2 The need for human rights for women

Severyna Magill

Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, you will be aware of the position of women in society within India, and globally that demonstrates their inferior social position; why women need specific human rights; and the gender bias present in the understanding and implementation of most human rights law that contemporary society relies on.

Background

Women’s disadvantaged social position throughout her life is often referred to as the cycle of violence. In India, there is a strong patriarchal culture. This is reflected and manifested in various forms including: son preference, and subsequent sex determination based abortions and female infanticide; more money being spent on male children’s health and education; young men having more choice and control over their access to higher education, choice of subject and location of employment; men’s age of marriage being later; grooms receiving and not having to pay dowry; male control over domestic decision making, eg the use of contraception, the number, and the spacing of children, and choices over how the household income is spent; male control over the ownership of property and land; men having higher social status in their old age and as widowers over widows. Historically practises such as sati, and when widows were forced to live a life of isolation and poverty in temples but widowers could continue living in the family home were also forms of violence that only affected women.

Women in Law

The natural global average “of sex ratio at birth is around 105 male births per 100 female births.” This equates to a naturally occurring 952 female births to 1,000 male births. This difference in the sex ratio at birth is naturally occurring as more male children are likely to die before their second birthday than female children. Therefore the imbalance should naturally balance out by the time children are past infancy.

In India, the 1991 Census showed there were 948 female births compared to 1,000 male births. As there was social concern that the female birth rate was being artificially interfered with (such as female foeticide and female infanticide) due to a socio-cultural preference for male children the Government of India passed a law in 1994 to ban the determining of the sex of the foetus. Despite the Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (1994) by 2012-2014, the census figures showed that the sex-ratio was 906:1,000. The continual decline of the sex ratio, even after the introduction of legislation to ban sex-determination, demonstrates that law in itself cannot change social values and pervasive cultural preferences.

Feminists have consistently critiqued and challenged human rights law arguing that law does not represent and consider the oppressive forms of discrimination most women experience on a daily basis – a violation of their human rights and therefore cannot be the sole source of a solution to inequality. Historically women were not included as subjects in the definitions of rights. The life experience and needs of men have been treated as the standard to which rights apply to all people. When torture, disappearance, or bodily injuries are inflicted upon women, the difference in their experiences to what men might experience are not recognized. Their identities and experiences are co-opted in to the male definition of that experience and their definition of appropriate redress.

Often women’s experiences, for example, that of the rape survivors in the Yugoslavian and Rwandan conflicts or of ‘half-widows’ in the conflict in Kashmir, are unrecognized by human rights legal systems and therefore no specific protections are afforded to them. Specific crimes against women have therefore either gone unnoticed and not prosecuted, or they have had to be made to fit into the definition of a crime that was not intended to cover such an act. The experience of prosecuting sexual violence as a weapon of war in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda is an example of this.

Gender myopia, i.e. blindness towards the inequalities between men and women, has been constantly playing a role in how the rules of society develop. If women’s voices expressing how their experiences differ to those of men are not included and listened to, women are excluded from being able to benefit from human rights laws in their own capacity, i.e. as women.

The position of women in society:

Crimes Against Women in India

According to the National Crime Records Bureau figures from 2013 show there were a total of 3,09,546 incidents of crimes against women in 2013. Of these, the total number of cognizable offences against women were 52.24 crimes against women per 1,00,000 women. Of these offences the most common crimes, in descending order, were:

• Cruelty by husbands or his relatives: 1,18,866
• Assault on a woman to outrage her modesty: 70,739
• Kidnapping and abduction: 51,881
• Rape: 33,707
• Insult to modesty: 12,589
• Dowry: 8,08311

All of the above listed crimes are crimes that are committed against women and which are overwhelmingly perpetrated by men. Cruelty, rape, assault and dowry particularly demonstrate male dominance and violence over women in society. These crimes are typically perpetrated to exert control, to create fear, and to reinforce a social hierarchy of power both within the family and within society that reinforces men’s privileged and more powerful social position.

The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences said in 2014 that:

“According to numerous interlocutors, the physical, sexual and psychological abuse of women in the private sphere is widely tolerated by the State and the community. The perpetrators include husbands, in-laws and other family members. Many victims live in family settings that are rooted in deeply entrenched patriarchal and customary practices that are sometimes harmful to women. The widespread socioeconomic dependency of women subordinates them to their husbands and other family members. The fear of social exclusion and marginalization and the lack of effective responses to violence keeps them in a context of continuous violence and intimidation.”

The social position of women in India:

A close examination of the kidnapping and abduction figures for women in Delhi by various studies have established that many cases of kidnapping and abduction are filed by young women’s parents after the young woman has eloped with a lover. In many of these cases the woman is under the age of majority, 18 years of age. This has lead Rukmini Sen to ask whether these are cases of bhagna, as in to elope, which is the result of one’s exercise of agency – a choice, or bhaagnaa, as in to be forcefully taken away, e.g. kidnapped or abducted, without any agency or choice. The parents’ filing of the FIRs to register the alleged kidnapping demonstrates the parents’ lack of approval of the relationship. The filing of a kidnapping, as opposed to a lost person report, reinforces the notion of daughters as property who are not allowed to make their own decisions and that any decisions taken without the expressed consent of the family must be controlled and curtailed.

