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Torches of freedom sketch

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Strange coincidence

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Every woman should have the freedom to make her own choices and claim her rights. Yet, women and girls are still denied them in every region of the world, just because they are women. Women’s movements have the power to change this. And we all can be part of the change, it’s easier than you might think!  Here are eight different ways you can help us support women’s movements across the globe and ensure the rights of all women are respected, valued and realised.

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Let's remove the "ideal life" expectations

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Despite the fact that women are allowed to vote, apply for jobs, and to be single mothers these days, society still didn't manage to get over the "perfect image" expectations. A single woman over 30 is still harassed as she "has to" marry and have a family, children, otherwise how she would be happy? Why is wrong for a woman to speak straightforwardly and not cute and nice all the time? If a woman wants to have a divorce she'd be treated like she's making a mistake unless it's not something more serious and urgent like domestic violence and abuse. But why it has to be only something very dramatic to allow a woman to be happy? Why the value of a woman is still better if she cooks and keeps the house clean all the time? Why is a woman "better" if she wears make-up and fashionable clothes? I am not saying that this image is something bad, but it shouldn't be a demand. It should be a choice, not something to do because she feels pressured, or ugly or not worthy if she chooses otherwise.
There are cases where the family might expect the same from a man and is in the same way as bad. But it's a big difference in the number of people that have these expectations from a man, comparing to a woman.
Let's normalize making compliments to women when they don't wear make-up or special outfits. Let's normalize not judging a woman that is single, or if she doesn't want the "perfect" relationship she might have. There are different things that make us happy, we can't expect others to have the same idea of happiness as we do. So before making a comment on a women's life when it seems is not "perfect", remember it's her right to be happy in the way she wants.

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The impact of restricting access to safe abortions

Around the world, many countries restrict access to safe, legal, affordable abortion, putting thousands of women's lives at risk.Recent studies estimate that 8-18% of maternal deaths worldwide are due to unsafe abortion, and the number of abortion-related deaths in 2014 ranged from 22,500 to 44,000. 1

Most of these deaths occur in developing countries, with the highest number in Africa. Allowing women and girls access to information about their sexual and reproductive health and rights, including modern contraception and safe abortion, would prevent unplanned pregancies, STIs, and would save the lives of some of the poorest, most marginalised women and girls.

It would also have a positive impact on gender equality more broadly, including women's economic rights. While there continues to be strong opposition to sexual and reproductive health and rights in many parts of the world, this poses a threat to women's health and lives.

The connection between domestic violence and sexual and reproductive health and rights

One in three women globally will face violence in their lifetime. Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is intrinsically linked to the denial of access to sexual and reproductive health and rights - meaning that many women do not have control over their body and their fertility.

Domestic violence is the most common form of violence against women. It manifests itself in physical, sexual or emotional abuse as well as controlling behaviours by a current or former partner. This has a profound affect on women's abilities to prevent unwanted pregnancies and puts them at increased risk of sexually transmitted infections.

Attempting to address sexual and reproductive health and rights without addressing violence against women will deny millions of women the right to full control of their bodies and lives. The links between them and the gender inequality at their root must be recognised. If it is not, progress on sexual and reproductive health and rights - including family planning - will be slow, unsustainable and will leave women and girls who experience violence behind.

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Sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls

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Sexual and reproductive health and rights means all women and girls have the right to make informed choices around sexuality, pregnancy, family planning, safe abortion, and have access to accurate information around sexual health, including sexually transmitted infections (STIs), HIV and AIDS.

