PRESS CLIPPINGS- 11 June, 2012

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PRESS CLIPPINGS- 11 June, 2012
The following is a compilation of gender related stories from leading media: The New York
Times, Financial Times, BBC, Al Jazeera English, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Times of
India, China Daily, El País (Spain), El Mundo (Spain), Clarín (Argentina) NOTIMEX (Mexican News
Agency), O Globo (Brazil), Le Monde (France) and Le Figaro (France).
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Tech World Double Standard for Women Entrepreneurs?
Perhaps it’s not surprising in the estrogen-challenged world of tech, but female entrepreneurs have a
much harder time raising capital than their male counterparts, Hannah Seligson reports.
Examining the role and impact of women in society
“Women make up 10 percent of the founders at high-growth tech companies, ‘and they raise 70 percent
less money than men do because of their lack of access to capital,’ says Lesa Mitchell of the Ewing
Marion Kauffman Foundation, where she is vice president for initiatives on advancing innovation,” Ms.
Seligson reports.
“All of the women I know who went to raise money did it when they didn’t have kids,” says Divya
Gugnani, founder and chief executive of Send the Trend, an e-commerce site that was bought by QVC.
“There is total discrimination in the start-up world against women who are pregnant.”
Carley Roney, co-founder of the XO Group, a publicly traded media company valued at $300 million,
confides, “in those first moments of having a business and having a baby, the baby was a complete and
total secret.”
And yet a small group of women is proving that it’s possible to start a high-growth technology company
and have children at the same time. They are dispelling the image of the tech entrepreneur as a single,
usually male, wunderkind.
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/tech-world-double-standard-for-womenentrepreneurs/
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The Washington Post
Cambodian housing activists say women jailed in land dispute are on hunger strike
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Four Cambodian women imprisoned for protesting their eviction from the
land where their homes once stood have begun a hunger strike, a rights group said Monday.
They are among 13 women sentenced last month by a Phnom Penh court to two and half years in prison
for aggravated rebellion and illegal occupation of land. They claimed the government
The women were arrested when they tried to rebuild their homes on the land where their houses were
demolished by developers in 2010. They lived in Phnom Penh’s Boueng Kak lake area, which the
government awarded to a Chinese company to develop a hotel, office buildings and luxury houses.
The Housing Rights Task Force said the four women began a hunger strike on Sunday to demand their
immediate release.
In Cambodia, land grabbing is sometimes linked to corruption and the use of deadly force.
Long Kim Heang, a communications officer for the Housing Rights Task Force, said the group learned of
the hunger strike from relatives of the strikers who visit them almost every day.
However, an officer at Prey Sar prison where the women are being held, said the woman are eating
normally and not on a hunger strike. The prison officer spokes anonymously because he is not
authorized to speak to the media.
Since their eviction, the women had protested persistently, though public dissent is discouraged under
the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Their families and neighbors have held several
demonstrations of support for them.
On Monday, about 100 of them demonstrated in front of the Royal Palace to urge King Norodom
Sihamoni to help obtain the release of the women. Their petition was accepted by a palace official, but
any subsequent action was unknown.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/cambodian-housing-activists-say-women-jailed-inland-dispute-launch-hunger-strike/2012/06/11/gJQAToNZUV_story.html
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Former refugees, Hmong women in California break with gender roles to get degrees, careers
FRESNO, Calif. — In a crowded refugee camp in Thailand, Misty Her often sneaked away to a school
house and listened through a hole in the wall. She knew she could never attend, being Hmong and a girl.
For centuries, the Hmong — an ethnic minority group clustered in Asia’s mountain villages — held to a
rigid division in gender roles. Boys were revered and nurtured. Girls were men’s property, to be married
off for a dowry, forbidden to study or work.
Even in California’s Central Valley, where Her’s family and other Hmong refugees fled en masse after
fighting in America’s secret war in Laos, rigid roles endured. But Her would help break that mold.
Now 36, she overcame resistance, got a college degree and climbed the career ladder. She became an
assistant superintendent with the Fresno Unified School District this school year.
Hmong community members say many women are now challenging old norms, delaying marriage and
having fewer children. They’re becoming lawyers, doctors and journalists.
“Today, more Hmong girls are going to college and taking jobs. It’s a huge stepping stone for us,” Her
said. “It’s also a challenge: being young, single, but doing it in a way that you’re still respected.”
The new roles for women are also causing friction in families. Elders say the shift is upsetting to men
who feel they are losing control of their households, and it is creating a rift between many young and
older Hmong. Others fear Hmong women are forsaking their cultural identity.
