Girls, redux

The Mommy Blogger has some great articles, including one posted March 8 for International Women's Day. You can read the full blog here, but here are ten sobering facts about how far women have to go:

1. United States: Clearly, Not Ready For A Female President As soon as Hilary Clinton announced she was running for the United States Presidency in 2008, misogyny raised its very ugly head.

2. Western World: Women In Ads Are Still Heavily Objectified Sex sells, and in ads, women are almost always the ones to provide the sexual pleasure.

3. United States: The Scary Statistics Of Rape One out of every six American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. Only 16% of rapes and sexual assaults are reported to the police. Less than half of those arrested for rape are convicted. 21% of convicted rapists are never sentenced to jail or prison time, and 24% spend an average of less than 11 months behind bars.

4. Africa: Three Quarters Of Young Africans Who Are HIV-Positive Are Women Three-quarters of Africans between the ages of 15 and 24 who are HIV-positive are women.

5. United States: Income Gap Won’t Budge According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women make only 75.5 cents for every dollar men earn, even accounting for factors such as occupation, industry, race, marital status and job tenure.

6. Pakistan (and other places): No End In Sight To “Honor” Killings Every day, at least three Pakistani women are murdered by their families in the name of family “honor.” Honor killings are perpetrated for a wide range of offenses. Reported cases include marital infidelity, premarital sex, flirting, seeking a divorce, refusing an arranged marriage, and even failing to serve a meal on time. Being a rape victim can also lead to an honor killing.

7. United States: Women Are Paying More For The Same Health Care Coverage Women pay much more than men of the same age for individual insurance policies providing identical coverage.

8. Kenya (and other places): Female Genital Mutilation Female Genital Mutilation is the removal of part, or all, of the female genitalia. It is practiced throughout the world... Female Genital Mutilation is done to control female sexuality. By reducing sexual desire through making the act painful or removing pleasure, society ensures that its women remain faithful to their partners.

9. United States: Women Athletes Are Ignored Unless They Are Used As Sex Objects Women athletes are underrepresented in all forms of media coverage of sports. Women athletes are presented by the media not as athletes, but as objects of heterosexual desire. The most blatant examples are the Sports Illustrated annual swimsuit issue and the media coverage of women’s beach volleyball.

10. Worldwide: The Feminization Of Poverty Despite the efforts of feminist movements, women still suffer disproportionately, including in Western countries, leading to what sociologist refer to as the “feminization of poverty,” where two out of every three poor adults are women.

Sorry Christina, we'll try to do better. Read the full MomGrind article here.