Honoring Mothers By Raising the Status of Women

Sunday, May 09, 2010, is Mother's Day. Everywhere in the world a mother is giving birth right now, some by choice, some by virtue of being kept as chattel. In Africa there's a good chance the mother is infected with HIV/AIDS. It's not here fault, because it's her husband that most likely infected her. And, she's told by her religious leaders that condoms are worst than disease itself.

In Niger, a mother has an average of 8 children, and in much in the poorest countries women spend most of their lives being pregnant and/or caring for little children. In parts of Alabama and Mississippi infant mortality is higher than in Iran. More than one million little children go to bed hungry every night in the US.

Celebrating motherhood has to be more than the activities of one day in the year. We all had mothers, so  it would be nice if we could make their lives better. Take a look at the UN Millennium Development Goals and you'll see that every step we take to fulfilling those goals is a meaningful improvement in the lives of mothers--poverty & hunger, education, gender equality, combat HIV/AIDS, maternal health, etc.

Honoring motherhood begins with treating women better.

The following is from my last year's post, but I think it's worth repeating:

Motherhood cannot be separated from the  condition of women in the world today.
UK's The  Independent has a great article about that condition. The British government  in cooperation with human rights groups have found some very disturbing  facts:

• Two-thirds of the world's 800 million illiterate adults are women as girls  are not seen as worth the investment, or are busy collecting water or firewood  or doing other domestic chores.
• Two million girls aged from five to 15 join the commercial sex market every  year.
• Domestic violence kills and injures more people in the developing world than  war, cancer or traffic accidents.
• Seventy per cent of the world's poorest people are women.
• Violence against women causes more deaths and disabilities among women aged  15 to 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents or war.
• Women produce half the world's food, but own less than two per cent of the  land.
• Of the more than one billion people living in extreme poverty, 70 per cent  are women.
• Almost a third of the world's women are homeless or live in inadequate  housing.
• Half of all murdered women are killed by their current or former husbands or  partners.
• Every minute a woman dies as a result of pregnancy complications.
• Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, yet earn only a tenth of  its income.
• One woman in three will be raped, beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise  abused in her lifetime.
• 43 million girls are not able to go to school.
• In 2007, one million HIV-positive women died of AIDS-related illnesses  because they could not get the drugs they needed.
• Human Rights Watch, in reports on 15 countries including Afghanistan,  Brazil, Morocco, Papua New Guinea, Togo and South Africa, has identified  violence against schoolgirls, child domestic workers and those in conflict with  the law as on the rise.
• Women across the developing world are the victims of systematic abuse.