Women’s rights in the 2000s

Refers to the privileges, entitlements, rights, and protections afforded to women. Also refers to the global movement to equalize political and social treatment between men and women

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, efforts to address women’s rights generally focused on closely related issues including reproductive rights, abortion and family planning, the right to protection from sexual violence, and workplace discrimination and equality. Women’s rights have been among the most important human rights issues of the modern era, as many women still face significant social and political inequities.

Reproductive Rights

Reproductive rights include the social and legal rights surrounding reproduction, as well as access to reproductive health care information and services. Controversial facets of this issue include the debate over abortion and birth control. Abortion is the most widely contested issue within the reproductive rights sphere, as a significant percentage of the global population opposes abortion on religious/spiritual or moral grounds.

As of 2012, fifty countries including the United States allow abortions “on demand,” meaning at the woman’s request, while the vast majority of countries require certain circumstances, such as a threat to the woman’s life or pregnancy resulting from rape or sexual abuse. Thirty-five countries ban abortions entirely, mostly for religious or moral reasons.

During the 2000s the abortion policy of the United States was based on the landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, settled in 1973. The ruling can be summarized in four key principles: 1) women have a constitutional right to have an abortion; 2) federal and state laws cannot force women to make a choice for or against an abortion; 3) abortion before the fetus is viable can only be prohibited to protect the health of the mother; 4) the government may prohibit abortion after the fetus is viable, but must make exceptions to protect a woman’s health.

The abortion debate in the United States has been one of the central issues of the twenty-first century and a polarizing force in politics. According to a 2011 Gallup Poll, over 70 percent of Americans believe that abortion should remain legal in some circumstances, while 22 percent favor a general ban. A slight majority of respondents described themselves as “pro-life” rather than “pro-choice.”

In the 2000 case of Stenberg v. Carhart, the Supreme Court struck down a Nebraska law banning “partial birth abortions,” otherwise known as “intact dilation and extraction.” The court found that the Nebraska ruling placed an “undue burden” on a woman’s choice, and objected to the fact that the law did not include any exceptions to protect a woman’s health. Intact dilation and extraction became a central issue of the debate, though it accounts for less than 1 percent of abortions performed worldwide. Opponents of a ban on the procedure contested that pro-life activists were using the issue to introduce subtle legislation that would eventually place further restrictions on all forms of abortion.

In 2003, the Bush administration passed a federal ban on intact dilation and extraction, despite the Supreme Court’s decision in 2000. The law was challenged in the courts and upheld by the Supreme Court in the 2007 case of Gonzalez v. Carhart. The 2003 ban was the first federal restriction on abortion passed since Roe v. Wade. It was opposed by a number of women’s rights organizations, such as Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the National Organization for Women (NOW). The 2007 Supreme Court ruling essentially overturned its 2000 ruling on the same issue.

Further debate during the decade considered the issue of funding for clinics and health care centers that provide either abortions or information about abortion options. In 2001, the Bush administration’s Mexico City Policy outlawed federal funding for any health care organization providing abortions or “promoting” abortion services. The legislation was first introduced under Ronald Reagan and officially reinstated under George W. Bush, after having been reversed during the Clinton administration of the 1990s. In 2009, the Obama administration reversed the Mexico City Policy again.

In 2004, the Bush administration passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which allows courts to prosecute individuals for killing or damaging a fetus during a violent crime against a pregnant woman. Opponents of the act argued that according to Roe v. Wade, a fetus is not considered a person. Opponents also accused the Bush administration of attempting to further legislation that could be used to place future restrictions on abortion rights.

While the early Bush administration restricted abortion rights in the United States, abortion rights expanded globally in several key areas. In 2005, the government of Ethiopia legalized abortions for the first time in the country’s history—for cases of rape, sexual abuse, and fetal impairment. The governments of Portugal, Mexico, and Australia passed legislation granting abortion rights to women during the early stages of pregnancy. Also during the decade, Mexico, Colombia, and Nepal passed legislation requiring state funding for abortion services.

Contraception funding and availability is another controversial facet of reproductive rights. Some organizations that are morally opposed to contraception contest the use of federal/government funding to promote or provide contraception. Under the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, amended in 2012, insurance providers became required to fund contraceptive coverage in the United States, though this act has faced opposition from groups that oppose contraception on moral or religious grounds.

According to United Nations and World Health Organization data, the number of abortions worldwide has declined as contraceptive use has increased. Between 2005 and 2007, the percentage of women using contraceptives around the world rose from 54 to 63 percent. In Africa, contraceptive use rose from 17 to 28 percent, while in Central America and the Caribbean, the rate rose from 62 to 72 percent. Since the 2000s, contraceptive education and availability have remained major issues in the United States and around the world.

Violence against Women

Another major facet of women’s rights is violence against women, including various types of rape, sexual abuse, molestation, domestic violence, and spousal abuse. While violence against women is legally prohibited in many countries, women’s rights organizations still work to address legal and social inequities and to strengthen and amend legislation believed to be discriminatory against women seeking aid or protection.

