Major Paper – Question 1

Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) has attracted a lot of media attention, but is it likely to improve the status and condition of women? In your answer, be sure to link your analysis of FIAP with a theoretically grounded discussion of the needs of women in developing countries.Zixuan Jia 300012505University of OttawaMillennium is an important period in the development of gender equality and feminist. People from all over the world encourage others who have same experiences of gender inequality with them to join into an organization, a protest and say different experiences that happen on their own’s live, they are helping all gender to enjoy the same right, and make the whole society with less sexism and stereotypes.Women have been fighting for their rights for such a long time. From the 1950s to 1970s, the welfare approach was concerned with the critical problem of overpopulation, they focus on the biological role of women as a ‘walking wombs’ and social role as mothers. During the 1970s to 1990s, society integrated women into public areas and see women as a development actor to achieve a cash economy through skills training, handcraft. Then in the 1980s, women were in a position of being exploited by global capitalism. Later in the years, economic change gives greater opportunities to one gender than others, such as nurses. Also, the whole society needs to take account and value women’s role in bearing and caring, such as household. As the definition of the United Nations, integration of gender into the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres. The whole world began to develop gender equality more formal.Canada as a part of the global community, millions of people from different races and countries live in society. They committed to develop gender equality and launch different policies for feminists. According to the needs of women in developing countries, Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) is one of the effective policies to improve and change the status and conditions of women. Since the beginning of the millennium, global poverty has fallen dramatically, and the standard of economy, technology, and science is developing rapidly all over the world. However, gender equality and women’s rights are still poor in developing countries and undeveloped countries. Women and girls are faced with questions of gender inequality, opportunity inequality, and policy inequality. Therefore, the feminism organizations and their policy with the feminism theory became one of the mainstreams of society.The core of feminism theory is women and men should be equal economically, politically and socially. This is also referred to as “core feminism” or “core feminist theory.” Which notice the theory does not agree with the differences between men and women or similarities between men and women. Moreover, the feminism theory is very important in the world today, because it shows how unequal society is when comes to gender issues. Women treated unfairly by others in the workplace, even family. Diverse organizations and people are committed to eliminating inequality to help women and girls make decisions by themselves and get better opportunities to improve their own’s life. As a developed and globalization country, Canada believed that one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty is advancing equal rights for women and girls, they committed to creating a community with equality of gender rights. Marie-Claude Bibeau, the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie who has launched Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) said, “Canada firmly believes that promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls is the most effective approach to achieving this goal.” CITATION Can17 p 2 l 1033 (Affairs, 2017, p. 2) Furthermore, as an international policy “Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy seeks to reduce extreme poverty and build a more peaceful, inclusive and prosperous world. The Policy recognizes that promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls is the most effective approach to achieving this goal.” CITATION Fem19 l 1033 (GAC, Feminist International Assistance Policy Indicators, 2019) According to the policy, they have six categories for their actions: gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, human dignity, growth that works for everyone, environment, and climate action, inclusive governance, and peace security which are helping the poorest people all around the world, particularly women and girls. Following the policy, it has a long-standing sustainable development goal which is aimed to end poverty by 2030.Otherwise, there is a proposal that comes with FIAP named Her Voice, Her Choose, the proposal is announced by Minister Bibeau which supports sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). As their introduction “The primary objective of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy, to which this call is aligned, is to contribute to global efforts to eradicate poverty around the world. Canada recognizes that promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls is the most effective approach to achieving this goal.” CITATION GAC18 l 1033 (GAC, Partnerships for Her Voice, Her Choice, 2018) FIAP also encourage women in the Arab countries could have more chances to work in the politics or participate in the public affair and cooperation. As FIAP shows “Training will be offered to more than 9,000 women in Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. These women will acquire new key leadership and management skills, and they will be introduced to journalism and public speaking” CITATION Fre17 l 1033 (Freeland, 2017) FIAP is a bridge that help local women could have a chance to study political issues and become agents of change in the local area. And “As of 2016, 46 national parliaments had more than 30 percent women in their lower or single houses.” CITATION Fre17 l 1033 (Freeland, 2017). Since the world developed as a whole, the economic growth has increased and led to a higher GDP and income, a better living standard for the poorest citizens all over the world and make them have a broader access to different goods and services. Female as a main character of changing and growth, more and more women have been well-educated. At the same time, people believe women and girl also can change the whole world, other programs have also begun to support women. For example, “In Ethiopia, Canadian funding to the Women Entrepreneurship Development Project supports female-owned business, providing them advanced business skills and easier access to credit to expand their business.” CITATION Glo171 l 1033 (Global Affairs Canada, 2017)Except the international organizations and policies for women, lots of movements and protest has been spoken up for women and more people get involved in equal rights for women. As a gender year, the most widely and famous movement is #MeToo in 2017. #MeToo movement is a movement against sexual assault and sexual harassment, especially in the workplace. The movement was created by Tarana Burke, as a victim she encourages people to speak out about their victimization and to make others aware of the importance and seriousness of this problem. As the