Control over women’s lives and their choices is easier when women are dependent on men for their economic and social survival. “According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN (FAO), women [in India] account for only 9.5 per cent of land-holders.” Women’s low ownership of land and property results in them being dependent upon male members of their kin for their shelter. They may, therefore, be forced to accept certain living conditions such as domestic violence and generally have less influence in decision making within the home and family as they have no, or significantly less, control over resources, access to which may be needed to have a role in decision making. Not owning land or property also weakens women’s access to capital and financial loans that may then increase their ability to make choices based on a wider range of options that includes their agency.

Low participation in formal, well paid, employment reinforces women’s weaker social position. In 2015 an International Monetary Fund working paper stated: “At around 33 percent at the national level in 2012, India’s FLFP [Full Labour Force Participation] [of women] rate is well below the global average of around 50 percent and East Asia average of around 63 percent.” In addition, men earn more than women in both the formal and informal sectors.

The weak social and economic position of women in society reinforce their inferiority and vulnerability. Combined with a strong patriarchal attitude the safety of women even in the public sphere is less secure than men’s. The Delhi gang rape and resulting death of a young, 23 year old, woman in December 2012 highlighted the disproportionate fear of, and threat of, actual violence women experience when accessing public spaces including leisure activities, public transport and roads. The UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences stated:

“Sexual violence, including rape and sexual harassment, is widespread across the country and perpetrated in public and private spaces. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, in 2012, 2.84 cases of rape were reported every hour. Many interlocutors stated that there was a general sense of insecurity for women in public spaces, especially in urban settings. Women are easy targets of attacks, including sexual violence, whether while using public transportation or sanitation facilities or on the way to collect wood and water. Many victims of sexual violence carry a deep sense of shame, which is further exacerbated by the stigma and exclusion they experience, especially from family members and the community, and which may result in suicide.”

The event triggered mass protests not just in Delhi but in many cities across India including Bangalore and Kolkata where young people demanded more action and accountability from the police in securing the public safety of women.

The social position of women globally:

Violence against women and service provision:

Internationally women’s social and economic security is less secure than men’s. In the UK two women, a week are murdered by their current or former partner and three women a week who are in a relationship with an intimate partner violence committed suicide largely because of the stress and mental health consequences of living with, or in fear of, abuse. To put this in context, on average 100 women a year are killed by their current or former male partner, a further 156 women are victims of suicide because they are in abusive relationships. These deaths would be easier to prevent if more support services and perpetrator reform programmes were funded. This compares to around ten men who are killed by their female partner every year. In the USA “[t]he number of American troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001 and 2012 was 6,488. The number of American women who were murdered by current or ex male partners during that time was 11,766. That’s nearly double the amount of casualties lost during war” emphasis author’s own. These statistics highlight the gap in institutional protections for women.

When governments are aware that intimate partner violence disproportionately affects one sex over another, we must ask why governments are not responding more comprehensively to fulfil women’s human right to life. A potential reason is the lack of prioritisation of the decision making and budget allocation level.

In the USA the 2014 federal fiscal year budget allocated $413 million “to reinforce efforts to combat and respond to violent crimes against women.” These grants are recognised as “play[ing] a critical role in helping to create a coordinated community response to this problem [violence against women]…. And meeting the needs of the almost 1.3 million women victimised by rape and sexual assault annually, and the nearly seven million victims of intimate partner violence each year.” This $413 million for a ‘coordinated community response’ to meet the needs of 8.3 million women every year equates to less than $50 per person.

When we compare $413 million to other national budgets we see how extremely small the budget is: in 2014 the USA budgeted to spend: “$176.2 billion for the operations, training and supporting activities troops need to defeat current and future [security] threats,” the “$166.8 billion to continue the F-35 Lightning II (Joint Strike Fighter) aircraft programme,” the $5.4 billion for submarines, and the $12 billion for strategic offensive forces, per year.

In the USA “it is estimated that VOCA [Victim of Crimes Act] provides $310 million each year for domestic violence and sexual assault services.” This is compared $640,221 billion in 2013 on the defence budget. This defence budget is higher than the defence budget for the next eight highest spending countries combined. It prompts one question: What could be spared and re-allocated towards providing domestic violence shelters and social support, rehabilitation and therapy services for perpetrators and survivors, early intervention programmes, fast track courts and training for the police, health and judicial services on how to recognize and appropriately respond to abusive relationships in an informed and sensitive manner.

The gender pay-gap:

Gender discrimination negatively affects women in the West with women consistently earning less than men. “More than half a century after the United States passed the Equal Pay Act, and 45 years after similar legislation in the UK, women across the world earn 77% of the amount paid to men.” An international consultancy firm predicted that the UK’s gender pay gap, if it continues to decrease at the average rate, will not close until 2069, that’s 99 years after the UK introduced its Equal Pay Act and the World Economic Forum estimates that the global pay gap will not close until 2186.

