MS Speaks

Today is International Women's Day. Women's issues have been in the news quite often lately, and it's possible that the world is waking up to realizing that women in many parts of the world are still deprived of respect and oppressed. Even in the more enlightened countries, there are many women who have suffered indignities and injustices mainly because they were women. International Women's Day calls attention to women as a group interested in changing the situation for the better.


http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/international-womens-day


There are many women who have been treated dismissively in the medical care system in the US and elsewhere, and that is just one instance. Whether it's young women subjected to harassment or abuse in school or college settings or women employees who've had to take subservient roles  or women abused by husbands too powerful to confront effectively, instances where women have been treated unjustly are all too common.


Then there are women in other parts of the world who haven't been allowed to drive a car, to leave their homes without a male escort, to receive an education, or even to dress without wearing compulsory confining clothes. Some have been subjected to cruel surgeries. Others have been imprisoned as children and forced to do physically demanding work that no child should have to do.


Women who are beaten by relatives or partners are still commonly found. The saddest part about this situation is that many are too frightened to let anyone know what is happening when no one is looking.  Special provisions have had to be made for such women--housing arrangements where they can live in a protected environment until they can establish themselves and their children more securely.


Half of the population shouldn't have to live in fear of the other half.