THEMATIC FOCUS

§ The U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, especially as it sought to protect the rights of children, women, and refugees

• 1948 -- the National Assembly of the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which contributed to the codification of international human rights laws.

  • • The declaration singled out specific human rights violations such as extrajudicial or summary executions, arbitrary arrest and torture, and slavery or involuntary servitude as well as discrimination on racial, sexual, or religious grounds

§ Global feminism movements

Feminism in the West

• Emily Davison (1913) and The most notorious act of protest for women’s suffrage

• organized feminism had lost momentum by the end of the 1920s, when most countries had achieved universal suffrage.

• it was revived in the 1960s in both Western Europe and the United States, it did so with a quite different agenda

  • • 1949 -- Simone de Beauvoir published The Second Sex

      • • a book arguing that women had historically been defined as “other,” or deviant from the “normal” male sex

    • 1963 -- Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique

      • • disclosed the identity crisis of educated women who were unfulfilled by marriage and motherhood

    • second-wave feminism took up the equal rights agenda with an emphasis now on employment and education rather than voting rights

• radical expression of American feminism

  • • Widely known as “women’s liberation”

    • took broader aim at patriarchy as a system of domination, similar to those of race and class

    • liberation for women meant becoming aware of their own oppression

    • They challenged the Miss America contest of 1968 by tossing stink bombs in the hall, crowning a live sheep as their Miss America, and disposing of girdles, bras, high-heeled shoes, tweezers, and other “instruments of oppression” in a Freedom Trashcan

    • brought into open discussion issues involving sexuality,insisting that free love,lesbianism,and celibacy should be accorded the same respect as heterosexual marriage

• women of color

  • • concerns of white, usually middle-class, feminists were hardly relevant to their oppression

    • Black women had always worked outside the home and so felt little need to be liberated from the chains of homemaking

    • Solidarity with black men, rather than separation from them, was essential in confronting a racist America

      • • the family was viewed as a secure base from which to resist racism

    • Viewed mainstream feminism as “a family quarrel between White women and White men”

    • focus was on racism and poverty

Feminism in the Global South

• Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the predominant issues— colonialism, racism, the struggle for independence, poverty, development, political oppression, and sometimes revolution—were not directly related to gender

  • • Once independence or the revolution was achieved, however, the women who had joined those movements often were relegated to marginal positions

• African feminists in the 1970s provided support for one another during times of need, such as weddings, births,and funerals;they took on community projects,such as building water cisterns, schools, and dispensaries

  • • established revolving loan societies or bought land or businesses

    • 2004 -- a long campaign by Morocco’s feminist movement resulted in a new Family Law Code,which recognized women as equals to their husbands and allowed them to initiate divorce and to claim child custody, all of which had previously been denied

    • resented Western feminists’ insistent interest in cultural matters such as female genital mutilation and polygamy, which sometimes echoed the concerns of colonial-era missionaries and administrators

• Latin America

  • • Chile -- a women’s movement emerged as part of a national struggle against the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (ruled 1973 -1990)

      • • Because they were largely regarded as “invisible” in the public sphere, women were able to organize extensively, despite the repression of the Pinochet regime

        • created women’s movement that crossed class lines and party affiliations

        • Human rights activists, most of them women, called attention to the widespread use of torture and to the “disappearance” of thousands of opponents of the regime, while demanding the restoration of democracy

        • Poor urban women by the tens of thousands organized soup kitchens, craft workshops, and shopping collectives, all aimed at the economic survival of their families.

        • Women of FARC-profiles

• NOT ALL third-world groups have identical views

  • • Issue of Inheritance for girls at the Beijing Conference in 1995:

      • • Some Muslim delegates opposed a call for equal inheritance for women, because Islamic law required that sons receive twice the amount that daughters inherit.

        • In contast, Africans, especially in non-Muslim countries, were aware of how many children had been orphaned by AIDS and felt that girls’ chances for survival depended on equal inheritance

Structural Opposition

• The Vatican, some Catholic and Muslim countries, and at times the U.S. government took strong exception to aspects of global feminism

• emphasis on reproductive rights

  • • access to abortion

    • access to birth control

Issues that remain in Focus

• female literacy and Domesticity

  • • Arab and Muslim lands, women are twice as likely as men to be illiterate, and in some places nine of ten women are illiterate

    • 2001-- India's female literacy had reached 54 percent, and yet women remained largely confined to the home

      • • Fewer than one-quarter of women of all ages were engaged in work, while the birthrate remained high even with the greater availability of birth control measures.

