The Status of Women

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Dana E. Jones, editor of Response, remembers being labeled a tomboy. She recalls playing in a girls softball league that folded when no parents wanted to coach girls and being banned from recess kickball because it was a boy's game.

Messages about women's roles in society came early in her life and they were painful. Yet she remembers when things started to change and she was asked as a reporter to cover the state's Title IX hearings.

"As coaches of the women's teams shared stories of women athletes stretching pennies to buy their own basketball shoes and stretching limbs to squeeze into privately owned cars to drive to games in distant states, the university's athletic director insisted funding women's athletics would bankrupt the men's program," Ms. Jones writes. "It was in-you-face sexism."

Today, you see girls soccer teams practicing in parks and things have changed somewhat. But blatant sexism has been replaced with glass ceilings and gender bias. Feminists are stereotyped as radical. And society is fed constant diets of thin sexy images of women.

This issue of Response looks at the status of women, celebrates the gains of women, and seeks to name ongoing and new obstacles that women face.

Bible Study: When Women Take the Bible Seriously
by J. Ann Craig

This Bible study looks at the scripture from Luke 4, where Jesus reads from the prophet Isaiah and claims the authority of the scripture to describe himself. Jesus "read himself into" the scripture. Women from all over the world have been following Jesus' steps and have begun to understand themselves as a focus of scripture. It's been liberating to women, criticized by others, and oppressed by some.

Women of the World Speak Up
by Joan Ross Frankson

Globalization hits women hard, because they work in formal and information sectors, as market vendors and small entrepreneurs, as food produces, as family caregivers and as community activists. They are 70% of the world's poor. This articles looks at an international coalition of women's groups, including the Women's Group, who are call for measures that will change this.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
by Brenda L. Webber

Touted successes of U.S. women have been met with assaults that have demeaned feminism and blamed it for such things as stress disorders among career women and slippage in the economic status of women in lower-paying jobs. This article looks at the attacks, the feelings of young women about feminism, and the status of women internationally.

Working for Women's Dignity in the Middle East
by Maha Milke Wehbe

An undesignated giving-supported project, the Women's Program of the Middle East Council of churches works to develop solidarity among women across faiths. Women in these nations face impoverishment, religion-controlled civil society, and traditions and cultures that devalue women. This article is about the differing issues in various countries and the goals of the organization.

Women in Ministry in the United Methodist Church
by Darlene Slack

After centuries of excluding women from traditionally male roles, The United Methodist Church has begun to open doors. The 2000 General Conference stated that the church has made "notable progress" but there are still many areas for improvement and action. This articles looks at the statistics, stories, and areas that the denomination needs to act.

Filipina Women Leaving Home to Survive
by Dana Jones

Unemployment, poverty and landlessness drive close to 200,000 Filipina women each year to sign two-year contracts as domestic workers in Hong Kong. This article is about the women who leave everything that is familiar to face loneliness, physical and sexual abuse, and harassment from employers and the UMW-supported organization that is working to help them.

Disasters and Women: A View from Central America
by Lyda Pierce

Women are often given permission by the dominant culture to share feelings among themselves. And even though men often laugh at them for being emotional creatures, the irony is that this characteristic can make them healthier. This article looks at the UMW-supported networks women around Central America have formed, how it has prepared them for disasters, and how they have emerged as leaders in times of crisis.

Rebuilding After War
by A. Victoria Hunter

For Liberian Weayonnoh Juliet Nelson, a college student in Rhode Island, the impact of war is all too real. She's lived the violence of war and participated in the recovery processes. This is her story.

Celebrating Ghana's First Woman Chief
by Kelly C. Martini

An encounter with a refugee boy affected the life of Nana Osei Boakye Yiadom II. She's made it her commitment to tell the real stories of those, like the boy, affected by war. And because of her wisdom, she was elected Ghana's first woman chief. From this leadership role, she has stopped a war and the suffering she had so often witnessed.

Reproductive Rights: Uneven Progress
by Marjorie Signer

Reproductive rights-- including safe childbirth and access to family planning and contraception -- have increasingly been seen as a basic human right, grounded in dignity and equality, and fundamental to health. This article looks at the tragic consequences when there are no reproductive rights, the trends of society and government in regards to this, and the United Methodist position.

Growing Up Female in a Media World
by Elizabeth Thoman and Dale Ann Stieber

We live in a society saturated with advertising messages that shape values, needs, and identities. They can prove complicated for today's girls and women as we are exposed to more than 2000 ads a day, 60 channels of TV, and a variety of other media exposure. So what are the images fed to us? How are women portrayed? And how to we combat this with positive values? This article seeks answers.

Empowering Women Over the Airwaves
by Gabriela Public Information

This article looks at the UMW-supported program, GABRIELA, which is a national alliance of women's organizations in the Philipines. With a one-hour radio program, "You're Okay, Sister," this alliance is reaching women from urban poor communities, the lower middle class, and the peasantry to entertain and educate on the health, environment, economic and political issues.

Confronting Violence Against Women
by Mary Kalyna

A Kurdish woman in Turkey who is arrested at a political rally then raped by police. A battered woman in Uganda. A Philadelphia woman who is sexually assaulted in front of her children then arrested for disorderly conduct. There are a variety of stories about violence against women. This article exposes the stories, vulnerability, and how to organize against it.

Rape as a War Crime
by Kay Fraleigh

This article looks at the recognition of rape as a war crime, the traumas of women, and the quest to stop it.

The Status of Women

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