davidylan:

Quite silly really. So because our corrupt politicians were raised in two parent households we should now ban two-parent households?

don't selectively quote me. if you do not agree with anything I have to say then press the ignore button. I will waste no time responding to inflammatory, sexist, misogynistic and senseless trite henceforth.

this topic is not for anti-feminist. read topic title before clicking and making a post.

The Legacy of Wangari Maathai: Women as Green Agents of Change

By Wanjira Mathai and Jamie Bechtel

The world unites to honor the European Union 2012 as the Nobel Peace Prize is bestowed upon the governing body for its hard work, over the past six decades, in maintaining stability in Europe. This prize has been won by presidents and peace activists alike, all of whom have dedicated their lives to peace, conflict resolution, and international stability. Eight years ago, Dr. Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the prize for her work demonstrating the intricate links between the environment, democracy and peace through Kenya's Green Belt Movement. As the world honors the new recipient of the Peace Prize, we would like to pause and reflect on the many brave women of Africa, and around the world, who work every day to preserve and foster peace. They do this in a way that does not, at first blush, seem to have anything to do with peace because they are the stewards of our world's natural resources.

For so many of us, environmental stewardship is a luxury. But for millions of people around the world, the environment provides the basics of survival including food, water, energy and medicine. When natural resources are lost through climate change and poor resource use, war and conflict increase dramatically. The Nobel Prize committee understood this, and bestowed one of the world's most prestigious prizes on Wangari Maathai for planting seeds of peace. Those seeds led to environment, economic and political stability, which translates directly into conflict mitigation because when people have food, water, and a safe, warm home - they don't have to fight to survive. In short, Dr. Maathai was able to show that environmental protection is a two way street: the loss of natural resource drives war and conflict, but the restoration of natural resources drives peace and security.

When Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, her goal was simple: help improve the lives of rural women (and men) by improving the environment on which they depend for water, food, fuel, and medicine by planting trees. The unexpected impact of her work was to show that the solutions to our many societal and planetary ills often rests with those who bear the greatest burden. Her legacy has empowered a whole new generation of women to take actions that benefit their communities and the planet. Maathai's lessons have never been timelier.

Today, we are happy to announce that the legacy of Wangari Maathai's work will continue bolder and stronger than ever. The Green Belt Movement, in partnership with New Course, has been awarded another important award, the MacArthur Foundation partnership grant. This grant will provide training to rural women and community-based organizations that will build the skills that improve women's participation and influence of environmental governance, develop climate resilience, improve natural resource management and help establish cultures of peace.

This grant is extremely important because across Africa women are on the frontlines of conservation challenges and they experience environmental impacts in very real and serious ways. In 2011, a deadly drought-induced food crisis across East Africa claimed tens of thousands of lives and left millions destitute and hungry. The deadly impacts of climate change and the results of poor land use are being felt now in East Africa, as they are in many regions around the world. Global warming will continue to increase the volatility and unpredictability of weather patterns, further threatening the food and water security of the rural poor.
2012-10-11-lynnjohnson.jpg
Dr. Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work leading women in planting trees. The Green Belt Movement has helped women in Kenya plant over 40 million trees. This has brought increased economic, democratic, and environmental stability to Kenya. Image courtesy of Lynn Johnson/Ripple Effect Images


Wangari Maathai knew that the role of women in environmental stewardship is powerful -- it is time the rest of us understand this. There are still major gains to be made in combating climate change, improving livelihoods, reducing natural resource conflict and advancing community health because half of the people with solutions have been largely excluded from the process. Unlocking women's potential as "green agents of change" is necessary to realize the full potential of investments in conservation in the region, and around the world and to ensure the long-term sustainability of our world's natural capital. Action by governments, corporations, civil society, philanthropists and communities must be taken now and that action must include women. This is not only the economical thing to do; it is the morally responsible thing to do.

The Green Belt Movement is a grassroots non-governmental organization that marries environmental conservation and community empowerment in Kenya. Founded in 1977 by Prof. Wangari Maathai, the Green Belt Movement promotes sound natural resource management and livelihood improvement through tree planting, women's rights, civic empowerment and good governance training throughout Africa. Her legacy has empowered a whole new generation of women to take actions that benefit their families and the planet.

