STARK CONTRAST between expanding exclusivity and open movement to free all women
from subordination
Editing, re-reporting, comment by Carolyn Bennett
“As a set of time-bound targets, the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) have played a critical role in mobilizing integrated international
action on global poverty issues,” UN Women write in a newly released position
paper calling for a transformative agenda to make gender equality a reality.
“I
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nequality and discrimination based on gender is an
impediment to the achievement of women’s rights and was recognized in the
Millennium Declaration as a significant factor undermining progress in many
contexts.
“This recognition led to the inclusion of a stand-alone goal
on gender equality and women’s empowerment (MDG3) and the integration of gender
perspectives in other goals through some targets and indicators. As such, MDG3
and the mainstreaming of gender considerations into other goals were an
important signal that gender equality and women’s empowerment remain a clear
global
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| Global Women |
H
|
owever, with a few years to go, evaluation of the MDG
framework reveals a mixed picture that points to success in some areas
(including in reducing extreme poverty, improving access to education and to safe
drinking water), but less
progress in others (e.g. in reducing hunger and maternal mortality, and
improving access to sanitation). These mixed results in achieving the
MDGs have been attributed to lack of attention to the policies needed to
achieve the desired outcomes or to the
structural problems that must be tackled.
 |
| Women and children caught in war and conflict Iraq |
…The
prevalence of conflict around the world challenges us to address this issue
holistically in any new framework. Social injustice and inequality and the
perception of exclusion and marginalization can be powerful triggers of violent
conflict and war.
A
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t the same time, militarization diverts resources away from
social and economic investments which can reduce inequalities and facilitate
the realization of human rights.[ (Excerpt paper’s introduction)
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| Caught In war and conflict Palestine |
As UN women released
a paper calling for the unshackling of all women ─ transforming
gender power relations ─ the gay community lesbian women among them were celebrating loss of “equality”: the shackling of women. Some, however, took exception to this mentally impaired celebratory point of view.
 |
| Against Equality: Queer challenges to the politics of Inclusion icon |
The group Against Equality, whose website statement includes challenging the demand for inclusion in the institution of marriage, denounced gay marriage as “ap[ing] hetero privilege and allow[ing] everyone to forget that marriage ought not to be the guarantor of
rights …
“In their constant invoking of the ‘right’ to gay marriage,” the group notes, “mainstream gays and lesbians express a confused tangle of wishes and desires. …
“We
wish
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they would simply cop to (admit) it:
Their vision of marriage is the
same as that of the [political] Right, and far from creating FULL EQUALITY NOW! as so many
insist (in all caps and exclamation marks, no less) ─ gay marriage increases economic inequality by perpetuating
a system that deems married beings more worthy of the basics like health care
and economic rights.”
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| Yasmin Nair |
In her 2009 article “Dump Gay Marriage Now,” Yasmin Nair
wrote: “As we quibble about marriage, it is easy to forget that a rise in
poverty and the lack of health care means that large segments of society are
already denied their rights to decent education, housing, and a sense of
security about their well-being.”
Human rights should not depend on “marriage” but …
“In the United States … marital status is increasingly what
determines legal status as well as legitimacy as a subject of the state.”
Civil unions or domestic partnerships have lost comparable standing
and single (“bachelordom”?) is looked on as alien, aberrant or taboo. “Nowhere is this more apparent than in the
treatment accorded to single mothers on welfare,” Nair writes. “Following the
egregiously named ‘Welfare Reform’ package of 1996, poor women in particular
have been subject to the kind of state intervention into their lives that would
be held as unconstitutional if exerted on any other segment of society. …The
stigma against unmarried people swirls around in U.S. culture at large, with an
overwhelming array of messages in the media about single people as desperate,
lonely souls who need to find their life mates if they are ever to be
considered as human beings. …
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| Fiction Fairy tale Illusion Exclusion |
“I hear from straight friends that they are being compelled
to marry,” she recalls, “because they are afraid that their
unemployed/underemployed partners might be left vulnerable without their health
care. All of this takes energy from the fight for universal health care.…”
“
|
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| Fiction Fairy tale Illusion Exclusion |
The intense personalization of gay marriage as an emotional
cause (i.e. as something that should matter because of the grief it causes your
gay neighbor), is just another way to rationalize and increase the relentless privatization
of everyday life,” Nair writes, “another way to absolve the state of its
responsibility to its subjects.”
“T
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he United States is the only Western nation that does not
provide health care. That ─ and not the fact that we don’t have gay marriage ─
should be something that shames us all.”
 |
| UN Women Gender Equality Women's Rights Women's Empowerment |
Real proponent of true equality ─ Holistic vision
R
|
eturning to their call for “a transformative agenda to make
gender equality a reality,” United Nations Women highlight these targets to address
core elements of gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment:
Freedom from violence against
women and girls
 |
| Women and girls USA |
Concrete actions to eliminate the
debilitating fear and/or experience of violence must be a centerpiece of any
future framework.