The Hmong have fought off change for centuries. Persecuted and pressured to assimilate by Chinese,
Lao and others, they farmed rice and opium at high elevations, keeping traditions isolated and intact.
After the CIA trained a secret guerilla army of Hmong soldiers to fight North Vietnamese troops, the
Hmong were forced out of seclusion and into refugee camps. Since the mid-1970s, they poured into
California and other states. Approximately 32,000 Hmong live in Fresno County, according to census
figures, one of largest concentrations of the 260,000 Hmong in the U.S.
In the U.S., daughters were still expected to marry in their early teens, have up to 8 or 9 children and
serve their husbands’ families. They were not allowed to eat at the same table as men.
“You shall not get pregnant out of wedlock, shame the family, speak back; you must obey your in-laws
and your husband. The cultural norms are still very much there,” said Maiya Yang, 43, a Hmong attorney
with the Fresno County Office of Education.
Her, who came to the U.S. as a five-year-old, delayed marriage until after high school and got accepted
to the University of California, Los Angeles. When her parents forbade her from moving, she instead
attended Fresno State, becoming a teacher, then a principal.
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When she was promoted to assistant superintendent last July, Her’s father was upset and cried. “Things
would be so different if you were a boy,” he told his daughter.
Her’s husband Phong Yang was supportive, which prompted some backlash.
“People told me, ‘You have to be careful, she will be working with lots of men and going to different
places without supervision,’ ” said Yang, who teaches Hmong at Fresno State.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/former-refugees-hmong-women-in-california-break-withgender-roles-to-get-degrees-careers/2012/06/10/gJQAXLZQSV_story.html
BBC
Rio: So much to do, so little time
Along with thousands of government delegates, activists, academics, business chiefs and other
journalists I'm making my way this week to Rio de Janeiro.
The event is the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, better known as Rio+20.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to make real progress
towards the sustainable economy of the future".
Other descriptions range from a "milestone opportunity" to cut poverty and protect the economy, an
agenda laden with "greenwash" and a "farce".
It promises to be a busy time for all, especially for government negotiators.
Their job this week is to knock the draft text into a near-finished state, so ministers can come in next
week, sign it off and head for the airport looking like they've accomplished something worthwhile.
Currently, the text is far from finished.
An extra negotiating session convened in New York that ended on 2 June has resulted in a document
that is only about 20% agreed; and many of the divisions that remain are anything but trivial, resulting
from fundamentally different views about how the world should be.
What makes things more complex is, as I've discussed before, the varied nature of the agenda, ranging
from high seas protection to universal access to clean energy to corporate sustainability reporting.
The text as it existed at the end of that New York session fell into my hands last week (The Guardian has
helpfully posted it).
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It's riddled with brackets and phrases such as "Iceland delete; Nigeria retain", indicating that minds are a
long way from meeting.
While many observers are concerned about the lack of progress, they're also concerned that the only
way for everybody to get out of Rio on schedule will be to agree something completely anodyne.
As Jim Leape, head of WWF, put it recently: "We are facing two likely scenarios - an agreement so weak
it is meaningless, or complete collapse. Neither of these options would give the world what it needs."
In terms of what various countries and blocs are pushing for and against, there are positions you
probably wouldn't find that surprising.
The phrase "US delete" leaps out at the reader, so consistently does it appear - often in company with
Canada - particularly on anything relating to "common but differentiated responsibilities", the phrase
that basically means rich and poor countries both have an interest in solving something but have
different roles to play.
The United States, of course, is concerned above all not to give anything to China.
But there are other US positions that ask broader questions. It doesn't want the text to endorse the 2C
target for climate change (in which it is backed by Russia) or the principle that countries have a right to
develop.
It is against the notion that each government must respect others' sovereign rights over their natural
resources, and against the idea of committing to free the world from poverty and hunger - only
"extreme" poverty and hunger should be included, it says.
The G77/China group of 131 developing countries wants financial support. It wants western
governments to re-commit to their target of giving at least 0.7% of their GDP in overseas aid - a promise
that few are fulfilling.
It is against clauses that recognise corruption as a block to human progress, and those that commit to
phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.
It doesn't want the UN to establish a unit that would argue for the rights of future generations, and is
blocking bits of text enshrining gender equality.
There's an almightily convoluted section of the text with more brackets than a home-made bookcase on
reforming how the UN deals with sustainable development, which would involve somehow modifying
the existing Commission on Sustainable Development.
And there are disagreements on the notion of sustainable development goals (SDGs).