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How to solve the issues of Womens Sexual and Reproductive Rights

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How to solve the issues of Womens Sexual and Reproductive Rights

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- Make Abortion Legal in all countries (so there are no more backstreet abortions putting womens lives at further risk)
- Making it law that women can only be married by choice and after the age of 18
- Making contraception and reproductive health services accesible to women in every countries ( both normal and less economically developed countries)
- Laws need to be set in place to prevent women being forced into any decision about their own body
- Laws allowing women to make medical decsions about their reproductive health without consent of their husband (if a man can get a vasectomy without the prior permission of his wife then why cannot a women get her tubes tied without the prior permission of her husband)
- Laws protecting women in all countries from genital mutilation

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ueensland dance instructor Sue knew she wanted to be child free from the age of 15. It's a decision she has never regretted. At 24, she saw a gynaecologist and requested tubal ligation for the first time, having had unwelcome side-effects from hormonal contraception. Her experience made her reluctant to ever see a medical professional again.

"He refused to even entertain the idea, treated me very condescendingly, and then insisted on administering an internal examination I didn't need," says Sue, not her real name. "I now recognise that the combination of his disrespect for me with violation for which I wasn't prepared has caused me lasting trauma."

An article published in April in the Journal of Medical Law by lawyer Joshua Taylor described how Australian women may desire access to procedures such as tubal ligation and hysterectomy "for family planning purposes; medical concerns, such as alleviating pain; or for comfort reasons, such as no longer wanting to menstruate".

"Women are routinely denied access to these procedures on the basis of their age, especially when they have yet to bear children," he wrote. "This decision is largely defended on the grounds that women will come to regret such decisions." But he argued that "such decisions are generally unethical and may constitute discrimination under Australian laws".

Concern that people may regret permanent procedures like vasectomy or tubal ligation and change their mind about having children is a reason some medical professionals are reluctant to perform them, especially on younger people. But a study published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology found "most couples who choose sterilisation ... are satisfied with their decision and do not experience regret".

At age 25, Sue fell pregnant, and had a termination. It took more than a decade of trying different forms of contraception, including the IUD which caused her side-effects, before she was finally granted a tubal ligation at the age of 37.

"It wasn't until they were about to anaesthetise me that one of the medical team said, 'How many children do you have Sue?' and when I said 'none,' there was this complete pause in the whole room.

"It never occurred to me that people would see this as problematic for a 37-year-old woman who'd never wanted children. An otherwise very progressive friend expressed at length how appalled she was with my decision. I learned right away not to share it with people."

Sue says her life is full enough without children. "All my career I've been a teacher and a mentor," she says. "I've lectured in university, I now run a ballroom dance studio and it's all about developing people's confidence. I looked at parenthood and I thought, 'Well I can have that. Or I can have everything else'."

If a 23-year-old is adamant that they don't want children and they've never wanted children, it is very, very difficult to access tubal ligation services

Sharon Stokell

She says people still struggle to speak openly about choosing to be child-free and their reasons for it. But she believes as more people have been forced to put their lives on pause during the pandemic, they will have time to think about the future, what they want, and whether children are a part of that. She hopes for those that choose not to, the process of choosing their contraception of choice, whether vasectomy, long-acting reversible contraceptives (Larc), or tubal ligation, will be easier than it was for her.

"If you're old enough to make the decision to have children, then surely you're old enough to be permitted to make the decision not to," she says.

"I don't understand why it's such a scandalous thing. People have to think much more about being sterilised than they think about having children, I mean people can fall pregnant by accident for God's sake. But you can't have a medical procedure by accident, there's a lot of hoop jumping you have to go through, and I find it absurd that a more permanent choice can still be so frowned upon."

Sue is just one of many women who have been refused access to permanent sterilisation procedures such as hysterectomy, or tubal ligation, where the fallopian tubes are cut, tied or blocked to permanently prevent pregnancy. Larcs, which include intrauterine devices and Implanon, and can provide protection against pregnancy for years, are giving women more options, especially those denied permanent procedures. But it is only in recent years that information about Larcs has become more widespread in Australia.

In 2017, the Royal Australasian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said low uptake of Larcs "may be related to Australia's prevailing cultural norm of oral contraception, and practitioner and patient misperceptions of the safety and efficacy of Larc, which have been dispelled in recent years". The World Health Organization now recommends Larcs as a first-line contraception method for young women.

