Women on the margins
INSTRAW news women and development 1995(22): 15-20
1995
PMID: 12157785 Document Number: 290799
In some parts of the world, females are the victims of violence before birth as they are selectively aborted in societies which favor sons. If infant girls survive, they are subject to the same domestic violence which affects their mothers and leaves women more at risk of death by a male partner than from any other kind of assault. This issue was brought to the world's attention by the 1985 Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies and is placed second on the 1995 Beijing women's conference list of "critical concerns." Women are also particularly at risk as they grow older, leave their jobs, and require expensive health care. One way to reintegrate older, retired women into society may be by employing them in child care facilities. Women migrants are also at risk of legal discrimination and physical and mental abuse, yet their plight has gone largely unnoticed as the world community focuses on male migrants. Women labor migrants are in a particularly vulnerable position and may be exploited or forced into prostitution when their legal status expires. The rights of women migrants must be clarified, and women must be informed of these rights. The plight of refugee women is better known, but, although refugee programs are becoming more gender sensitive, it is difficult to overcome old ways of behaving during emergency situations. Women also comprise an increasing number of the victims of AIDS, yet women in many societies are unable to deny having sexual intercourse with their husbands or to insist that their husbands use a condom. These same husbands are free to become infected by prostitutes and to pass this infection on to their wives. The prostitutes are often just as helpless as the wives and usually have been forced into the sex trade by abject poverty. The spread of AIDS, poverty, unemployment, and social disintegration all arise from the relegation of women to secondary status. The upcoming UN conferences will measure their success by how well they incorporate a gender perspective in their proposed solutions to these societal ills.