        • This condition has ensured a life of domesticity for many Indian women

• Abuse

  • • China -- Demographers estimate that annually more than one-half million female births go unrecorded in government statistics

      • • no one can with certainty account for the “missing” girls, some population experts speculate that a continued strong preference for male children causes parents to send baby girls away for adoption or to be raised secretly

        • in some cases to single them out for infanticide

    • India's prevalence of dowry deaths

      • • birth of girl children viewed as burdensome is the custom of paying dowries (gifts of money or goods) to the husband and his family upon a woman’s marriage

        • 1995 -- the government of India reported six thousand dowry deaths, though unofficial estimates put the number closer to twenty-five thousand

    • Pakistan

      • • 1994-1997 -- more than five hundred husbands set fire to their wives

          • • husbands have set fire to wives who overcooked or oversalted the men’s food

Women's Rise to Positions of Power in Global South

• Indira Gandhi -- India

• Benazir Bhuto -- Pakistan

• Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga -- Sri Lanka

• Daw Aung San Suu Ky in Myanmar (formerly Burma)

§ Negritude movement

• a movement to promote Négritude (“Blackness”)

• Origins:

  • • Drawing from the pan-African movements that emerged in the United States and the Caribbean, African intellectuals, especially in French-controlled west Africa

    • a form of nationalism that flourished in sub-Saharan Africa. African nationalists celebrated their blackness and Africanness in contrast to their European colonial rulers

• Broader context:

  • • This celebration of African culture was accompanied by grassroots protests against European imperialism

    • A new urban African elite slowly created the sorts of associations needed to hold demonstrations and fight for independence

      • • workers’ strikes against oppressive labor practices and the low wages paid by colonial overlords in areas such as the Gold Coast and Northern Rhodesia

    • African poets associated with the Négritude movement expressed their attachment to Africanness and encourage Africans to turn away from European culture and colonial rule.

• other movements with similar goals

  • • Some independent Christian churches also provided avenues for anti-colonial agitation

      • • prophets such as Simon Kimbangu in the Belgian Congo promised his churchgoers that God would deliver them from imperial control.

§ Liberation theology in Latin America

• “liberation theology” -- a mixture of Catholicism and Marxism meant to combat the misery and repression of the masses through revolutionary salvation

• autocratic regimes ordered the assassinations of hundreds of priests preaching this message of liberation, including Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador in 1980

History of the Catholic Church in Latin America

• Positive

  • • much of the criticism of brutality perpetrated by colonial rule was documented by monastic groups

• Negative

  • • Throughout the 19th century, the Church aligned itself with the upper classes and only minimally addressed the grievances of the poor.

      • • Mexican Revolution (1810-1821) resulted in a Catholic Church backed Emperor.

    • These nationalistic uprisings maintained a Catholic church that tended to identify itself with the rich

Catholic Action movement (helped to alter the role of religion in society, linking the Church to political action)

• Gustavo Gutiérrez (Peruvian priest) first presented the term “liberation theology” in a paper called “Toward a Theology of Liberation” in which he articulated a commitment to actions and expressed the importance of theology as critical evaluation, stating that “theology is reflection”

• Major Components of Liberation Theology

  • • theology does “not stop with reflecting on the world, but rather tries to be a part of the process through which the world is transformed”

    • People are encouraged to become active agents of their own destiny and in effect to liberate themselves from the confines of injustice.

    • Rather than small ineffective reforms, liberation theology supported work towards systemic change and even the possibility of revolution as a means of freeing the poor from oppression

    • While violence was not encouraged, it was justified as a possible last resort or necessity of the revolution

Reaction

• The Vatican felt that the connection between the movement and Marxism where incompatible with Catholic teachings.

  • • Marx encourages class struggle and social disruption that conflicted with the traditional order and stability of the Church

    • The Vatican feared that these forms of social unrest and questioning would weaken the power and influence of the Church

§ The right to vote and/ or to hold public office granted to women in the United States (1920), Brazil (1932), Turkey (1934), Japan (1945), India (1947), and Morocco (1963)

• United States (1920)

  • • we will examine in class

• Brazil (1932)

  • • right to vote was extended to all women in 1932, some formal and diffuse barriers managed to constrain their political participation

      • • vote became compulsory only for men, which meant that married women would only be able to vote if their husbands gave them permission

        • civil code at that time stated that women should be authorized by their husbands or fathers to act outside of their imposed duties

    • 1945 -- voting was mandatory for men and women

    • 2018 -- Brazil less then 12% of elected politicians are women

• Turkey (1934)

  • • Beginning in 1930 women could vote and run for local office

    • Legislation passed in 1934 that expanded women's voting rights to national parliamentary elections

• Japan (1945)

  • • Constitution for post-WWII Japan established universal suffrage

    • thanks in part to Lt. Ethel Weed, an American officer who advocated for civil code reform during the post-World War II Allied occupation of Japan

• India (1947)

  • • The Government of India Act 1935 extended the vote to include around 6 million women, but even so covered only 2.5% of the women in India

    • In the 1937 elections, 10 women were elected from general constituencies, 41 from reserved constituencies, and five were nominated to provincial legislative councils

