Gloria Steinem’s new show links global instability to violence against women

[HuckleB]

Gloria Steinem’s new show links global instability to violence against women: “For the first time there are fewer females on earth than males”
http://www.salon.com/2016/06/05/gloria_steinems_new_show_links_global_instability_to_violence_against_women_for_the_first_time_there_are_fewer_females_on_earth_than_males/

"Violence against women is a vast, worldwide problem on a scale that’s so big that it’s unfathomable to most people who try to get a handle on it. But Gloria Steinem, along with an all-female team of journalists, will not be stopped from trying to raise attention to the issue. Steinem is the host of a new show on Viceland, titled simply “Woman.” On the show, she and her team of journalists travel the world, highlighting various stories about women and violence and exploring what this violence means not just for the women themselves, but for the greater world around them.

...

“Woman” isn’t a tedious and depressing chronicle of victimhood, however. Steinem’s team focuses heavily on the stories of women as doers: activists, politicians, even soldiers, all of whom are trying to find ways to push back against the oppression women face and create better, more expansive roles for women to embody. I spoke with Steinem about her show over the phone. The transcript is lightly edited for length and clarity.

Let’s start with the show itself. The premise of “Woman” is that you, along with a team of journalists, go around the world to investigate the link between violence against women and global instability. How are these two issues linked?

First of all, we would be doing these shows even if it was not linked. Violence against women is worth reporting in and of itself, even if it were not linked to other violence. But what’s striking is that now research shows, as in the book “Sex and World Peace,” which is where the research is all gathered, that the most reliable indicator of whether or not there is violence inside a country, or whether it will use military violence against another country, is not poverty or access to natural resources or religion or even degree of democracy. It’s violence against females.

..."

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A great interview. I look forward to seeing the show.

[valerief]

1. Which only proves how threatening the U.S. is. America hates women. nt

[Wounded Bear]

3. I will agree that many Americans hate women...

and I fight against them when I can. But there are forces here that love women and want women to succeed and have the freedom to control their own lives.

I always try to look at things with respect to my daughter, who is doing well, but I am too well aware of forces lined up to go back to opressing young women like her through dark religious and "moral" principles. I certainly vote with women's issues in mind, and at the front of the line over many other issues.

[smirkymonkey]

2. Sounds fascinating.

The most interesting excerpt: "that the most reliable indicator of whether or not there is violence inside a country, or whether it will use military violence against another country, is not poverty or access to natural resources or religion or even degree of democracy. It’s violence against females."

That should wake up many men who don't think violence against women is a problem, or simply don't care like so many men at this site, because it has powerful implications for world peace on the whole. Think about it - the countries that display the most violence toward women seem to those that are most violent internally and in the world. The U.S. would be included in that.

[Delphinus]

4. What a day to read this,

on top of the letter from the rapist's victim in California.

[Rex]

5. That is a great point when you look at societies that allow women to be abused, they are mostly

autocratic-despotic governments by nature. Will be looking for the show.

[HuckleB]

7. Those societies are the worst of the worst.

Still, we should do better

[Rex]

8. I agree, as a modern society and the so called leader of the free world, America sets the standard.

And we too have a lot of work to do.

[Odin2005]

6. I'm not surprised, I remember reading something a whole back...

...about how during times of crisis and social breakdown that traditional sex roles tend to be become more strictly enforced, while on the flip side prosperity causes the enforcement of traditional sex roles to weaken.