New Course is a non-profit organization based in Seattle. It works with partners worldwide to ensure that women are systematically engaged in environmental efforts.

99cent: A Tale of Two Pictures

Nigerian Super Falcons herded in lorry like animals


Nigerian Eagles given a much better reception despite the women's superior achievements over the years.

lol this is another ridiculous non-story. Let me ask, how many women who jump around when the eagles play... follow female soccer? Do you, miss 99cents, watch the female nations cup? I used to follow it way back in Nigeria. It is disingenous for you to be crying about the falcons receiving "inferior" treatment when we both know that you could care less about their game. Its all about the money... face it, the men's game holds far more entertainment value that the female game... it is not like men blocked your eyes from watching them no?

99cent:

don't selectively quote me. if you do not agree with anything I have to say then press the ignore button. I will waste no time responding to inflammatory, sexist, misogynistic and senseless trite henceforth.

this topic is not for anti-feminist. read topic title before clicking and making a post.

dummy , Dumbo , dumb
Repeat after me ...I'm a dumb azz who can even post a comment from her brain. All u have been doing here, is copy and paste . Na wa ooo ? Don't you have something else to do?

“African Women Financing the Future”

Speech by
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, CFR
Coordinating Minister for the Economy & Honourable Minister of Finance
Federal Republic of Nigeria
Keynote Address at the Second African Women’s Economic Summit
Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Date: July 13, 2012.
Protocols

Introductory Remarks

• It is my singular honour to be able to address this august gathering of key players in national, regional and global finance. I wish to thank the organizers of this second edition of the African Women’s Economic Summit (AWES) for providing us with this unique platform to shed more light on a very important topic. Some might argue that there have been enough discussions and platitudes about the topic, or that I myself, have already made several comments on it; but I would argue to the contrary that we have yet to scratch the surface of the topic of women’s empowerment, which for me remains a lifelong commitment.

• I wish to particularly thank and congratulate my older sister, Graça Machel for an outstanding job on the New Faces, New Voices initiative, and for chairing the organization of this successful Summit. Her passion for improving the lot of African women is without parallel. I wish to also thank the African Development Bank and its President, Donald Kaberuka for sponsoring this Summit; the Bank of Industry and its Chief Executive Officer, Evelyn Oputu for their support for the event. We miss Graça Machel but I thank Dr. Nkosana Moyo for ably standing in for her.

• Ladies and Gentlemen, we are on the cusp of a very exciting phase in the life of African women. They are the new face of an Africa on an upward trajectory of growth and development. World Bank/IMF projections show that Africa’s GDP rose by 4.9 percent a year from 2000 to 2008, more than twice its pace in the 1980s and 90s. Africa ranks among the fastest growing economic regions in the world. It is home to domestic companies with revenue of at least $3 billion each and 52 cities with over one million people.

• Investing in women can unleash so much more productive potential in African economies and contribute to the upward growth trajectory. If women are the third largest emerging market after China and India according to the World Development Report 2012, imagine what will happen to Africa’s growth if we invest in girls and women. Investing in women is smart economics; investing in girls is even smarter economics. As Nelson Mandela once put it, “it is important that government structures understand that true freedom and prosperity cannot be achieved unless …we see in visible and practical terms that the condition of women in our country has radically changed for the better, and that they have been empowered in all spheres of life as equal.” But what are the Barriers to Investment and Empowerment?

• It is important to put the fact of gender inequality in context, to better highlight the need for stronger economic empowerment. We know that many African women face social inequalities and the lack of opportunities purely because of their sex. One major barrier is poor access to basic health care. This is a serious issue as it exacerbates an already bad situation. Maternal mortality rates continue to be extremely high with 47 percent of global maternal mortality occurring in Africa. Although progress has been made in Nigeria we continue to have one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world.

• Currently, maternal mortality in our country is estimated to be around 545 per 100,000 (compared to 340 in South Africa and 480 in Botswana). This figure is still nearly double the current global average of 290 per 100,000 live births. This means that in Nigeria 144 women die each day, and one woman every 10 minutes from conditions associated with childbirth. You cannot invest in empowering girls and women when they continue to die during childbirth.

