I came to China eager to see how women live here. Turns out, at least in the big cities that I've been in, they live pretty much like we do in the US. There are still many social problems, some the same as the US and some different, but overall, it feels pretty much the same.
-The other day I was walking down the street and encountered a woman openly breastfeeding what looked to be a 3 or 4 year old girl. She was just sitting on the busy sidewalk outside a store and exposing a lot of skin. I was excited to see this done so casually, and to see it with an older child.
-Sexual harassment is a big problem here; we've heard this firsthand from Chinese people.
-There is definitely the same sense of never being beautiful enough and objectifying women cosmetically. There are ads everywhere for plastic surgery hospitals. A popular makeup item is skin whitening cream.
-Men do a lot of the cooking. It seems like most restaurants have male cooks and female waiters.
-Lovers' quarrels often take place in public and include a lot of hitting and forceful grabbing on both sides.
-I love watching families who because of the one-child policy only have a daughter and seeing how much love and affection they show her.
The most interesting thing I've noticed however, is that the western idea of male chivalry doesn't exist here. You don't see things like men routinely opening doors for women and I don't think any man would give up his bus seat to a woman unless she was over 70 or carrying a baby. Instead of this code of honor, China honors age. The elderly are shown the tokens of deference that in the west we more or less expect men to show to women.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Reflections on Child Sexual Exploitation in Sri Lanka
A year ago I read a report about child sex trafficking in Sri Lanka, wrote a post, and never posted it here. Here it is:
The report highlighted a paradox that faces Sri Lankan women, many of whom travel abroad as domestic servants to make money to send home: “Sri Lanka has the highest proportion in South Asia of females working abroad for employment, and these comprise primarily women who have young children.” Not only do some of these women end up in bad situations abroad, such as being trafficked themselves or being forced to work for abusive employers, but their very act of leaving may spell doom for the children they left in order to help. One of the findings indicated that children whose mothers went abroad were more vulnerable to sexual abuse and trafficking at the hands of their fathers, uncles, grandfathers, friends, neighbors, etc.
In many parts of Sri Lanka girls who have been sexually abused are considered unclean and are forced to leave their homes and families as they are considered a bad influence on other children. Often rape and trafficking victims will end up in state children’s homes for their “protection”. They may have been rescued, but as prostitution can be treated like a crime and the court system is slow it may take years for children to get out of these remand centers. Yet another problem is lack of knowledge about trafficking among children, adults, and even police and other officials who are supposed to help victims. One of the saddest issues the report mentions is that the exploited often become the exploiters because the system does not give them justice and the cultural setup alienates them from returning to a normal life.
So what can be done to change this? The report outlines many factors that affect children being trafficked, such as parents being detached, a lack of sexual education, the incentive of money, etc. There are many ways to address these issues, some of which require fairly simple measures like education programs, training, and new legislation, but deep societal change is also necessary, which is much harder. Beyond educating school children about sexual abuse and trafficking, more fun and creative measures can be applied such as extracurriculars and vocational training: the report cites music, English, and computer classes as ways that children can gain skills to keep them from being lured into prostitution and also to help them reintegrate into society if they are victims. Harder to solve are the problems that involve the family and communities. It appears that mothers are vital in keeping their children safe, but the economic situation forces many abroad. Another related problem is alcoholism among fathers. The report suggests economic workshops, help finding employment, and welfare programs to help parents.
While the report emphasizes that mothers should stay in Sri Lanka to protect their children, I think the real issue here is that when they do leave, people these children should trust are violating their rights. It would be ideal if mothers did not have to leave their children and go abroad to find work, but that is the current economic reality of Sri Lanka. What must change is relatives, friends, neighbors, and communities seeing these children as easy targets to manipulate instead of vulnerable children who need their help more than ever. The support structure of the family and community is where it seems like the focus is really needed in order to help Sri Lankan children stay safe from sexual abuse and trafficking.
The report highlighted a paradox that faces Sri Lankan women, many of whom travel abroad as domestic servants to make money to send home: “Sri Lanka has the highest proportion in South Asia of females working abroad for employment, and these comprise primarily women who have young children.” Not only do some of these women end up in bad situations abroad, such as being trafficked themselves or being forced to work for abusive employers, but their very act of leaving may spell doom for the children they left in order to help. One of the findings indicated that children whose mothers went abroad were more vulnerable to sexual abuse and trafficking at the hands of their fathers, uncles, grandfathers, friends, neighbors, etc.
