Women at Risk/Women in Action

Abstract

The United Nations Forward-Looking Strategies (1985) highlight the fact that there are populations of women whose vulnerabilities are compounded by particular characteristics of age, socio-economic condition, political pressures, minority status, geography, circumstances, and combinations of these factors. Many of the issues have been discussed in earlier chapters to greater and lesser degrees, but all deserve special attention because of their seriousness. The problems vary widely from country to country, as do the diverse groups of women involved. While strategies will need to be shaped to fit these multiplicities, all require fundamental changes in the economic situation of women which produces deprivation, and all require upgrading women’s low status which accounts for their extreme vulnerability to poverty. Emergency assistance measures should be taken at the individual and group level. At the same time, broader efforts should be directed towards the reallocation of resources and decision-making power, and towards the elimination of inequality and injustice.

Women and revolution! What tragic, unsung epics of courage lie silent in the world’s history!

Yang Ping, “Fragment from a Lost Diary” (1908–)