• Poor or lack of access to quality education is another impediment to women and girls empowerment. The correlation between the education of girls and women and such indices as better early childhood and nutritional outcomes, more efficient labour markets and higher economic growth rates has long been established. Indeed, Madiba Mandela also called education “the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. Yet, in many African countries the gender gap in educational attainment at all levels remains very high. Primary education of females is at 67 percent. Among females above the age of 15, only 51 percent are able to read and write compared to 67.1 percent of men (OECD, 2007).

• Women’s access to land and credit facilities also tends to be limited when compared to that of men. In the agricultural sector, where women account for 60 - 80 percent of the agricultural labour force and are responsible for 70 - 80 percent of food production land ownership has historically been directed to the male head of the household, to the detriment of the women. In Nigeria 54 million of the 80.2 million women live and work in rural areas where they provide 60 - 79 percent of the rural labour force. But they in most cases, operate smaller plots of land and farm less income yielding crops.

• They are often denied credit to expand their farm holdings or made to seek approval of a husband or a male relation before such credit is granted. Outside the farms the fastest growing source of employment for women in Africa is in the informal sector where women engage in a wide range of activities, particularly trading. Informality and lack of a regulatory framework means that access to credit to expand or grow their businesses remains a challenge. Many resort to traditional forms of savings – pooling their resources to form a savings collective or ‘susu’, where funds are available to members on a rotational basis. But such funds are often inadequate to move their businesses to appreciable levels, aside being subject to the whims and caprices of members of the collective.

• Another barrier is the low level of women’s participation in governance. Women’s participation in politics is of strategic importance, not only for women’s empowerment but because it has broader benefits and impacts. The evidence suggests that budgetary allocation is more effective and efficient, and ultimately produces superior human development outcomes, in countries where women are more broadly represented. A few countries have achieved some important firsts in women’s political advancement, for example, Rwanda, South Africa. We can also point to and rejoice at the ascendancy of the continent’s first women Presidents, Liberia’s Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Malawi’s Mrs. Joyce Banda.

• In Nigeria, we have also made some progress in women’s representation. We ratified the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on 13 June 1985 and adopted other well-known international treaties and conventions on human rights including 1995 Beijing Platform of Action, and the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol). The essence of these important global and regional declarations was captured in the National Gender Plan (NGP), launched in 2007, which set a target of 35 percent as a benchmark towards gender parity in Nigeria. The issue is how well are we doing in implementing these plans?

• A fifth barrier to women’s and girls’ empowerment is less well-known, one which my esteemed colleague, Nkosana Moyo had alluded to in his opening remarks. This barrier refers to the attitudes we bring to raising our children based on pre-conceived notions of differentiation in the roles of boys and girls. We do not allow our sons into our kitchens - it is “unmanly” - while we unconsciously nudge our daughters into making career choices in the women-dominated fields of teaching, nursing, etc. It has been argued that the way we women raise our sons and daughters affects their sense of self-perception and empowerment later on in life. I’d also like to argue that it is not only mothers who are responsible for entrenching gender stereotypes but fathers too. The extent to which a girl feels empowered also depends on the way her father related to her growing up. Empowering Women is Smart Economics

• Economic empowerment of women is crucial not only to the achievement of gender equality but also for achieving pro-poor economic growth. As Kofi Annan puts it, “When women thrive, all of society benefits, and succeeding generations are given a better start in life.” Looking at development through a gender lens is an essential step in identifying how policy can be shaped in a way that is explicitly gender sensitive, inclusive and beneficial to economic growth.

• I have already referred to the World Bank’s World Development Report which also argues that gender equality can enhance economic efficiency and improve other development outcomes in three ways: first, by removing barriers that prevent women from having the same access as men to education, economic opportunities, and productive inputs can generate broad productivity gains—gains all the more important in a more competitive and globalized world. Second, by improving women’s absolute and relative status feeds many other development outcomes, including those for their children. Third, by leveling the playing field—where women and men have equal chances to become socially and politically active, make decisions, and shape policies. (World Bank, WDR, 2012)

• African women have always been in the forefront of empowering themselves, in their efforts to improve their family welfare and participate in economic activity. As noted earlier, entrepreneurial women are already making a strong contribution to GDP growth throughout the continent. In Uganda 48 percent of all small and medium-sized enterprises are owned by women. In Kenya, the corresponding figure is 49 percent. A recent study by Finmark Trust shows that women account for 58 percent of all business owners in South Africa. Although many of these business owners are small and operate mainly in the informal sector, and can be characterized as “necessity” vs. “opportunity” entrepreneurs, more and more growth-oriented businesses led by women are emerging.

