WOMEN'S RIGHTS: IMPORTANT FOR EVERYONE

The simple phrase "Women's Rights" tends to make so many from the right jump straight into their "baby murder" response.  But Women's Rights are about so much more than abortion.

This is a reflection on women's rights, and what they mean to all of us.

WOMEN'S RIGHTS INCLUDE:

EQUAL PAY 

• Republicans vote against equal pay every chance they get...ALL OF THEM
• Equal pay relates to the full range of payments and benefits, including basic pay, non-salary pay, bonuses and allowances
• Women pay the same job related expenses as their male peers do, such as gas, parking, car repairs, etc.
• Single women often have additional expenses that their single male peers don't tend to have, like child care

EQUAL RETIREMENT

• By virtue of earning less than men, women's social security and medicare accounts are robbed of legitimate funds meant to help in retirement
• Women tend to live longer than men, with fewer resources
• Not all grannies want to shack up with an old coot to make ends meet

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

• Women are heads of household, women are sole providers for their families, women carry the responsibility of providing when men leave, and are therefore deserving of equal opportunities for advancement in the work-place, and equal opportunities in hiring practices

BIRTH CONTROL

• Oral contraceptives are commonly used to treat endometriosis, hypermenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, polycystic syndrome, acne, among other things
• Only 42% of women using oral contraceptives use the pill exclusively for preventing pregnancy (Beyond Birth Control: The Overlooked Benefits of Oral Contraceptive Pills, by Rachel K. Jones of the Guttmacher Institute)
• Studies show that improved access to birth control lowers rates of abortions (and that when abortion is legal, the number of abortions performed does not increase)

ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE

• Women need health care that men don't throughout their lives (the same is of course true for men, but no one is having a problem with paying for or allowing access to care that is specific to men)
• Breast cancer, cervical cancer, etc. screenings and treatment must be available to women from every economic class
• Equal access to gender specific care, just like men
• Insurance is paid for by all policy holders, and authorized procedures ought to be paid to providers without consideration of gender
• Men aren't really "paying for" women's health care any more than they ever have just as women continue to "pay for" men's health care (it's how insurance works)
• D&C is a legitimate medical procedure that does more than abort, and opponents of abortion do not give consideration to the fact that D&C is used to treat any number of medical issues

SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

• Despite the awful, misogynistic things said publicly by Republicans (Akin - there's no such thing as legitimate rape), rape is a violent crime
• Rape is about power and control, not sex
• Rape can and does happen within the marital relationship
• Rape doen't happen because of what a woman wears, how she acts, or any other "reason," it is the fault of the rapist
• Rape is under-reported in large part because of how men react when "their" woman is the victim
• Rape is under-reported because of a presumed social stigma that SHOULD be borne by the rapist, not the victim
• We all have a responsibility to make sure our local law enforcement officials KNOW it is our priority to prosecute rape, as a community
• Rape is committed against boys and men, as well, and how we as a country address the issue of rape will help ALL victims

SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN THE MILITARY

• All women deserve a workplace free from sexual violence
• The reported events of rape in the military do not reflect the actual occurrence of rape because of under-reporting
• There continues to be a lack of understanding, even by women, about the occurrence of rape in the military (Liz Trotta, an American journalist, criticized departments created to "support women in the military who are now being raped too much," which speaks to the complete disconnect between what rape is, and what a reasonable response to rape is)
• Women who protect the freedom of Americans must be protected from those among their peers and superiors who would attempt to victimize them

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

• Women do not deserve to be belittled, bothered, or disrupted during the course of their day
• Sexually charged comments have no place in common discourse, or from strangers
• Harassment is often meant to "put you in your place," or to establish the male dominant world view that makes some men feel satisfied
• Harassment is not far removed from sexual violence, in that it is also intended to make women uncomfortable, ill at ease, or defensive

VOTER ID LAWS THAT DISCRIMINATE AGAINST WOMEN

• Voter ID laws requiring the name to be exactly the same on all other ID's have a disproportionate impact on female voters because of name changes due to marriage and divorce
• Women vote more than men do, and preventing women from voting benefits the GOP and TP platforms
• Out-of-state students tend not to have proper voter ID's since they are still citizens of their home state and since there are more women in American colleges than men, the impact on female students is greater
• Poor people have more trouble staying informed about new voter ID laws, they tend to have more trouble with transportation and with having cash on hand to purchase ID's or the records needed to get ID's that satisfy new ID laws, and since more women are poor than men, new voter ID laws impact women more than men

This is by no means a complete list of women's rights, or the ways in which they affect us.  When women's rights are ensured, the rights of others are protected, as well, so it is good for women, good for men, and good for the country to protect women's rights.

image credit Ursulinemagazine