WUNRN
From Birthing Justice: Women
Creating
Economic & Social
Alternatives
Beverly Bell & Other Worlds
WOMEN'S REALITIES, CHALLENGES, HOPE,
ACTIVISM & MOVEMENTS IN TODAY'S COMPLEX "GLOBALIZED" WORLD
Under globalization, women have been
pushed to the margins of unforgiving economies. The poverty is largely
feminized, which means that women bear the burden disproportionately, since the
needs of the whole household are their responsibility. As scarcity increases,
so do women's burdens. It is largely up to women to work extra hard to
compensate for the health care and education that many low-income country
governments do not cover, and due many times to pressures from the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund. In times of conflict, women and children are
the majority of refugees and displaced.
It is largely up to women to secure
adequate food for their families amidst a global food crisis. Globalization has
brought about a "race to the bottom." So that countries can be
"competitive," rights to fair wages and worker safety are often
not protected. Globalization has also pushed an estimated 1.75 million
women into a growing international sex trade. Women are challenged and suffer
in many ways in today's political economy, but Profit Rules!!
While women can absolutely be
victimized by the global economy, they are, indeed, not strictly victims. No
one stands to gain more from finding ways out of the current economic model
than poor women, except their even more vulnerable children. Because of this,
many women have stepped forward as advocates, activists, and visionaries. They
are bringing strength, imagination, and creativity to make another world
possible.
Women are finding ways to protect
themselves in society and in politics, and to shift female power in those
realms. Women are increasingly vocal and visible in movements to build
alternatives and to protect historic cultures against global capitalism and the
threat it brings to cultural survival. Women are increasingly demanding
attention in multiple ways, to their own human rights, equality, empowerment,
and social justice.
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