• Second, firms—big and small—have begun to articulate a business case for gender equality. The vagaries of a fast-changing global economy means that the demand for skills has increased, forcing firms to expand their talent pool. Businesses have sought not only to attract and recruit female talent but also to retain it through measures to facilitate work life balance. Firms know that a diversity of opinions can enrich decision making and stimulate ingenuity. And gender equality per se has grown to be a desirable trait that customers and investors look for.

• These and several other case studies are commendable efforts towards greater women’s empowerment but again let me stress that I would like us to use the opportunity of this gathering of well known players in national, regional and global finance to really deliberate and come up with specific action plans to enhance financial empowerment for women. What have we been doing for Women’s Empowerment in Nigeria? We have made some significant strides.

• In the area of women’s health: Although maternal and infant mortality continues to be a major challenge, with maternal mortality ratio of about 545 deaths per 100,000 live births we have taken significant action to stem the unacceptably high levels. The current administration of President Goodluck Jonathan is fully committed to increasing budgetary allocation to the health sector at the federal, states and local government levels. The government has additionally, instituted a robust policy framework through funds accruing from the partial removal of fuel subsidy, known as the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) for Maternal and Child Health. • The SURE-P Maternal and Child Health Programme is designed to strengthen the health system and reduce maternal and neonatal mortality by 45 percent and 20 percent respectively by 2015 in targeted facilities. It also has an in-built “Conditional Cash-Transfer Concept” that will benefit up to about 3 million women. The programme will create demand for health services through the offer of cash incentives for pregnant women, who will be paid up to N5,000 in installments when they register for antenatal care; visit health facilities at least up to four times for antenatal services; deliver their babies in health facilities; or use skilled birth attendants.

• The Ministry of Health has also embarked on a major campaign to save a million lives through the deployment of cost effective interventions that would impact women’s health. These include midwifery and community health worker deployment; scaling up of routine immunization and the introduction of new vaccines; efforts to improve bosom feeding and reduce childhood malnutrition as well as scaling up antibiotics for pneumonia. According to Dr. Muhammad Pate, Minister of State for Health, “enhancing child health and survival would boost the quality of the human resources that the country would need for its economic development in the 21st century.”

• We are also working to make gender an issue central to the budgeting process. I am leading an innovative initiative to mainstream gender into our 2013 budget. We are engaging with some key sector ministries to motivate them into developing and integrating gender sensitive programs into their capital budgets, with an eye on increased job creation and higher incomes for women. We sign Memoranda of Understanding with these Ministries to formalize these gender responsive programs and provide budgetary incentives to enable implementation of these women’s programmes. • To address the issues of access to land, assets or finance and the wage gaps between women and men we have launched a Youth competition for 1000 women entrepreneurs under the Youth Enterprise With Innovation in Nigeria (YouWin) project. This programme, a collaboration between the Ministry of Finance, the ICT Ministry and the Ministry of Youth Development aims to encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to develop and execute business ideas that will lead to job creation. It does this through a business plan competition across the six geo-political zones with cash awards to help young people with starting their businesses. • The first phase of this program was recently concluded where 1,200 winners were drawn. However, since only 17 percent of the 1200 awardees in this first phase were female youth, the government has decided to focus phase two of the programme solely on women entrepreneurs as a means of encouraging more of them to come forward.

• The Central Bank of Nigeria under Governor Lamido Sanusi has also rolled out a three-year programme to empower women bankers in the nation’s financial system. The apex Bank’s Bankers Committee for example, has set a time frame of between 2012 and 2014 to ensure that 40 per cent of top management positions in banks are held by women. During the same period, 30 per cent of board positions in banks will also be reserved for women. • In the area of women’s representation in government: the current administration of President Goodluck Jonathan has put women at the heart of its policies and has recorded some significant firsts, the most recent being the recent confirmation of Justice Aloma Mariam Mukthar as Chief Justice of the Federation. The fact that the third arm of government, the judiciary is now being led by a woman is a huge deal for the country. We have also seen clear gains in the area of women’s political voice. While there is still a long way to go to reach the 35 percent benchmark set by the National Gender Policy in the legislature, there are increasing numbers of women in key positions in government and the public service positions.