The business manager for clinical services and operations for Queensland family planning provider True Relationships & Reproductive Health, Sharon Stokell, says Larc use is on the rise.

"Especially for young people, and if a 23-year-old is adamant that they don't want children and they've never wanted children, it is very, very difficult to access tubal ligation services," Stokell says. "So certainly I think there's a particular population who are using Larc instead of having that tubal ligation, for example because they just can't get it. There's no one that will provide it."

Attitudes towards having children and reproductive health are also changing because of the Covid-19 pandemic and recession, she adds. And it's not just women; inquiries into vasectomies have also increased, especially in 2020.

"Covid in particular has seen an increase in the amount of people that have been ringing about vasectomy," Stokell says.

"The interest has been particularly strong this year."

Stokell says there are a few reasons for that, one of them being that the pandemic and other pressing issues such as climate change have made people reluctant to have more children, or to have any children at all, so they are seeking out a more permanent contraceptive option. It has also given people time to think about their health and their future, she says.

"For some people it's a fear, the pandemic has brought about a lot of fear for people around life.".

Dr Philip Goldstone, the medical director of national family planning organisation Marie Stopes Australia, agreed that "the increasing awareness and availability of highly effective Long Acting Reversible Contraceptive methods has contributed to the steady decline in demand for tubal ligation".

"Provision of Larc methods is simple, with some methods lasting 10 years, with effectiveness equal to that of tubal ligation," Goldstone says.

A spokeswoman for Marie Stopes says decision making around planning for pregnancy seems to be changing, alongside broader life plans, "due to the pandemic and recession".

"Some people with planned pregnancies have decided to access abortion due to unforeseen financial insecurity and other emerging stressors. Some people want to change to more efficient methods of contraception, knowing that abortion access could be difficult."

She says in counselling sessions, staff were increasingly hearing from people choosing not to parent, "and particularly young women who choose to be child-free".

"Their reasons are diverse and deeply personal," she says. "The hashtag #ChildFree is increasingly used in online conversations among some communities as a political term to decide not to parent."

Marie Stopes Australia managing director, Jamal Hakim, says: "Every person has the right to bodily autonomy.

"Access to tubal ligation and vasectomy services as permanent forms of contraception form part of the options available," he says. "This however does not always translate in practice with system barriers, particularly for people who are choosing to be child free."

Anecdotally, there are still barriers when it comes to choice, she says. In the public system, there can be inflexible restrictions, such as age or number of children. In many health and hospital regions, it can take a great deal of referrals and time to seek a tubal ligation consultation, after which some patients are denied their choice.

In May 2019, Marie Stopes Australia ran a social media campaign requesting that those who had faced difficulty accessing tubal ligation send a private message to discuss their experiences. Women reported having tried alternative contraceptive methods which caused side-effects. Some had numerous unplanned and unwanted pregnancies as a result of method failure, or the inability to find a suitable contraceptive method.

"Those who choose to continue with an unplanned pregnancy have an increased risk of delayed initiation of prenatal care, low birth weight, reduced rates of breastfeeding, developmental delays and increased rates of infant mortality," a Marie Stopes spokeswoman said. "Therefore, it is important that all people have access to the contraceptive methods that suit their needs."

Anna is another woman who doesn't want children and has chosen permanent sterilisation. She says she and her husband have still not told some members of her husband's family that they are child free by choice, or that she underwent the medical procedure.

Despite she and her husband using contraception, Anna fell pregnant twice before undergoing tubal ligation, and got an abortion each time.

"We had had our contraception fail twice," she says. "I didn't feel confident that anything other than something permanent would offer me safety. I think I'm quite aware of the impact a child has on your lifestyle, on your body and on your sleep habits. And both my husband and I had periods in our life where we've suffered depression, and I'm prone to anxiety and I just would imagine that adding a small child and sleep deprivation to the mix would make that so much worse."

