Angel Jewellery. Rose quartz and Moonstone Angel Pendants.
Women’s organizations have played a central role in monitoring the implementation as well as the actual impact of laws to end violence against women, yet in these times of recession, we have seen a 50% cut back for key organisations which provide this vital support.
Despite the progress made in creating new legislation, women still suffer under patriarchal laws that provide them with few, if any, rights.
In some countries, women who have been trafficked are caught in a legal maze and may end up being punished for entering a country illegally, instead of being helped and protected!
Rape laws, for example, sometimes provide loopholes for perpetrators by dropping charges if the rapist marries his victim. Other countries may require a witness to a rape or domestic violence before a case can be brought to court, even though both types of attack rarely occur in public.
Laws that restrict women’s right to divorce or inheritance, or that prevent them from gaining custody of their children, or owning property, all serve to make women dependent upon men and limit their ability to leave a violent situation.
Here in Ireland women still do not have access to full reproductive rights. We are represented by a mere 16% in government, which means the decision making is still blatantly gender biased, even though United Nations constantly calls for equal participation of men and women in politics and leadership.
After International women’s day last week,listening to speakers from around the world, I realised something quite sinister operates at a subliminal level within women; women undermine women; women’s failure to support other women is one reason there aren’t more women at the top, or at many levels across the board actually.
As women, we have a duty to examine our own thoughts, personal behaviours and attitudes, to discover where we are unsupportive of other women. At a time when we so badly need unity, we must make changes, and choices about how we behave with each other; women must become champions for each other, in the workplace, in education and in the home, otherwise we are in danger of sabotaging the progress we have struggled so very hard to achieve.