In many parts of Sri Lanka girls who have been sexually abused are considered unclean and are forced to leave their homes and families as they are considered a bad influence on other children. Often rape and trafficking victims will end up in state children’s homes for their “protection”. They may have been rescued, but as prostitution can be treated like a crime and the court system is slow it may take years for children to get out of these remand centers. Yet another problem is lack of knowledge about trafficking among children, adults, and even police and other officials who are supposed to help victims. One of the saddest issues the report mentions is that the exploited often become the exploiters because the system does not give them justice and the cultural setup alienates them from returning to a normal life.
So what can be done to change this? The report outlines many factors that affect children being trafficked, such as parents being detached, a lack of sexual education, the incentive of money, etc. There are many ways to address these issues, some of which require fairly simple measures like education programs, training, and new legislation, but deep societal change is also necessary, which is much harder. Beyond educating school children about sexual abuse and trafficking, more fun and creative measures can be applied such as extracurriculars and vocational training: the report cites music, English, and computer classes as ways that children can gain skills to keep them from being lured into prostitution and also to help them reintegrate into society if they are victims. Harder to solve are the problems that involve the family and communities. It appears that mothers are vital in keeping their children safe, but the economic situation forces many abroad. Another related problem is alcoholism among fathers. The report suggests economic workshops, help finding employment, and welfare programs to help parents.
While the report emphasizes that mothers should stay in Sri Lanka to protect their children, I think the real issue here is that when they do leave, people these children should trust are violating their rights. It would be ideal if mothers did not have to leave their children and go abroad to find work, but that is the current economic reality of Sri Lanka. What must change is relatives, friends, neighbors, and communities seeing these children as easy targets to manipulate instead of vulnerable children who need their help more than ever. The support structure of the family and community is where it seems like the focus is really needed in order to help Sri Lankan children stay safe from sexual abuse and trafficking.
Friday, May 28, 2010
The Mother's Monument - I need your help!
I work with the WomanStats organization (http://www.womanstats.org/). I remember one of my coworkers telling me two years ago about the Mother's Monument that he wanted to create to honor mothers who die in childbirth, and he is finally making it happen! But the project needs our help. Please take a few minutes to look at the website (http://mothersmonument.org/) and sign the petition. The website also explains the proposed layout of the monument as well as gives important information about maternal mortality. You can also join the Facebook page entitled "A Mother's Monument: A perfect brightness of hope".
From my coworker:
"Things are finally beginning to come together. But what we need right now is some momentum to show Congress that this is a national cause that their constituents are interested in. If you would please take a moment to visit the website, sign the petition, and forward the information through your networks I would greatly appreciate it. We need as much support and traffic to the websites as possible right now to show that there is broad national interest in a memorial of this type. I have set the goal of 10,000 signatures. We not even 1% of the way there right now, so there is a long way to go!"
More women around the world die in childbirth than soldiers die in war. The US's maternal mortality rate is unnervingly high. Something must be done to address this issue that shouldn't exist in the 21st century, and the monument, which is part sculpture part interactive database, does this.
Thanks for your help!
From my coworker:
"Things are finally beginning to come together. But what we need right now is some momentum to show Congress that this is a national cause that their constituents are interested in. If you would please take a moment to visit the website, sign the petition, and forward the information through your networks I would greatly appreciate it. We need as much support and traffic to the websites as possible right now to show that there is broad national interest in a memorial of this type. I have set the goal of 10,000 signatures. We not even 1% of the way there right now, so there is a long way to go!"
More women around the world die in childbirth than soldiers die in war. The US's maternal mortality rate is unnervingly high. Something must be done to address this issue that shouldn't exist in the 21st century, and the monument, which is part sculpture part interactive database, does this.
Thanks for your help!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Education for Migrant Children in China
Wow, it has been a really long time since my last post! It's just been too much trouble to keep it up through a proxy server (Blogger is blocked in China). But I will soon be back in the US and I need to start it up again. Here is a post I wrote awhile back for the WomanStats blog:
Since coming to China, my husband and I have become interested in the lives of Chinese migrant laborers. Last semester we taught English at a school for migrant children and this semester my husband has an internship working with an NGO that helps gives legal advice to migrants and helps them adapt to life in the city. Working at the school was a wakeup call; the stark difference between the nice schools and well-dressed children around our neighborhood and the conditions in which the migrant children learn is astounding. Instead of wearing neat matching uniforms, the students wore matching neck kerchiefs. The building is old and drab and the classrooms have no digital capabilities. Each of our classes packed 70 children into the room, making it almost impossible to keep order and engage everyone. Our curriculum felt like a joke. It was not uncommon for us to teach one thing and come back the next week and find that the students were still on the same lesson. Their textbooks were badly in need of updating; I didn’t see the point of even teaching them terms like “cassette player”. As a disclaimer, I am talking about my experience teaching one subject in one school. I can’t speak for the condition of other schools other than generalities that I have read about in news articles.