Anna says she hopes there comes a time where she and her husband can speak more openly about their child free choice with members of her husband's family.

"I think we should talk about it as a society more," she says.

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'Why is it such a scandalous thing?': the women who have to fight for their right to be child-free

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ueensland dance instructor Sue knew she wanted to be child free from the age of 15. It's a decision she has never regretted. At 24, she saw a gynaecologist and requested tubal ligation for the first time, having had unwelcome side-effects from hormonal contraception. Her experience made her reluctant to ever see a medical professional again.

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If you defend human rights, you defend women’s’ rights.

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Across the globe, many women and girls still face discrimination because of their sex and gender.

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- 1 in 3 woman has been sexually harassed at work.
- On average, woman around the world spend twice as many hours as man doing unpaid work.
- 113 countries do not have laws to ensure equal pay for equal work among man and woman
- 104 countries makes certain jobs off-limits to woman.
- 39 countries have laws that mean daughter cannot inherit the same proportion of assets as a son
- 36 countries limit that wives can inherit from their husbands.
- 29 countries restrict how many hours woman can work.
- 18 countries allow man prohibit their wives from working.
- 17 countries limit when and where woman can travel outside the home

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How to help a women who is suffering in domestic abuse & violence situation

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How to help a women who is suffering in domestic abuse & violence situation

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- Listen and make her know she is not alone and it isnt her fault
- Tell her how strong she is and make sure that she understands she is strong, because she is speaking about her experience
- Acknowledge that it is okay for her to be scared and reasure her that she is going to be ok
- do not push her for details allow her to speak only with what she is comfortable
- help report the abuse/asault if she chooses
- encourage her to seek medical treatment for the abuse but support her decision if she chooses not to
- Support her with the proccess and provde her information on groups and charities that can help
- help her plan strategies to keep her safe ( if she chooses)
- offer her your phone number for emergencies

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13 Ways States Can Protect and Advance Women's Health and Rights - Center for American Progress

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Download the PDF here. However, with the results of November's midterm elections and with key changes in governors' mansions and state legislative chambers-in addition to changes at the federal level-states now have the opportunity to challenge these regressive policies and champion forward movement in women's health and rights.

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Gender inequality can include:
> gender based violence
> sexual violence and harassment
> work place discrimination
> women's rights and international law

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https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/discrimination/womens

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-Create spaces to teach them how to manage to live on their own, which are their rights, how to write and read on is the case, and so on
-Build up places for them to live, until they find a stable job, offering therapy and consulting
-Organise groups for different activities to create a safe community of support

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during the 19th and early 20th century people began to agitate for the right for women to vote, with New Zealand being the first to do this it became a world wide movement bringing into light movements such as the suffragettes. Today, women's suffrage is right under the convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
however in other countries there are still many problems with regards to exercising these issues and getting them across to be resolved.

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There are still some people that believe that we don’t need feminism today, but nothing could be further from reality. Women have fought for equality and against society’s oppression for years. Even though some battles have been won (not everywhere), like the right to vote and access to education, women are still today affected by different types of violence and discrimination taking various shaped and forms.

Problems commonly associated with women’s rights include things such as the right to bodily integrity, the right to vote, equal rights for work, to fair wages, to own property and to be free from sexual violence.

Can we solve these issues ?

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10 WAYS TO PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY IN DAILY LIFE

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10 WAYS TO PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY IN DAILY LIFE

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1. Share household chores and childcare equally.
2. Watch for signs of domestic violence.
3. Support mothers and parents (with maternity leave and pay).
4. Rejects sexists and racist attitudes.
5. Help woman gain power and independence.
6. Listen and reflect. (stop gender stereotypes)
7. Hire diversity.
8. Pay (and demand) the same salary for equal work.
9. Sexual harassment and racism: zero tolerence
10. Provide (and request) anti-bias training.