    • Indian Constitution (1949) established universal adult suffrage, eliminating the gender, income, property, and educational restrictions on voting

• Morocco (1963)

  • • after gaining independence from France in 1956, Morocco's constitution, which was adopted in 1962

    • Women in Morocco were granted the right to vote and stand for election in 1963

    • 1993 -- a woman was elected to parliament for the first time

    • Article 8 of the constitution of 1996 guarantees women equal political rights with men, the constitution does not provide women with the equal enjoyment of civil rights

      • • Women are still not considered full citizens in many sectors of the law

    • 2002 -- a proportional list system and a 30-seat-quota for women in the parliamentary elections

    • 2017 -- women hold 21 percent of parliamentary seats in Morocco

• Saudi Arabia (2015)

  • • Saudi women could vote and run for office

    • 130,000 women registered to vote, compared to 1.35 million men in 2015

      • • a total of 978 women registered as candidates, alongside 5,938 men

§ The rising rate of female literacy and the increasing numbers of women in higher education, in most parts of the world

EVIDENCE – OUT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN

• Girls are more likely to never enter primary school than boys.

• Less than 40% of countries provide girls and boys with equal access to education. Only 39% of countries have equal proportions of boys and girls enrolled in secondary education.

• 54 million of the 76 million illiterate young women live in only 9 countries

• Despite all international and national efforts, over half of children out of school are girls (31 million girls as of 2020)

• The completion rates and learning levels of girls are lower than those of boys

• Of the world’s 774 million illiterate adults, 2/3 are women.

  • • The share of illiterate women has not changed for the past 20 years.

• Among the world’s 123 million illiterate youth, 76 million are female.

  • • These gender disparities remain persistent, with little change over time.

• The female literacy rate is under 50% in +12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In several cases it’s under 20%

benefits of female education for women’s empowerment

• As female education rises, fertility, population growth, and infant and child mortality fall and family health improves

• Increases in girls’ secondary school enrollment are associated with increases in women’s participation in the labor force and their contributions to household and national income.

• Women’s increased earning capacity, in turn, has a positive effect on child nutrition

• Children — especially daughters — of educated mothers are more likely to be enrolled in school and to have higher levels of educational attainment

• Educated women are more politically active and better informed about their legal rights and how to exercise them

§ The U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1965

What it did

• outlawed discrimination in public accommodation, housing, jobs

• increased federal power to prosecute civil rights abuses

What it was

• part of the anti-discrimination measures enacted as part of a broader series of legislation passed between 1964-1967 under President L.B. Johnson known as the Great Society Programs

  • • continuation of the stated policy goal of President J.F. Kennedy

Who Passed it

• House of Representatives

  • • Democrats (153 Yea; 91 Nay) 63%

    • Republicans (136 Yea; 35 Nay) 80%

• Senate

  • • Democrats (46 Yea; 21 Nay) 69%

    • Republicans (27 Yea; 6 Nay) 82%

• President Johnson signed it into law

Context

• Pressure for the US government to enact this legislation was coming from two primary fronts:

  • • Domestic -- the Civil Rights movement in the United States

    • Foreign -- in the context of the Cold War, the Soviet Unions most effective criticism of the United States focused on the topic of race relations within the country

§ The end of apartheid

• apartheid -- a policy of racial separation

• South Africa (after WWII)

  • • 14% of population was descended from Dutch and English settlers

    • 74 percent of the population made up of indigenous Africans

    • By law, whites controlled:

      • • the most productive tracts of land

          • • government designated approximately 87 percent of South Africa’s territory for white residents

        • industrial, mining, and commercial enterprises

        • the government

    • Nonwhites were classified according to a variety of ethnic identifications—colored or mixed-race peoples, Indians, and “Bantu,” which in turn was subdivided into numerous distinct tribal affiliations (for example, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho).

    • race based laws imposed on South Asians and people of mixed parentage classified as “nonwhite”:

      • • segregated housing

        • segregated schools

        • segregated jobs

    • laws for indigenous Africans placed far stricter limitations

      • • on place of residence

        • right to travel

        • access to jobs and public facilities

• Homelands

  • • African “homelands,” somewhat similar to Amerindian reservations in the United States, were created in parts of the country, often far from the more dynamic and prosperous urban and industrial areas.

    • Overcrowded and lacking investment, these restricted “homelands” were very poor and squalid, with few services and fewer opportunities.