• Remarkably, women currently form 32 percent of the Cabinet. This is an increase of 8 percent from 1999 and 16 percent from 2004, and compares favourably with a global average of 17 percent. This shift in the number of women in the Federal Cabinet is based on the political will of President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan.

• The government has also set up the Women’s Trust Fund (Women’s Fund), an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to increase the representation of women in Nigerian governance at all levels. The office of the Special Adviser to the President on Millennium Development Goals recently provided a start-up grant for the Nigerian Women’s Trust Fund of N100 million, as a first of its kind strategy aimed at increasing the number of women in politics. Over 140 women meeting the eligibility criteria have accessed the Fund to support their political campaigns. • In closing, I want to end by bringing us all back to concrete steps we need to take to really achieve and sustain the $20 billion economy. Are we doing enough? Doing enough, and more than enough, means going beyond current levels of government or private sector efforts.

• My dream is to see the creation of a specialized Women’s Bank, or a women’s equity fund targeting in particular those mid-level women entrepreneurs in search of funds in the range of $50,000 to $1 million, to grow their enterprises and of course, their employment generation levels. Most interventions in the area of women’s access to finance has been at the microfinance level but the time has come for us to move beyond this to enabling women’s access to much bigger finances at concessional rates.

• I myself had taken steps towards its actualization with the creation of a $50 million equity fund known as Makeda Fund in 2006. The objective of the Fund is to support the development of women-owned and women-managed small and medium scale enterprises in Africa. We believe that supporting such businesses is important: not only because they are currently an underserved segment of the market, but also because they offer promising opportunities for value creation for both investors and women entrepreneurs.

• Finally – we should always remember that any talk of women’s empowerment must necessarily include girls’ empowerment. As we all know, inequalities tend to reproduce across generations. We need to do everything we can to break this cycle of inequality. We need mentors and role models. We need to ensure that young women have the opportunity to shape their own future, and to aspire to be the best they can in any field they choose. • I wish you all fruitful deliberations. Thank You!

davidylan:

lol this is another ridiculous non-story. Let me ask, how many women who jump around when the eagles play... follow female soccer? Do you, miss 99cents, watch the female nations cup? I used to follow it way back in Nigeria. It is disingenous for you to be crying about the falcons receiving "inferior" treatment when we both know that you could care less about their game. Its all about the money... face it, the men's game holds far more entertainment value that the female game... it is not like men blocked your eyes from watching them no?

Is the retard going to understand?

Funmi Iyanda interviews Chimamanda. awesomeness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou9lVWNwaQk

commencement speech @ Kalamazoo college

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsJoPEo142Q

^^[ yawn ain't nobody got time for that

Try and perfect your use of upper case when typing --- that's for the record. This your counter-post suggest you've comprehension and probably dyslexia that you need to work on fast or maybe you intentionally ignore the idea behind my post which stated "sieving" through what we should imbibe as Africans and select the ones that worked for us and jettison some. Infact why're i explaining common sense.
The relationship between feminism and pornogr.aphy that you brought in is a choice on the part of the lady that you don't have to blame anyone for .
So my dear--- "Feminilise" your life for all I care but the assurance I can give to you is it will be easier said than done. 'hahah what hypocrites"

99cent:

don't selectively quote me. if you do not agree with anything I have to say then press the ignore button. I will waste no time responding to inflammatory, sexist, misogynistic and senseless trite henceforth.

this topic is not for anti-feminist. read topic title before clicking and making a post.

Senseless trite is exactly what you have been posting all over the place. Long long newspaper articles that convey nothing really. If you want to worship women... be my guest, but to suggest that their lives are a reflection of your own warped beliefs is ridiculous.

lol calling other's choice of words as "inflammatory"? You do have a prediclection for shameless hypocrisy. Look in the mirror first... and just for the record, make sure you understand the ideology you champion first before making a complete mockery of yourself.

davidylan:

Quite silly really. So because our corrupt politicians were raised in two parent households we should now ban two-parent households?

i laff in rio... hahaha

I guess Michele Obama is marginalized and is an underachiever right?

