Following the attacks on Asian women recently, (and there has been another one) I learnt of the Page Act of 1875. This was the first federal immigration law that banned Asian women from entering the United States on the grounds that they were “immoral” and “would engage in prostitution.” Although seven years later, another law banned Chinese men as well, it was the ban on immigrant women under the Page Act which was strictly upheld.
In these times, travel was difficult and expensive to start with. People needed to board ships to make the journey. But this law and complicated rounds of questions made it tougher for wives to join their husbands who had gone to America to work. They were also subjected to methods of identification reserved only for their ethnic group because of the “threat of their sexuality” that Chinese women supposedly posed.
This made me think of laws that exist today which are “anti-women.”
I only found out recently that almost the entire United States still technically permits child marriage, which disproportionately affects girls. The legal age to get married is 18 years but in most states, there are ways around this. In fact, it was only in 2018 that Delaware became the first state to place a full ban on all child marriage.
Guess which state is among those which has an above-average rate of child marriage?
Like Ezra Klein says in The New York Times, “It’s a remarkable place where tomorrow’s problems and tomorrow’s solutions vie with each other for primacy. California drives the technologies, culture and ideas that shape the entire world.”
You wouldn’t expect one of the most liberal, progressive parts of the world to allow something like child marriage.
And yet it does.
I’m not the first person to think that domestic abuse is often a low priority because it’s seen as a “woman problem.” I’ve also got a problem with calling it “domestic” abuse because there’s nothing domestic about it, especially because mobilising a community is often one of the most effective ways to tackle it. But I’ve praised the UK’s Domestic Abuse Bill before which really is groundbreaking for the example it sets. The bill is such big steps in the right direction.
One part of the bill which has long been discussed is for its protections to extend to migrant women. Several women who arrive in the country are often on spouse-dependent visas which makes them a prime target of abuse by men who threaten to put their immigration status in freefall. Miles from home and often without access to a support system, many women in these circumstances are compelled to stay in an abusive situation and suffer.
Worth adding though is that a new Victims’ Code has come into effect this week which now allows victims of sexual violence to choose the gender of the police officer they speak to. This is a big big deal.
While we’re discussing laws, we urgently need one to protect women from predators pretending to be doctors because this has happened again, while the case of Larry Nassar is still not distant.
I originally read that the number of women from the Larry Nassar case was 156. Turns out, that's just the number of women who confronted him directly in court. The total count goes to 265.
This time, it’s more than 700 women.
More than 700.
Which brings me to this interesting read about how women are spoken about in mainstream media, in pop culture. I’ve said it before — language matters — and Megan Garber makes so much sense. There is no such thing as an “underage woman”. They are girls, children, who in cases of sexual contact with adult men, have been abused, assaulted, raped, molested, taken advantage of. They don’t fully understand consent or the consequences of their actions, often trapped in situations where they don’t have the agency to choose.
When women are spoken of in this way, the language places unnecessary pressure on young girls to “hurry up and grow up.” This creates a context that celebrates the sexualisation of children — children who must be protected from the perverse advances of adult men. Such men have long escaped accountability and punishment for their crimes, often seen as minor offences or momentary lapses in judgement of otherwise upstanding members of society.
Like in the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his roster of high-profile clients. This week, his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, who trafficked girls, faced fresh charges.
There are laws that marginalize women. And then there are women who harm women. I’ve had conversations with friends about why women who were/are unhappy in their marriages perpetuate these toxic patterns by pushing girls into “arranged marriages” as is still widely the norm in places like India, for example. As a woman, I still have trouble understanding how one woman can inflict such grave pain and injustice on another woman.
Speaking of women who break the law, I watched I Care A Lot on Amazon Prime. If you liked Rosamund Pike’s darkness in Gone Girl, she takes it up a few notches, if possible, as the legal guardian, Marla Grayson. The movie was difficult to watch for HOW manipulative her character is. It was a great story. But it had to have come from somewhere, right?
Turns out, April Parks is the real-life equivalent you can learn all about in this New Yorker story by Rachel Aviv, which while reading I couldn’t decide if I was more terrified or enraged. As families were separated from ageing relatives, a lifetime of their most prized possessions picked and purged with cruelty — a much-loved car, a deceased son’s paintings, a dog — I could feel my anger rising and heart breaking all at once.
Also appearing in court this week was Darnella Frazier as a witness in the trial of the police officer charged with the murder of George Floyd. The teenager filmed the viral video of George Floyd’s last minutes.