During the 1990s, several key legislative measures were introduced to specifically address the issue, including the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994, which dedicated $1.5 billion to investigate and prosecute cases involving violent crimes against women. The VAWA was renewed in 2000 and 2005, with additional provisions adopted at each stage. Opponents of the act targeted a provision allowing women to sue their assailants in federal courts. This opposition resulted in the 2000 Supreme Court case of United States v. Morrison, in which the court ruled 5–4 that this provision violated states’ rights and that the states had the right to oversee civil cases of this nature.

According to 2010 data from the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), violence against women varies widely depending on geographic location. Sociological factors play a major role, as violence against women is more common in patriarchal societies and in impoverished areas.

Throughout the 2000s, Zambia had one of the highest rates of violence against women, with almost 60 percent of women reporting an incident of violence or rape during their lifetime. In Australia, Mozambique, and the Czech Republic, the rate is between 48 and 52 percent. By contrast, Chinese women in Hong Kong reported among the lowest rates in the world, approximately 11 to 12 percent. In Zambia, Peru, and Ethiopia, nearly 50 percent of women were abused by a sexual partner or spouse, while other countries, notably China, had rates as low as 7 percent.

The United States is at the lower end of international trends regarding violence against women, but experienced a significant rise in rates of domestic violence and rape during the 2000s, with nearly 20 percent of women reporting one or more instances. According to research by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in 2010, more than 22 million women in the United States have been raped at least once, more than 60 percent of which involved a former sexual partner or spouse. These statistics may be conservative, however, as Department of Justice reports released in 1998 estimate that less than half of domestic violence incidents are reported, while the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that only between 20 to 30 percent of rapes are reported in the United States.

Employment and Educational Achievement

Another significant issue in women’s rights is the equalization of employment opportunities and compensation for women compared to men in similar occupations. In most countries, women are statistically more likely to be unemployed or to spend more time engaged in domestic activities and/or child rearing. Women in many countries, including the United States, face employment discrimination and are typically paid significantly less.

According to the 2011 survey Women in America, a joint project of the Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Division and the Executive Office of the President, women have made significant gains in educational attainment. Approximately 87 percent of women graduate from high school, compared to approximately 59 percent of men. In 2009, about 29 percent of both women and men had obtained a college degree, marking a significant increase for women during the 2000s.

Women have also made significant gains in obtaining compensation commensurate with men in similar occupations. In 1979, women earned roughly 62 percent of the average salary of a man in the same position, whereas in 2009, this had increased to 80 percent. The number of women holding full-time employment did not increase during the 2000s, remaining at about 61 percent, which was roughly the same as the late 1990s.

Internationally, the percentage of women in the workplace remained close to 52 percent during the decade. In terms of educational attainment, women lagged significantly behind men in terms of both basic and secondary education. For instance, in terms of literacy, more than two-thirds of the world’s illiterate population were women in 2009. Overall, rates of educational attainment showed slight gains around the world, as did participation in the workforce.

Impact

During the 2000s, women’s rights issues remained controversial and contentious internationally, especially with regard to reproductive rights. In 2010, the debate over the legality and morality of abortion was a central issue around the world. In the United States, abortion debates played a major role in political developments and were the cause of numerous violent episodes, especially violence against physicians involved in performing abortions, perpetrated by radical anti-abortion activists.

While violence against women, educational rights, and inequities in employment were also major issues facing the world’s female population in the first decade of the twenty-first century, none of these issues received as much political and media coverage as the debate over abortion. The decade from 2000 to 2010 saw significant increases in domestic violence and rape in the United States, while violence against women overall decreased globally. The 2000s also saw an unprecedented involvement of women in politics, the broader implications of which may not be fully realized for some time, as the political and social changes initiated by female leaders take hold in global society.

Bibliography

Black, M.C., et al. “The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010 Summary Report”. Division of Violence Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011. Web. 14 Aug. 2012. This CDC study discusses instances of rape and violence in the United States, with 2010 statistics reported for rape and sexual violence.

“Crime in the United States.” Federal Bureau of Investigation. US Department of Justice, 2012. Web. 14 Aug. 2012. Database of statistics, collected by US state and federal crime prevention and control organizations. Provides estimates of crime, divided by year, type of crime, and other characteristics.

Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The World’s Women 2010: Trends and Statistics. New York: United Nations, 2010. E-book. Annual report produced by the United Nations, based on global statistics related to women’s issues. Provides statistics on educational and employment achievement, as well as other characteristics of the global female population.

Evans, John H. Reproduction: Genetic Technologies, Religion, and the Public Debate. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2011. Print. Overview of numerous issues surrounding the abortion and reproductive technology debate of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Written for the general reader to provide an overview of issues, rather than to support a single viewpoint.

US Department of Commerce, and Executive Office of the President. Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being. Washington, DC: White House Council on Women and Girls, 2011. E-book. Annual report, written for media and general readers, providing basic statistics and a description of the current state of women’s achievements and rights in the United States.