event unfolded, #MeToo movement was popularized by various celebrities in social media promotion, many celebrities have been exposed as having a history of sexual harassment. As Lanius concludes, “Those who seek change using the #MeToo movement, run the risk of inadvertently supporting the dominant cultural model by accepting its discursive frames rather than nego- tiating a new shared model for addressing sexual harassment and assault.” CITATION Vol19 l 1033 (Volha, 2019) People use movement with social media to share a new idea or use their powerful voice to take a revolution. More females and victims decided to speak out in the public with their personal experiences which this whole movement helps to improve the status and condition of women.However, in the developing countries, the personal safety is more important than movements and protests. Actually, there are many regions still need help from feminist organizations and policies such as FIAP. Thousands of women are being treated unfairly and even violently every day. For example, get away with murder in India is very common. There is a murder happen in a small town in India, a woman had been killed by her husband in the last year just because of cheating. However, no one protected her or complained about her. As Barry said, “New wives occupy the lowest rung in the family hierarchy, which means that when food is scarce young women do not eat, even if they are pregnant.” CITATION Bar17 l 1033 (Barry, 2017) Women from less-educated areas are facing a greater threat, they not only need help from feminism organizations but also need their state policy and development which can protect them in law. FIAP may help women who from well-educated and wealthy areas. But they can’t help all over the world such as a small town, especially a region without valid legal provisions. Before solving those issues of gender inequality, development is the primary need. The state should enact laws to protect the rights of local women. When gender inequality issues occur again, local government or the policy like FIAP could solve the problem faster and more effectively.On the other hand, different policies such as FIAP, or organizations also helped to reduce the gender gap. The Global Gender Report is the analysis base on the latest data and findings from international organizations. Meanwhile, the Global Gender Report can show the change and development of gender equality in different countries during a year. Use India as an example, compare to the Global Gender Gap Report in 2008 CITATION The p 89 l 1033 (Hausmann, Tyson, & Zahidi, 2008, p. 89) and the Global Gender Gap Report in 2018 CITATION The18 p 123 l 1033 (The World Economic Forum, 2018, p. 123), the female to male ratio of enrolment in tertiary education in 2008 is 0.72, in next decade the ratio became to 1.00. Also, in the political empowerment, women in parliament female to male ratio is 9:91 in 2008, and then in 2018, the ratio became to 11.8:88.2. In this decade, the ratio in the different field show the gender gap between females and males is narrowing. According to the National Human Development Report in 2018 of Ethiopia. As the report points out, for the industry to serve as an engine of growth and transformation, it must use the available skills and talents of all—including women, also industry should also be inclusive of women if it is to bring about significant improvement in living standards and human development.CITATION Uni19 l 1033 (United Nations Development Programme, 2019) Through the pie chart of distribution of male and female workers in the textile and garment industries by employment type, more males work as skilled production workers, and more women work as unskilled production workers. Most of the women worked with a low skill set and low paying than men. There are many causes that women work in an unskilled production area. Many executives believe that women are not suitable for a senior position in the cooperation or managerial positions, because the rational aspects of women may affect the decision making, or they miss work for several reasons, for example: pregnancy. “Without equal rights women cannot participate fully in the economic, social and political spaces” (Charmes & Wieringa, 2003, p. 424) In a healthy society, gender equality is a fundamental right and make a respectful relationship with each other. Women as an indispensable part of society, they could speak out for themselves and have the same rights as men in an equal society, then make gender shouldn’t be a power relationship anymore. As Charmes and Wieringa points out, “People are not passive beings, but through exercising agency they have the power to address their conditions of life, either resisting or submitting to oppressive relations.” (Charmes & Wieringa, 2003, p. 421) When women want to work hard to achieve their ambitions and gain social status, they often questioned by others and told that they are not equal as men, even though they have the right to fight for what they want. Raymond Murphy said, “Gender exclusion rules were widely believed to be rooted in human nature until recently, but are now being contested and uprooted” CITATION Ray88 l 1033 (Raymond, 1988) However, there is no continuation of the world without the existence of women, also without gender equality, there is no sustainable development. From the perspective of development, women and girls represent half of the world’s population which is half of the human potential. People should break stereotypes and allow women to reach their full potential. Bibliography BIBLIOGRAPHY Affairs, C. G. (2017). Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy. Retrieved from Government of Canada: https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/priorities-priorites/policy-politique.aspx?lang=engBarry, E. (2017, August 19th). How to Get Away With Murder in Small-Town India. Retrieved from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/19/world/asia/murder-small-town-india.html?_ga=2.190457643.1229466376.1572376100-257075384.1572376100Canada, G. A. (2017). Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy. Retrieved from Government of Canada: https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/priorities-priorites/policy-politique.aspx?lang=engCharmes, J., & Wieringa, S. (2003). Measuring Women’s Empowerment: An assessment of the Gender-related Development Index and the Gender Empowerment Measure. Journal of Human Development, 424.Charmes, J., & Wieringa, S. (2003). Measuring Womens Empowerment: An assessment of the Gender-related Development Index and the Gender Empowerment Measure. Journal of Human Development, 421.Freeland, C. (2017). Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy. Ottawa: Global Affairs Canada.GAC. (2018, May 1st). Partnerships for Her Voice, Her Choice. Retrieved from GAC: https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/funding-financement/her_voice_her_choice-sa_voix_son_choix.aspx?lang=engGAC. (2019, February 28). Feminist International Assistance Policy Indicators. Retrieved from GAC: https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/priorities-priorites/fiap_indicators-indicateurs_paif.aspx?lang=engGlobal Affairs Canada. (2017). Departmental Results Report 2017–18. 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