This means that migrant children, both male and female, are limited because of their birth. Most come from rural towns where they have few opportunities. An article in the March 27-28 English China Daily discusses new research that shows that rural children are “three to six times more likely than city children to die before they turn 5.” They also have fewer educational opportunities. The problem, however, is that when migrant laborers settle in a Chinese city they are not considered residents of that city but still of their rural home. This has widespread implications for healthcare, education, legal issues, and more. Because education money is given to provinces based on their number of children and migrant children are considered residents of where they are from and not where their parents work, they cannot access the educational institutions of their city-born peers (http://www.radio86.co.uk/ china-insight/from-chinese-media/headlines-in-china/13654/school-closures-highlight-migrant-education-issue). To cover the needs of the children, unofficial or illegal schools sprout up but do not necessarily provide them with as good of an education. According to another article, “The only long-term solution is wide-ranging and systematic reform of the social welfare system and abolition of the hukou [registration] system.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/15/china-migrant-workers-children-education). That is huge and seems unlikely in the near future, although the article says demands for change are mounting.
This issue affects both female and male students. And when I think of the lack of education that rural and migrant children face, it does not surprise me that many of the tough issues for Chinese women are predominantly rural problems. Some examples include maternal and infant mortality and bride trafficking. We have discussed over and over at WomanStats that education for men and women is key in helping societies combat discrimination against women and until China confronts the education crisis that is happening all over the country, I am afraid that the same problems will continue to perpetuate themselves. And this breaks my heart when I think of our beautiful students and hope for their futures.
Since coming to China, my husband and I have become interested in the lives of Chinese migrant laborers. Last semester we taught English at a school for migrant children and this semester my husband has an internship working with an NGO that helps gives legal advice to migrants and helps them adapt to life in the city. Working at the school was a wakeup call; the stark difference between the nice schools and well-dressed children around our neighborhood and the conditions in which the migrant children learn is astounding. Instead of wearing neat matching uniforms, the students wore matching neck kerchiefs. The building is old and drab and the classrooms have no digital capabilities. Each of our classes packed 70 children into the room, making it almost impossible to keep order and engage everyone. Our curriculum felt like a joke. It was not uncommon for us to teach one thing and come back the next week and find that the students were still on the same lesson. Their textbooks were badly in need of updating; I didn’t see the point of even teaching them terms like “cassette player”. As a disclaimer, I am talking about my experience teaching one subject in one school. I can’t speak for the condition of other schools other than generalities that I have read about in news articles.
This means that migrant children, both male and female, are limited because of their birth. Most come from rural towns where they have few opportunities. An article in the March 27-28 English China Daily discusses new research that shows that rural children are “three to six times more likely than city children to die before they turn 5.” They also have fewer educational opportunities. The problem, however, is that when migrant laborers settle in a Chinese city they are not considered residents of that city but still of their rural home. This has widespread implications for healthcare, education, legal issues, and more. Because education money is given to provinces based on their number of children and migrant children are considered residents of where they are from and not where their parents work, they cannot access the educational institutions of their city-born peers (http://www.radio86.co.uk/ china-insight/from-chinese-media/headlines-in-china/13654/school-closures-highlight-migrant-education-issue). To cover the needs of the children, unofficial or illegal schools sprout up but do not necessarily provide them with as good of an education. According to another article, “The only long-term solution is wide-ranging and systematic reform of the social welfare system and abolition of the hukou [registration] system.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/15/china-migrant-workers-children-education). That is huge and seems unlikely in the near future, although the article says demands for change are mounting.
This issue affects both female and male students. And when I think of the lack of education that rural and migrant children face, it does not surprise me that many of the tough issues for Chinese women are predominantly rural problems. Some examples include maternal and infant mortality and bride trafficking. We have discussed over and over at WomanStats that education for men and women is key in helping societies combat discrimination against women and until China confronts the education crisis that is happening all over the country, I am afraid that the same problems will continue to perpetuate themselves. And this breaks my heart when I think of our beautiful students and hope for their futures.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