The idea is for governments to agree in Rio on a process to draw up seven or eight goals that would
improve things such as access to food and water while protecting the environment.
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These would come into effect in 2015 when most of the existing Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
expire.
The problem is that there is already a process up and running to agree further MDGs. Development
agencies are deeply concerned that the core agenda of improving health and education, alleviating
poverty and increasing access to water and sanitation may suffer as a result of having the SDGs as well.
And what of the rich? As I discussed a few weeks ago, does it make any sense to commit to increasing
people's wealth and therefore consumption in poor societies without simultaneously working out how
to curb over-consumption in countries that already have enough to go round, given that what we
collectively consume has to come from the same single planet?
There's been talk of having something along these lines in the SDGs. But the phrase "US delete" stalks
the paragraph.
So; a lot to be done in just three days of preparatory talks towards an agreement that the UN says
should deliver The Future We Want.
I'll be doing my best to make sense of it for you.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18379777
The Times of India
It's women's rule in Gaya now
GAYA: With a woman DM, mayor and Zila Parishad chairman, it is women rule in Gaya district having a
population of more than three million bigger than several member countries of the United Nations in
size.
Election of Vibha Devi as Gaya mayor is another step in the direction of women empowerment. Nima
Kumari already holds the post of Zila Parishad chairman. That except for district magistrate Bandana
Preyasi, the other too have come to occupy the position following 50 % reservation granted by the
Nitish Kumar-led NDA government, is an altogether different story.
Hailing the arrival of women on the Gaya scene in a big way, Kusum Kumari, head of the department of
women studies, Magadh University, decried the tendency to underrate the adminstrative capacity of
women. "We must not forget the fact that the most powerful Prime Minister in the 65-year-long history
of Independent India ( Indira Gandhi) was a woman, who outplayed all her male peers in politics and
governance," she said. "Present DM Bandana Preyasi, is in full control and the manner in which she
peacefully conducted the panchayat elections last year and municipal elections recently under the most
trying circumstances speaks volumes of her administrative capacity," said Kusum. According to her, Zila
Parishad chief Nima Kumari has shown rare independence in decision making and asserted her rights in
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a very effective manner. About Vibha Devi, the newly-elected mayor she said, "The new mayor needed
time to learn the ropes and nothing much should be read in the proactive role played by her husband
Indra Deo Yadav, during the municipal corporation election campaign and the vote management
exercise."
That Yadav managed her election does not mean that Vibha, the youth Congress activist, who earlier
proved her mettle by getting elected (not nominated) as the general secretary of the Bihar Pradesh
Youth Congress (BPYC) can be taken for granted.
Old timers recall that former Gaya town MLA Sushila Sahay, the then home minster in Karpoori Thakur
government, resigned from her post after an unsavoury incident at the late Jayaprakash Narayan's
public meeting. Sahay's decision was fully personal and taken independently.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Its-womens-rule-in-Gayanow/articleshow/14010593.cms
The Wall Street Journal
Women in Finance Are Cold on Quotas
The majority of senior women in the financial-services sector believe governments shouldn't introduce
gender quotas for company boards, although there is a widespread belief that their gender makes it
harder for them to succeed, according to a survey.
Respondents to the survey by Financial News, a sister publication of the Wall Street Journal, are largely
against the introduction of mandatory gender quotas for boards, which only 36% favor. However, two
thirds of respondents said their gender made it harder for them to succeed and a similar proportion said
they felt they needed to work harder than male counterparts in order ...
SPANISH
EL MUNDO
620 mujeres maltratadas han tenido ayuda este año para cambiar de piso
Un total de 620 mujeres víctimas de malos tratos por parte de sus parejas o ex parejas han recibido
durante el primer trimestre de este año ayudas económicas para poder cambiar de piso, según datos del
Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad.
El ritmo de concesión de esas ayudas es similar al del pasado año, y al final de 2012 podría ser incluso
ligeramente superior al de las subvenciones que se entregaron en 2011 para ayudar a mujeres
maltratadas a cambiar de domicilio.
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Según los datos de un informe del Ministerio que dirige Ana Mato, el número de mujeres que han
obtenido estas ayudas ha crecido progresivamente desde que en el año 2005 se pusieron en marcha
este tipo de ayudas en el marco de un programa más amplio de medidas para combatir la violencia
machista.
El único año en el que disminuyó ese número fue en 2010, cuando se concedieron 1.853 ayudas a otras
tantas mujeres para cambiar de piso, frente a las 1.904 del año anterior.
