on this thread, so I’m glad that you came around and did it for me. ^^;
Jamie B, you’re doing just fine. Thanks for replying. 🙂 I’m not trying to suck up, I just hope that the eventual gender power-switch is as smooth as possible, if one occurs (if 2055 men are like 1955 women). I understand it seems like women are falling behind, given the attitude of conservative America. I guess we need more Clintons and less Bushes, heck, Hillary might win this. That’s one sign of female progress, a woman being already in 3rd place with the possibly of getting 2nd or 1st place in the US presidential campaign. Of course, around the world, there are still problems, I guess it will just take more time, it might be 2155 before the Middle East could be equal or female-dominant.
And Tekanji, I am very grateful to you for allowing me to post my thoughts on your site. For years I’ve been fascinated with gender issues, and wound up on your fine website.
I understand in principle that female superiority is not the way to go. At least, we’re not supposed to be female-dominant, anyway.
But hasn’t feminism (aside from its core concept of equal rights) been all about reshaping the world so that women can have better lives, as in female empowerment, as the above article describes? Once we hit that ideal 50/50, are feminists suddenly going to slam on the brakes and say “That’s enough, women are satisfied, we have plenty of power/money/etc.?”.
From there, as feminists continue to get what they want (from governments/companies/etc.), the only logical outcome is a female-dominant world, even if that’s not what the feminists intended.
It is very hard to cut a pie exactly in half. We’ll be lucky if we could even get 52/48 for either gender in the long run, even if we achieve that 50/50 for a few years before one gender either falls behind or gets ahead.
What are we at now, about 57/43 in favor of the men as a global average?
I hope you understand my position a bit better. Thank you again. 🙂
Some Guy said:
I guess I just have more faith in humanity than you do. ^_^
I also think that if we just shrug our shoulders and say, “Well, it’s not good but that’s probably how it’ll end up anyway,” then we’re giving up before the fight even starts. If we just sit there and sigh like it’s inevitable, then yeah, it’ll probably happen. But I don’t think it would be that much extra effort to be aware of the potential problem now and take preemptive steps to prevent that.
We, as women, know what it’s like to be on the short end of the power spectrum. I think that will make it a lot easier not to reverse that in the future. Unless, of course, one believes that people are cruel and vindictive at their cores. Which I don’t.