Events leading to the end of apartheid

• • • 1912 -- African National Congress (ANC) formed

      • • African lawyer named Nelson Mandela organized violent guerrilla resistance by the ANC

        • Mandela sentenced to life in prison in 1964

    • 1960 -- Shootings in Sharpeville intensify South African struggle against apartheid

      • • police fired on demonstrators and banned all peaceful political protest by Africans

        • 69 blacks died and almost two hundred were wounded

    • June 16, 1976 -- Soweto Uprising

      • • Thousands of Students Protest against educational discrimination -- Afrikaans Language in Soweto

        • police killed more than 500 people

    • 1977 -- Steve Biko, the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement was beaten, arrested and died in police custody inciting more urgency to end apartheid

    • 1986-- United States Calls for Sanctions in South Africa

    • 1986 -- International Divestment and Boycotts

    • August 1989, F.W. de Klerk replaced P.W. Botha as state president. F.W. de Klerk made some promises to end white domination in South Africa and relaxed some of the apartheid laws.

      • • de Klerk released eight of the country’s most prominent anti-apartheid political prisoners

    • February 2, 1990, de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC and other political organizations.

      • • de Klerk also removed the restrictions placed on Black communities since the state of emergency declared by Botha in 1986

• February 11, 1990 -- Mandela released

• April 27, 1994 -- South Africans witnessed the first election ever in South African history where Black people were allowed to vote.

  • • The A.N.C. won more than 62 percent of the vote and Mandela was chosen as president

    • Nelson Mandela is Elected President

    • Nelson Mandela Dead: The True Story Behind 'Invictus'-ABC News

    • "Invictus" - Official Trailer

    • Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom Official UK Trailer (2013)

§ Caste reservation in India

Caste and reservation in the Indian Constitution of 1949

• The Constitution prohibits discrimination (Article 15) of any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, etc.; untouchability (Article 17); and forced labour (Article 23).

  • • It provides for specific representation through reservation of seats for the SCs and the STs in the Parliament (Article 330) and in the State Legislative Assemblies (Article 332), as well as, in Government and public sector jobs, in both the federal and state Governments (Articles 16(4), 330(4) and 335)

      • • Scheduled Castes (SCs)

        • Scheduled Tribes (STs)

• These "reservations" or quotas were granted to groups on the basis of their (presumably immutable) caste identities

• The logic of reservations in India was simple: they were justified as a means of making up for millennia of discrimination based on birth.

• India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had hoped that caste consciousness would wither away after Independence, but the opposite has happened.

  • • Because caste was such a powerful source of self-identification, it proved to be a useful tool of political mobilization in India's electoral democracy: when an Indian casts his vote, he too often votes his caste

1989 Reform

• VP Singh-led government decided to extend their benefits to Other Backward Classes (OBCs)

• castes who were deemed backward because they lacked "upper caste" status

• Case study: The Patels

  • • unlikely caste to be seeking such recognition

    • they are in fact dominant in Gujarat

    • prominent, successful and wealthy beyond their share of 20% of the state's (Gujarat) population

    • They are also thriving on foreign shores

      • • more than a quarter of a million Patels in the UK

        • about 200,000 in the US

    • 2015 -- Hardik Patel

      • • demand that the Patels - or the Patidar caste - be given better access to jobs and education through the quota system

        • says it's a myth that all Patels are rich

        • "Only five to 10% of Patels are prosperous, that doesn't make the entire community rich. If you visit a village home in the Saurashra region, you'll see people don't have enough to eat. There are so many poor people. And if you look at the farmers who have killed themselves in the past 10 years, the largest numbers are from among the Patels"

    • Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel

      • • several Patels occupy important portfolios in her cabinet

        • she has ruled out their demand for quotas, but she has named a group of ministers to talk to Hardik Patel.

        • The talks so far have failed to yield any results

    • Many suspect that Hardik Patel and his fellow Patels aren't really looking for reservations:

      • • by demanding the impossible, they are actually seeking the abolition of the present system

§ World Fair Trade Organization

Origins

• 1946 -- began in the United States, where Ten Thousand Villages (formerly Self Help Crafts) began buying needlework from Puerto Rico

• SERRV began to trade with poor communities in the South in the late 1940s

• The first formal “Fair Trade” shop which sold these and other items opened in 1958 in the USA

• late 1950s --Europe

  • • Oxfam UK started to sell crafts made by Chinese refugees in Oxfam shops

    • 1964 -- it created the first Fair Trade Organisation

• 1967 -- Parallel initiatives were taking place in the Netherlands

  • • Fair Trade Original, was established

• 1969 -- the first “Third World Shop”

• 1960s and 1970s -- Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and socially motivated individuals in many countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America perceived the need for fair marketing organisations, which would provide advice, assistance and support to disadvantaged producers.

• 1973 -- Fair Trade Original in the Netherlands, imported the first fairly traded coffee from cooperatives of small farmers in Guatemala

• 1989 -- World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) was formed in the Netherlands

What the Group does

• represent the Fair Trade supply chain, from production to sale, and also include support organisations such as Shared Interest, which provides financial services and support to produces

• attempts to raise awareness on trade injustices and imbalances of power in the conventional trade structures, and to advocate changes in policies to favour equitable trade