CAMEROONPRIDE: David marry her please , tho she only likes white men

David pls help us marry our sister 99cents. We can donate money for you to do plastic surgery and have some form of white skin which she can manage since no white man wants to look her side.

Or I have a friend who is very light skinned. He's mixed. I hope 99cent can manage him

Guys we need to help this sister.

CAMEROONPRIDE: I guess Michele Obama is marginalized and is an underachiever right?

Michelle is marginalized na.
First, she's answering "Obama" instead of Michelle Robinson, or Michelle Robinson-Obama: this is terrible subjugation

Second, she's forced to give up her career to live on Washington so her selfish husband can be president.

Three, they even forced her to campaign for him.

Even her own daughters that she bore in her own womb were forced to answer Obama instead of Robinson.

toshmann:

Michelle is marginalized na.
First, she's answering "Obama" instead of Michelle Robinson, or Michelle Robinson-Obama: this is terrible subjugation

Second, she's forced to give up her career to live on Washington so her selfish husband can be president.

Three, they even forced her to campaign for him.

Even her own daughters that she bore in her own womb were forced to answer Obama instead of Robinson.

toshmann:

Michelle is marginalized na.
First, she's answering "Obama" instead of Michelle Robinson, or Michelle Robinson-Obama: this is terrible subjugation

Second, she's forced to give up her career to live on Washington so her selfish husband can be president.

Three, they even forced her to campaign for him.

Even her own daughters that she bore in her own womb were forced to answer Obama instead of Robinson.

This is the best sarcasm of the week.===roll of drums==

toshmann:

Michelle is marginalized na.
First, she's answering "Obama" instead of Michelle Robinson, or Michelle Robinson-Obama: this is terrible subjugation

Second, she's forced to give up her career to live on Washington so her selfish husband can be president.

Three, they even forced her to campaign for him.

Even her own daughters that she bore in her own womb were forced to answer Obama instead of Robinson.

Lwkd. Rolling on the floor

Damn... Tosh you smoke em

Phewwwww

Feminists are unnecessarily abrasive and argumentative. Kind of like Africanists. Some of their arguments border on the unreasonable.

AjanleKoko: Feminists are unnecessarily abrasive and argumentative. Kind of like Africanists. Some of their arguments border on the unreasonable.

and anti-feminist arguments are reasonable?
why not compare feminism to gay rights? that's a better comparison.


as far as I know, an africanist is a person who specializes in african studies. I don't see any opposition to africanist as there is to feminists and gay rights activist. people feel threatened by feminism and gay rights.

how many people do you know who oppose africanists? or marginalize africanists?
silly comparison if I may say.

First Lady Michelle Obama urged both female and male South African youth to advance women’s rights and to stand up against violence against women. Mrs. Obama’s official trip to Africa has focused on addressing health, wellness and women’s rights.

“You can be the generation that stands up and says that violence against women in any form, in any place, including the home – especially the home – that isn’t just a women’s rights violation. It’s a human rights violation,” Mrs. Obama said passionately.

She also encouraged the youth to be the generation that ends HIV/AIDS, which she stressed is “fully preventable and treatable.” Gender-based violence (GBV) is a noted cause of HIV/AIDS infections in women in sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, a key component of the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA) focused on the elimination of violence against women and girls as key in containing the epidemic.

According to UNAIDS, women and girls who have experienced violence are up to three times more likely to be infected with HIV than those who have not. Increasingly, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has included GBV programming to address this tragic correlation.

As Mrs. Obama’s trip has highlighted thus far, including youth in the movement to end violence against women and girls is imperative to saving not only their generation but also future generations. Violence, like HIV/AIDS, is treatable, but more importantly, it is preventable!

Send your thanks to the First Lady today and ask the Administration to support funding for international programs to end violence against women and girls.

Michelle bravely went right on to say what many women have been waiting to hear in this presidential campaign: “He believes that women are more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies and healthcare… that’s what my husband stands for.”

And what a relief after Republican Congressman Todd Akin‘s comments on “legitimate” r.ape and Vice-Presidential nominee Paul Ryan‘s view that abortion should be illegal, even in cases of ra.pe or inc.est.