This violence, which causes great
physical and psychological harm to women and girls, is a violation of their
human rights; [it] constrains their ability to fulfill their true potential and
carries great economic costs for them and for society.
Gender equality in capabilities
and resources
 |
| Women Viet Nam |
The often skewed distribution of
capabilities, such as knowledge and
health – encompassing sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights
for women and adolescent girls, as well as resources and opportunities, such as
productive assets (including land), decent work and equal pay – needs to be
addressed with renewed urgency to build women’s economic and social security.
Gender
equality in decision-making power in public and private institutions
 |
| Women Pakistan |
 |
| Women India |
The low numbers of women in public
decision-making, from national parliaments to local councils, must be remedied
to ensure that women feature prominently in democratic institutions and their
voices are heard in public and private deliberations.
The lack of voice in decision-making
is also found in the key institutions influencing public opinion and promoting accountability,
such as the media and civil society, as well as in private-sector institutions,
such as in the management and governance of firms. It has its roots in unequal power relations in
the family and community.
 |
| Women Ethiopia |
 |
| Women Ivory Coast |
There are significant national and regional variations in
gender relations, and countries will vary in their approaches to – and set
their own targets for – advancing gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment.
While every country will have its own way of organizing
policies and
 |
| Women Afghanistan |
 |
| Arab Women's Spring |
 |
| WomenDubai |
The interlinked and complex nature
of women’s subordination means that
only a comprehensive approach, encompassing actions in all three of
these areas is likely to achieve gender equality.
It
is only through this kind of holistic approach that meaningful, lasting
transformation in gender power relations can be achieved
The
contrast
|
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| Wedge of the Personal variety |
between the two approaches – one launched by an elite we-want-the same-exclusionary-privileges-‘they’- have (neither aims toward equality or “rights” but the opposite); and a global institution calling for rights
releasing and empowering women and all society is stark indeed.
The former is a narrow-minded exclusivity that
denies difference and is less than indifferent to the reality of varieties of
situations, choices and people domestically and globally. A “preference” or “orientation” becomes denier of others’ preferences and orientations.
 |
| Women India |
On the other hand UN Women correctly observe that uprooting a predilection for violence (male war making and conflicit) and deep-seated prejudice and repression requires an all-round, inclusive, not narrowly
particularized, approach.
Sources and notes
“UN Women launches global call for a transformative agenda
to make gender equality a reality: Ending Violence against Women | Gender
Equality and Women’s Empowerment | Millennium Development Goals | News | Press
Releases | Sustainable Development,” Posted on June 26 2013
PRESS RELEASE: Position paper calls for freedom from
violence, equality in capabilities and resources, and women’s voice to be the
cornerstones of a stand-alone gender equality goal
http://www.unwomen.org/2013/06/un-women-launches-global-call-for-a-transformative-agenda-to-make-womens-rights-a-reality/
See full document at:
http://www.unwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/post-2015-case-for-standalone-gender-goal.pdf
At PravdaRu: “Towards gender equality: UN Women launches
global call” (Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, Source: UN Women Prepared for
publication by Lisa Karpova, Pravda.Ru), June 28, 2013, 02:39, http://english.pravda.ru/history/28-06-2013/124974-gender_un_women-0/
UN Women
is the United Nations organization dedicated to gender equality and the
empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established
to accelerate progress on meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide.
UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global
standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society
to design laws, policies, programs and services needed to implement these
standards. It stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life,
focusing on five priority areas:
- increasing women’s leadership and participation;
- ending violence against women;
- engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes;
- enhancing women’s economic empowerment; and
- making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting
UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work
in advancing gender equality.
220 East 42nd Street, New York, New York 10017, USA; Tel:
212-906-6400 Fax: 212-906-6705 www.unwomen.org
Against
Equality
Against Equality is an online archive, publishing, and arts
collective focused on critiquing mainstream gay and lesbian politics. As queer
thinkers, writers and artists, (they) “are committed to dislodging the
centrality of equality rhetoric and challenging the demand for inclusion in the
institution of marriage, the U.S. military, and the prison industrial complex
via hate crimes legislation. (They) want to reinvigorate the queer political
imagination with fantastic possibility!
.. - See more at:
http://www.againstequality.org/#sthash.ydWz7auK.dpuf
http://www.againstequality.org/
“Dump Gay
Marriage Now” (Yasmin Nair), July 02, 2009, http://www.bilerico.com/2009/07/dump_gay_marriage_now.php
Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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