My name is Sarah. Your name is Sarah too.

I lay in my bed unemployed and hopeless. I look up and see this wooden plaque that my aunt made for me. It triggers a thought. “Princess Sarah”, it says. Now, I know that I was not born to a royal family but there is something in a name… My name is Sarah. Sarah means princess. My name means princess.. Now, I am not claiming my parents to be prophetic, nor am I claiming that I have always been a little princess, but my name means princess. That must mean something.

I love names and appreciate the different names given to children all over the world. Some names means peace, some mean victorious, some mean strength, others mean love, some mean courage. My name means princess. So, I continue to think of the women all around the world and the gift that I would like to give each woman today is my name. Each of you is a princess. Each of you is a Sarah. Here’s to a name so sweet and so appropriate for all. Here’s to all the Sarah’s out there who are unemployed. Here’s to you, Sarah with AIDS. And to my Sarah’s who are mothers, wives, laborers, here’s to you. May we each find the Sarah within. No matter what name the world has given you, or what role you play, may you never forget that you are a princess.

Closing Women's Shelters in Afghanistan

Afgan Proposal Would Clamp down on Women's Shelters

This NY Times article explains the rigid qualifications that women must make to get into a women's shelter, should this law pass. I think that one concept that the article fails to emphasize is Afghanistan's growth in this area. A decade ago, a women's shelter could not be found in that country, and now women have been given the opportunity to find a safe haven where they could start their own life. Much growth is seen if you look deep in what this article is really saying.

solipsism: the price of freedom

Women in this country fought many years ago for the freedom we take for granted today. Western feminism, as the article states has not gone wrong, but has lead many women to the word of the day: solipsism. This means concerned with only your reality, or viewing your reality as the only reality. So, as we have become free(er), we have lost touch with those women around the world who do not experience the same freedom as we do, and this form of apathy exudes from us as we are ignorant or emotionally out of touch with the reality of the status of women in the world.The reality is that:

• Only 1% of the world's assets are in the name of women.
• Men in the Arab states have 3.5 times the purchasing power of their female counterparts.
• 70% of people in abject poverty-- living on less than $1 per day-- are women.
• Among the developed countries, in France only 9% of the workforce and in the Netherlands 20% of the workforce are female administrators and managers. 

  What will you do about this? What will I do about this?

  i think that it would be unrealistic to assume that the same feminist movement that occurred in the United States of America would also occur in developing nations, for no other reason, that it hasn't happened like that yet. Women in America, and Western countries had an interesting opportunity in the early 20th century and seized it. We mustn't try to replicate what was already done in history, but evaluate why it hasn't trickled over into the developing world and find a new solution. There is no doubt that change needs to occur, but turning a blind eye to it, forgetting where our fore(mothers) came from would seem counter-intuitive in light of the struggle in the West for gender equality in recent years, and even until now. W must let go of the subconscious solipsism that is in each one of us, and make choices to eradicate the gender inequality happening outside of our understood reality.

NY Times: Not the Child my Grandmother Wanted

Define Labor for Me...

Main Entry: ¹la·bor

Pronunciation: \ˈlā-bər\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French labur, from Latin labor; perhaps akin to Latin labare to totter, labi to slip — more at sleep

Date: 14th century

1

a : expenditure of physical or mental effort especially when difficult or compulsory (2) : the services performed by workers for wages as distinguished from those rendered by entrepreneurs for profits

b (1) : human activity that provides the goods or services in an economy

c : the physical activities (as dilation of the cervix and contraction of the uterus) involved in giving birth; also :

 

 

 

Labor to men means one thing: work. But, to many women, labor has two meanings. Just look at the definition of labor. a: the expenditure of effort;  c: the physical activities involved in giving birth.

Herein lies the pun, Labor of Women. Is the role of women simply to give labor or be part of the labor force? This is a question that is not only prevalent in less developed countries, but also in the Western world.

 

Here is a NY Times article discussing just this topic:

 

Where Having It All Doesn’t Mean Having Equality

 

Enjoy!

Gender Equality as Smart Economics

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGENDER/Resources/336003-1205954955184/October2010_page1.pdf

Labor of Women

Hello, my name is Sarah Fowler and I am a woman. I have been a woman all of my life =) and have loved every second of it. Being a woman means getting to dress up for no reason, and getting out of speeding tickets with just a smile. Being a woman, I didn't need to talk sports all of the time, or amuse myself by farting. Overall, I would say it has been a good life. So, at night, I can kneel down next to my  bed and thank God that I am a woman. I grew up assuming that all girls/woman did the same.
Not all women, however, are as happy to be women as I am. In some countries and areas of the world, women are mistreated, abused, and relegated by their counterparts and their culture to the lowest positions. As I continued dwelling on this thought, I was reminded that just a decades ago, a woman from the United States would not have the luxury ebrace the same excitement that I have for being a woman.
I hope to spend the rest of my life contributing to this cause to mitigate the gender disparities in the world. This is step one of many in my mission to discuss, and disclose, and free the labor of women.