Los datos reflejan que en el año 2005 se concedieron ayudas a 761 mujeres, y que ese número creció de
forma progresiva durante los cuatro años posteriores: 776 ayudas en 2006, 1.185 en 2007, 1.385 en
2008, y 1.904 ayudas en el año 2009.
El año en el que más ayudas se concedieron fue 2011, cuando un total de 2.276 mujeres recibieron esa
prestación para cambiar de domicilio.
Condiciones
Las ayudas a las mujeres que son víctimas de violencia machista para cambiar de piso están previstas en
un decreto aprobado en el año 2006, y entre los requisitos para su concesión figuran que la propia
Administración debe acreditar que la mujer ha sido víctima de ese tipo de violencia y que ésta no
conviva en el momento de pedir la ayuda con el presunto agresor.
Las mujeres no pueden tampoco percibir otro tipo de prestaciones como las de desempleo, y sus rentas
no deben en todo caso ser superiores al 75% del Salario Mínimo Interprofesional.
Entre los condicionantes que determinan su concesión figuran además tener la custodia, la tutela o el
cuidado de niños menores de edad, y deben además acreditar que se han visto obligadas a cambiar de
domicilio en los doce meses anteriores a la solicitud de este tipo de ayuda.
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/06/10/espana/1339334007.html
El País
“Cuantas más mujeres estén en el Ejército, habrá más posibilidades de paz”
“Cuantas más mujeres estén en el Ejército, habrá más posibilidades de paz”. La frase, con la que la
subsecretaria de Estado para la Defensa, Irene Domínguez-Alcahud, ha inaugurado esta mañana el I
Curso internacional de Asesoría de Género en Operaciones, no alude a cuestiones de igualdad ni de
cuotas en cuanto a la presencia de hombres y mujeres en las Fuerzas Armadas. Son necesarias para la
“eficacia de las operaciones”. “¿De qué otra forma se podría entablar contacto, por ejemplo, con las
mujeres afganas si no fuera a través de mujeres militares?”, se preguntan en el Ministerio de Defensa.
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La perspectiva de género “en el planeamiento, ejecución y desarrollo de las operaciones” aporta un
valor añadido, sostiene Fernando Izquierdo, jefe de la Unidad Internacional del Observatorio de Género.
“Por un lado, integramos a la mujer local en el proceso de reconstrucción, y por otro, conectar con las
mujeres locales a través de nuestras mujeres militares muchas veces proporciona mayor seguridad
porque tenemos información que de otra manera no se podría tener”, explica Izquierdo.
Algunas prácticas que ya se han puesto en marcha lo demuestran. El Equipo de Reconstrucción
Provincial de Canadá en Kandahar (Afganistán) se valió de mujeres militares para establecer contactos
con una mujer afgana que visitaba la base de la OTAN para vender bisutería y productos locales. A partir
de ese contacto, se establecieron “reuniones secretas periódicas con mujeres afganas, en las que
expresaban sus preocupaciones”, aseguran fuentes de Defensa. Las reuniones sirvieron para integrar a
las mujeres en los foros de decisión con civiles locales, al tiempo que ellas facilitaron información sobre
localizaciones de artefactos y explosivos y sobre líderes talibanes locales. Según el ministerio que
dirige Pedro Morenés, “esta información evitó atentados y contribuyó a la seguridad de la misión”.
“De momento, estas iniciativas se hacen motu proprio, pero con el curso queremos capacitar a los
equipos para que aporten una perspectiva de género a las misiones y tengan en cuenta el número de
mujeres que se necesitan para formar el contingente”, aclara Izquierdo.
La capacitación en asesoría de género a civiles es una exigencia de una directiva de la OTAN, de
septiembre de 2009, en relación a la implementación de la resolución 1325/2000 del Consejo de
Seguridad de Naciones Unidas sobre mujeres, paz y seguridad. El curso que se celebra durante esta
semana en España es una iniciativa bilateral junto con Holanda acreditada por el Colegio Europeo de
Seguridad y Defensa.
En España, las misiones en el exterior cuentan con un 7% de mujeres, mientras que en el ejército su
presencia supone el 12% del total. “No hemos hecho estudios precisos, pero para que luego puedan
formar parte de los equipos y no tengan que hacer más rotaciones que los hombres se necesitan más
[mujeres]”, afirma Fernando Izquierdo, aunque asegura que, por el momento, el Ministerio de Defensa
no hará campañas de captación específicas.
http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2012/06/11/actualidad/1339419166_778352.html
PORTUGUESE
Terra Brasil
Abortos seletivos acentuam disparidade de gêneros na Índia
Bahrana seria uma pacata e pequena cidade, como tantas no norte da Índia, se não fosse pela
disparidade de gêneros mais grave do país: segundo o último censo, apenas 27% dos recém-nascidos
são meninas.