@bolded. and we wonder why feminism exists. feminism is here to stay for a long time!! if mindsets like above don't change

One thing I realised after having many discussions with sexist dudes and women that believe they are inferior to men is that their beliefs are influenced by religion. the whole woman must submit to her husband after marriage thing has led people to think women can never be equal to men and cannot think for themselves, rather they think that men, by virtue of the fact that leadership was solely bestowed on them in religious books, have been given a default position of superiority by god. very sad really, considering the fact that these people think their sexist attitudes have been endorsed by god/allah.
when people think they have the support of an almighty god, they are unlikely to change their beliefs or behaviour.
you will not find an atheist woman that believes she is inferior to men, unless she's into some kind of twisted S and M shiite
Anyway, summary of the long story is that, as long as religions exist, women will foolishly continue to believe they are inferior to men and men will continue to believe they are better than women. feminists and their quest for making people receptive to the idea of gender equality can only succeed in secular societies, not religious ones where women are assigned the role of submissive and obedient and subjugated by the gods they worship.

if not for feminism, 12 yr old girls will still be married away to old men. thank God for CEDAW.
and with the mindset that still exist among many males (as apparently shown on this thread), feminism is needed to safeguard existing rights and create new opportunities for women.

of course feminism has allies among men.
and many of the anti-feminists on this thread will enjoy a lifetime of getting kicked in the azz by women (unless they move back to their "traditional" village). clearly the real world will be too much for them to bear.

the fact that most of them are proud of African misogynistic culture with their nostalgia for "traditional ways" as only applied to women or gays and marginalized groups (what hypocrisy) says a lot!

as a woman, i am NOT proud of a culture that mistreats women. such a culture needs to change for the better. anybody who disagrees is a misogynist and deep down inside knows this truth

fellis: One thing I realised after having many discussions with sexist dudes and women that believe they are inferior to men is that their beliefs are influenced by religion. the whole woman must submit to her husband after marriage thing has led people to think women can never be equal to men and cannot think for themselves, rather they think that men, by virtue of the fact that leadership was solely bestowed on them in religious books, have been given a default position of superiority by god. very sad really, considering the fact that these people think their sexist attitudes have been endorsed by god/allah.
when people think they have the support of an almighty god, they are unlikely to change their beliefs or behaviour.
you will not find an atheist woman that believes she is inferior to men, unless she's into some kind of twisted S and M shiite
Anyway, summary of the long story is that, as long as religions exist, women will foolishly continue to believe they are inferior to men and men will continue to believe they are better than women. feminists and their quest for making people receptive to the idea of gender equality can only succeed in secular societies, not religious ones where women are assigned the role of submissive and obedient and subjugated by the gods they worship.

besides religion, it is mostly just a privilege issue. if you have grown up as a male seeing women being treated as second class citizen, you will feel superior to women and will be very unwilling to relinquish your privilege. This is same for all groups that want to maintain and defend a status quo in opposition to a marginalized group.
religion is usually just a reflection of culture. ex. the way christianity is practiced in Nigeria will be different from the way it is practiced in a society with more gender equality and civil rights.

99cent:

besides religion, it is mostly just a privilege issue. if you have grown up as a male seeing women being treated as second class citizen, you will feel superior to women and will be very unwilling to relinquish your privilege. This is same for all groups that want to maintain and defend a status quo in opposition to a marginalized group.
religion is usually just a reflection of culture. ex. the way christianity is practiced in Nigeria will be different from the way it is practiced in a society with more gender equality and civil rights.

You don't know when to quit ,do you?

the way chimamanda says she gets treated when she visits restaurants where the male is recognized and the woman invisible. many males see absolutely no problem with this. in fact, any female who points out the absurdity will be seen as a radical and irrational. she is questioning a status quo that privileges males over females and therefore she becomes a threat!!

CAMEROONPRIDE:

You don't know when to quit ,do you?

you this monkey seriously need to stop quoting my posts. hop off.

99cent:

you this monkey seriously need to stop quoting my posts. hop off.

monkey? Start making sense and we would have a deal . Capiche ?

most anti-feminist and misogynists also tend to be rabid homophobics. the correlation isn't coincidental.
although some of them indeed are secretly gay or they are beta-males. who feel threatened by strong females.

CAMEROONPRIDE: monkey? Start making sense and we would have a deal . Capiche ?

what an azz. me and you are on WAYY different levels.