Motherhood is also financially punished. Over a woman’s life time women who have two children will earn 25% less than childless women. Further, as women are more likely to be employed in part time jobs which allow them to better balance family care commitments with employment their pension contributions also cumulatively become less than men’s over their lifetime. This is partly due to the fewer hours worked and partly because positions within the workforce which are more likely to be part-time are also more likely to have fewer responsibilities and thus less status within the organisation. In some countries, women’s final pensions at the point of retiring are on average 40% less than men’s. As women on average live longer than men, this means they are also more likely to live in poverty in old age.

Statistics such as these demonstrate an ingrained discrimination against women and lack of gender sensitivity within the workplace. Why is it that the financial consequences of reproduction, necessary for the survival of the human race as a whole, should be disproportionately born by women? It is often a couple who are choosing to have a child and not one person in isolation. This choice, made by two people, but physically born by one, should be better supported.

Traditional gender stereotypes

Feminine	Masculine
Weak	Strong
Need looking after	Need to protect
Dependent	Independent
Emotional	Objective
Sensitive	Tough
Kind	Selfish
Compassionate	Logical
Enjoys domesticity	Professionally competitive

Parental leave policies:

Gender stereotypes that define men as hard working and with fewer emotions and women as naturally more caring and happier within the domestic sphere are socially constructed. The broad legal recognition in most countries in the world for maternity leave, but very few legal provisions for paternity leave demonstrate how stereotypes can shape legal provisions.

A lack of parental leave for parents removes child caring decisions from parents and forces women to take time off work as men often do not have legal rights to parental leave either at all, for as long as women do, or it is unpaid. The lack of legal rights and protections for men as equal parents places parental leave and caring decisions in the hands of the state – if men want to be the primary carer and they are not given employment protections they are forced to resign or take only earnt or casual leave. Such restrictive policies often force women to take leave even if the couple would have preferred for the man to be the primary care giver. These policies demonstrate not only gender stereotyping regarding the roles men and women play within the family unit but also gender pigeon holing where the law restricts movement beyond these stereotypes.

Scandinavian countries are a notable exception. Sweden is well known for its gender neutral parental leave policies, it first introduced parental leave for men forty years ago and has continued to introduce new policies to encourage men’s participation in child rearing. When the policy that enabled men to take leave was first introduced only 0.5% of all paid parental leave was paid to men.38 The low uptake of the new policy was likely due to a lack of awareness about the policy and how to access it. It also demonstrates entrenched social stereotypes that care work for children was seen as feminine and the existence of social pressure to not break such barriers.

The Swedish government have continued to introduce policies to try to break such stereotypes and to provide incentives for men to utilise provisions available to them. In 1995 the Swedish government announced that for every family where both parents took a month of leave an extra one month of paid leave would be given to the family to look after their child. While this was a gender neutral policy as it applied to both parents, it was aimed at men who were not taking leave for child care. The policy quickly came to be known as the ‘daddy month’, and it has been credited with helping to redress the imbalance between men and women in the distribution of child care. In 2002 it went further and gave families where both parents took at least two months of leave to look after their child an additional two months of leave for the family. In 2014 men were taking 25% of all paid parental leave and the gap between men and women’s leave is said to be continually shrinking. Recognising that families often have significant financial commitments Sweden also provides men and women with 80% of their salary when they take parental leave. If policies do not pay compensation when a parent takes to leave this often forces the highest income earner to stay in employment. When the highest income earner is the male parent this further forces men into the role of financial provider for the family and women as unpaid carers thus entrenching gender stereotypes and not trying to provide equal opportunities.

Conclusion:

This module has introduced how the life cycle of violence against women and girls includes forms of violence that are typically only experienced by women. These forms of violence may be extreme where they result in the ending of life females from sex-determined abortions to murder by intimate partners. They may also be more subtle and yet still be pervasive within society from greater control over women’s choices to violence against their person. This is reflected in access to education and employment, ownership of property and choices that women may not have over their life direction and bodies that are freely available to men.

This chapter has also given an introduction to how the historical lack of participation of women in significant numbers in decision making positions has resulted in women’s needs often being under funded and their labour has been under-valued and pigeon-holed into often unpaid forms of care work.

Without laws and policies that aim to promote a more equal and accommodative society that breaks down constructed gender stereotypes and builds solutions to encourage greater gender based equality women are likely to continue experiencing oppression.

This chapter on human rights of women will introduce theories of what equality can be understood to mean, laws, and case studies to promote why human rights of women need greater attention and how laws can be shaped and structured to increase women’s lived equality.

The above examples ranging from the socio-economic position of women in society which reinforces women’s more vulnerable and inferior position socially, lack of prioritisation of women’s issues in the allocation of state funds to laws that do and do not exist, and their gender insensitive implementation demonstrates why special measures are needed to promote the substantive upliftment of women.

Reference

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