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Na Índia, atualmente, nascem somente 917 meninas para cada mil meninos, e especialistas afirmam que
o desequilíbrio se deve à prática ilegal de abortos seletivos, mas também a questões de planejamento
familiar e até a teorias raciais de base científica duvidosa.
Na região de Haryana, vizinha a Nova Délhi e onde está Bahrana, ainda predomina uma sociedade
profundamente patriarcal com destacada predileção pelos meninos - que perpetuam a linhagem,
cuidam dos pais na velhice e garantem sua renda.
Assim, pouco surpreendeu o fato de que o distrito de Jhajjar, povoado agrícola no mesmo estado, tenha
aparecido em um dos últimos lugares no ranking do país quando saíram os dados do censo mais recente
(2011), com uma proporção de 774 meninas nascidas para cada mil meninos.
Em Bahrana, a situação é ainda pior: com 378 meninas nascidas para cada mil homens, não há lugar
onde o perigo do desequilíbrio entre os sexos seja mais iminente, chegando ao ponto de os homens
começarem a "importar" mulheres em idade de se casar.
As meninas vêm de outras regiões indianas, como Manipur ou Kerala - onde há maior equilíbrio entre os
sexos, porém uma situação econômica pior -, e chegam a esses povos sem conhecer seus futuros
maridos nem as famílias com as quais conviverão.
"É preciso repetir esse censo", disse à agência EFE Subhash Malik, diretor do Instituto Indiano de
Estudos Avançados, edifício com um grande pátio e salas de aula escuras para aliviar o calor de maio.
Na escola, apenas o curso pré-universitário é misto, e é surpreendente constatar que há 25 meninas e
somente 10 meninos, até que o diretor esclarece: "as famílias enviam seus filhos homens à escola
particular, mas não querem investir na educação delas".
"Pensa-se que as meninas só têm responsabilidades. É preciso casá-las e pagar um dote, irão viver com o
marido. O filho aumenta o status social", afirmou Malik.
Como em outras sociedades, em Haryana a concepção da família leva os casais à ambição de ter filhos
homens, mas apenas se o sexo do primogênito for feminino, eles tentam ter o segundo para seguir a
tradição.
A mentalidade patriarcal atribui, além disso, o nascimento de meninos a uma "vantagem genética" do
pai: "se sua dieta é boa e você não é de família pobre, é provável que seu gene Y seja mais forte que o
X", contou à EFE o cirurgião chefe do distrito, Bhaskar Singh.
O médico reconhece que, paralelamente às questões de planejamento familiar, os abortos seletivos têm
peso nos desequilíbrios, qualificados no ano passado pelo primeiro-ministro da Índia, Manmohan Singh,
como uma "vergonha nacional".
Segundo um estudo do Centro Canadense de Pesquisa Global para a Saúde, nas últimas três décadas
ocorreram no país 12 milhões de abortos seletivos de fetos do sexo feminino, metade deles nos últimos
10 anos. Embora a legislação do país proíba os médicos de revelar o sexo dos bebês aos pais, a fim de
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evitar abortos seletivos, o problema se agravou neste milênio, com a difusão das técnicas para conhecer
de antemão o gênero.
"Para saber o sexo do feto basta fazer a ultrassonografia em um furgão", disse à EFE o chefe da
administração de Jhajjar, Ajit Joshi. "É comum que a grávida vá com seus pais, e é difícil saber se
praticará depois um aborto seletivo", acrescentou.
Segundo Joshi, que implementou um novo sistema de monitoração das ecografias por vídeo, em Jhajjar
há cerca de 23 mil nascimentos anuais, mas faltam dados de entre 1 mil e 1.200 de grávidas que
provavelmente "teriam abortado". "Nossa sociedade considera as meninas uma carga", conclui o
funcionário, que estima que levará pelo menos "15 anos" para mudar os índices atuais de seu distrito.
O diretor do instituto de Barhana permite o testemunho de uma aluna, Rachna Ahlawat, de 16 anos,
que deseja estudar história ou ciências políticas em uma cidade próxima. "Não acho - conta - que haja
menos meninas que meninos. Mas sim, há uma mentalidade estreita. Não querem enviar as meninas
para estudar fora porque acham que iremos mal".
http://noticias.terra.com.br/mundo/noticias/0,,OI5828715-EI8143,00Abortos+seletivos+acentuam+disparidade+de+generos+na+India.html