Women Need Rights, Not Rescue

By Yifat Susskind, RH Reality Check. Posted September 14, 2009.

With a tagline like   "  Saving the World's Women," we knew to be suspicious of the recent New York Times Magazine cover story on global women's rights.  Reading on, our suspicions were confirmed.

Women's rights here are portrayed as a   "  cause" that seemingly came into vogue only in the 21st century and only once its turn came up after slavery and totalitarianism. 

In the introduction to their article, Kristof and WuDunn write:

In the 19th century, the paramount moral challenge was slavery.  In the 20th century, it was totalitarianism.  In this century, it is the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the globe: sex trafficking, acid attacks, bride burnings and mass rape.

As if the conditions women face worldwide – such as unequal access to education, denial of health care, violence and discrimination – have been immaterial or at least secondary concerns up until this point.  As if the lives of women, or roughly half of humanity, are simply the latest cause célèbre.

When we lose sight of history, we erase the existences of women who fought for their rights over generations, and we forget to seek out the root causes of our current reality.  Kristof and WuDunn tell the stories of women facing catastrophic circumstances, but with little thought to the forces that created such circumstances.  Why do women suffer abuse, poverty and discrimination?  Because, we are meant to understand, the culture   “  over there" has always thus sentenced them.

The solution, according to Kristof and WuDunn?  A new aid agenda that targets women and girls.  Surely, more resources in the hands of women who have been historically underserved would be a welcome change.  But an agenda truly in support of women  ’  s rights would cut across all US policies.

In Afghanistan, it would mitigate against troop surges that risk women’s lives by bombing homes and neighborhoods and strengthening the hand of anti-occupation fundamentalist groups.  It would put an end to the common practice of propping up warlords whose miserable record on women’s rights is conveniently disregarded, so long as they serve as useful political allies.

See more stories tagged with: abortion, women, rape, contraception, sex trafficking, new york times, kristof

Yifat Susskind is the communications director of MADRE and a Foreign Policy In Focus contributor.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from Reproductive Justice and Gender! Sign up now »