And this week, President Biden announced nominations for federal judges, which is all kinds of good, setting so many firsts.
Women are frequently written out of history, their achievements not given as much attention as the contributions of men. Did you know, the Waterloo bridge was primarily built by women while men were away during World War II. It was also, of the 35 bridges that cross the Thames in London, the only one to be finished ahead of schedule and under budget.
Until 1920, Harvard didn’t admit female students.
Until 1928, women in England didn’t have the same voting rights as men.
In 2021, India has fallen 28 spots on the Global Gender Gap index.
Women are still sorely missing from public planning and design, which has prompted Emma Watson and Reni Eddo-Lodge to start this lovely project.
At present, women are populating Wikipedia with their stories because there’s a gross imbalance of men’s life accounts on the platform compared to women — by a whopping four times. Almost 90 percent of volunteers who currently contribute to Wikipedia are male.
Labour laws often aren’t written with women or for women. So women are routinely exploited in:
the garment industry in India, in South Asia, in Cambodia, in Africa
the tea trade in Tamil Nadu, Darjeeling and Sri Lanka
the sugar industry, where women are forced to get hysterectomies to avoid taking time off of work when they have their period
(Stories linked above have been reported by Anuradha Nagaraj, Kate Hodal, Bharathi SP, Nangsel, Nanda Kasabe and Emily Stewart. It is only when journalists like them go out to tell the stories we need to hear, that are difficult to hear, does it consume some of us enough to start thinking of what to do about the problem.)
So many offices still don’t have someplace safe for mothers to leave their children while they work. So many employers don’t offer paid parental leave or cover healthcare costs, finding a way around these benefits instead with carefully worded short-term contracts. So many reasons for so many talented, highly qualified women to drop out of the workforce.
When enough women aren’t involved when they need to be, this happens. And then the very talented Marcia Belsky writes a song about it. Watch the full version here. You can skip to 5:18 just to watch the song but the first part is funny too.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Impostor syndrome and recently came across this which is also very relevant by Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey. It makes many good points, namely how the term “impostor” carries criminal connotations and “syndrome” makes it sound like a disease, both vital bits of language, which shift the responsibility on women to accept the situation or overcome how they’re feeling rather than improve the broken system that supports it. This is why language is so important.
And also why terms like “diversity” and “inclusion” really get on my nerves when what we should be concentrating on is “representation.”
In Women Wins This Week:
Meet Hadiya, a hijab-wearing football queen in Kerala, in this News Minute story by Sreedevi Jayarajan, who’s changing the rules about who can play football. You can follow Hadiya on Instagram.
I learnt of Hadiya through Splainer, which you know I love. I’m also a huge fan of Dhanya Rajendran who started The News Minute to focus on news from the Southern Indian states, which often get left out of national news. Two years ago, I interviewed both women behind these outlets. On the episode, Lakshmi talks about Broadsheet, which was an earlier avatar of Splainer.
Among Indian journalists you should know is also Faye D’Souza who breaks down major news developments on Instagram. Follow her.
I can’t wait to watch Thalaivi about one of the most enduring women in politics in Southern India.
I loved this story of Devanshi Rungta, a gallerist who is travelling the world with Pantone cards.
Please read this edition of Emily Ding’s newsletter which is a lesson in how women can deal with the unwanted attention/actions of men while travelling solo.
And I love The Swaddle by Karla Bookman. They’ve done this great video about the gendered stereotype that women are too “emotional”, of how damaging this is and when suppressing your emotions became a symbol of masculinity. It also really really ticks me off when women are told not to be “touchy.” WTH
My favourite Swaddle story is this podcast about women who work different jobs at night in Mumbai. So👏🏼 well 👏🏼 done👏🏼.
To close this week:
On my podcast, I did a primer to Indian law for women in this interview with women’s rights lawyer, Veena Gowda, of the Bombay High Court. In this episode, I also spoke to Deepika Bharadwaj to explore Section 498A, India’s dowry harassment law.
Until women are a greater part of legal systems at all levels,
Until these legal systems work with other parts of public office, which also have equal female representation
Until these positions are set up to give women the professional freedom to thrive,
we will continue to have laws and systems that discriminate against women, that render women and their work “invisible”, their very real struggles and challenges overlooked by the people who have the most power to affect change.
Stay woke, stay wise✌🏼
And enjoy the long weekend :)
xx
AA
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