Author: Marisol Caballero

In my paper, I will examine gender-based violence in Mexico and the feminist movements that have arisen in response. Mexico has had a long history of gender violence and femicide. I aim to examine the gender inequalities that are prevalent in Mexico and how feminist mobilizations have emerged in response to them or have been affected by them. The purpose of my research is to gain a better understanding of how feminist movements were able to develop in Mexico, and how gender played a role in either facilitating or hindering movement emergence.

I found an article by Irma Salas Siguenza where she talks about “the glitter revolution.” The glitter revolution is how she refers to the two feminist mobilizations that resulted in the graffitiing of the iconic monument El Ángel de la Independencia in Mexico City in 2019. Their goal was to bring public awareness to the alarming rates of violence against women and femicide across the nation, and their act of graffiti on the monument not only represented an act of defiance but also a reclaiming of the historical narrative represented by the Angel. She questions why acts committed by feminist movements to protest femicide and gender-based violence are construed as vandalism as opposed to defiance against the longstanding treatment of women. Yet, as she discusses, the media’s response to their actions failed to portray them as feminists engaged in a worthwhile cause. Rather than being embraced as acts designed to fight injustice, their actions were viewed as vandalism. In this regard, Salas suggests that the media and social network reactions reveal the gender inequalities that have been part of Mexican collective memory for a long time. She sums this up well in the title of her article which translates to, when the revolution is feminine it is vandalism.

Siguenza, Irma S. 2021. “Cuando La Revolución Es En Femenino, Es Vandalismo. La Revolución De La Brillantina y La Pugna Por La Memoria.” Sociologia y Tecnociencia 11(1):55-77. doi: https://doi.org/10.24197/st.1.2021.55-77.

Over the last week, thousands of people have joined protests over LGBTQ policies in Canada. The first protests to emerge were tied to the ‘1 Million March 4 Children’ whose motto is to protect kids from ‘indoctrination and sexualization.’ Other protest groups have emerged to counter them. Consequently, competing protests have developed across Canada. A difference of opinion exists between opposing groups concerning the way transgender youth and identity issues should be discussed in schools. At the core of these protests are policies, arising across Canada, that require students to get parental consent before teachers can use their preferred names and pronouns. Those who are opposed to parental consent rules claim that the policies violate children’s rights and believe teachers should not ‘out’ students to their parents. A number of parents and social conservative groups claim parental rights to protest LGBTQ-inclusive education policies in school settings. However, an argument can be made that the usage of the term “parental rights” is inaccurate since it doesn’t address the concerns of LGBTQ parents or parents of LGBTQ children.

British Columbia was one of the many areas that saw protests and counter-protests. B.C. (a province in Canada) school curriculums do not include materials centered on gender and sexual orientation, but they do teach their students about human rights, diversity, and discrimination. B.C.’s human rights commissioner, Kasari Govende, said she is disturbed by hate-filled marches and that erasing trans people from the school curriculum amounts to hate. B.C. Conservative Party leader John Rustad expressed support for the protests against gender ideology in schools, declaring that if elected, he would end the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity curriculum in schools. Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim gave a statement conveying solidarity with the LGBTQ community. 

“Today, we are being confronted by ignorance and bigotry, and we must always call it out and stand with those who are impacted. We can never allow ourselves to let hate win the day.”

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/rallies-gender-schools-1.6972606

The fight for women’s rights is an ongoing battle worldwide. No place in the world can boast of having accomplished gender equality. There are times when progress accomplished over many years has been undone in a matter of months. Such are the circumstances for women in Afghanistan whose rights have been diminished following the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Afghan women have fought for freedom and equality for generations. Before the takeover, their progress was evidenced as women were visible in all parts of society ranging from law and politics to daily life on sidewalks and in schools. They may not have achieved gender equality but they were making progress in the right direction. All of the progress accomplished over many generations was quickly undone by the Taliban. In the two years they have been in power, they have issued numerous edicts. Among those edicts, 54 are directly aimed at women and girls. This doesn’t come as a surprise as one of the first orders the Taliban enforced was for women to stay home. This action foreshadowed the events that would occur over the following two years. At this point and time, the Afghan women’s movement is dedicated to fighting for visibility and for their voices to be heard. They want the world to know that they are present and what is happening to them. Women have been banned from going to parks, gyms, and public bathing houses. They have lost the right to education beyond sixth grade. They are limited in what jobs they can pursue, mainly limited to working only in health and education.

This phenomenon is not unique to Afghanistan. In other countries around the world, women’s rights are being restricted as well. The erasure of decades of progress on gender equality and women’s rights in months should be troubling to us all as the fight for women’s rights remains global.

https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/feature-story/2023/08/women-in-afghanistan-from-almost-everywhere-to-almost-nowhere

It has been reported in a recent Guardian article that Philippine job agencies have cheated women out of money and pushed them into crippling debt. The individuals who have fallen victim to these actions are women applying for work overseas, commonly domestic workers. The agencies charged these women large illegal fees, such as medical fees and training fees, which they could not afford. This comes as no surprise as 18% of the Philippines population lives below the poverty line. Since their economic situation is poor in their country, they tend to apply for jobs overseas in order to improve their economic status, and unfortunately, they become vulnerable to job agencies who exploit them. Throughout the article several women attest to the amount of pressure placed by the agencies to take out loans from their preferred loan companies and a shared feeling among the victims is that they felt like they had no choice. Annabelle Gutierrez applied for a job in Hong Kong through A&W International Manpower Service and was informed she would need to take out a loan to cover medical and training fees. The agency did not give her a choice about where to get the loan, instead arranging for Prosperity & Success Lending Investor Corporation to be the only option for her. Her documents were held onto until the day of her flight, so she couldn’t pursue a loan with a company of her choice. The loan she was forced to take out had an annual interest rate of 136%. To make matters worse, her contract was ended by her employer after only 2 weeks. She is now struggling to pay back the loan and both the recruitment and loan companies send her threatening messages on social media. Annabelle’s story is only one of many that reflect the abuse and exploitation done by employment agencies and lender companies. In 2020 and 2021, Migrasia (a migrants’ rights organization) filed complaints about the women’s treatment with ten Philippine government departments, including the Security and Exchange Commission and the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission. A total of 12 licensed loan firms operating in the Philippines were named in the complaints.

How can migrant workers avoid being scammed by job agencies? Not only do they have to worry about being assigned a good employer but it seems that they must also pray they get a good job agency.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jun/27/philippine-job-agencies-cheating-women-with-fees-and-crippling-loans