Is There a War on Women?

That issue rose to the top in budget negotiations and nearly caused a shutdown of the federal government. The congressional investigation into the operation of Planned Parenthood and its allocation of federal funds became the focus of much news this week when the Susan G. Komen foundation explained, at least initially, that was the reason it was pulling its grants from Planned Parenthood. After a veritable frenzy of reaction occurring in the wide open spaces of the world wide web, Komen finds its brand badly battered and Planned Parenthood is unexpectedly holding millions of dollars it didn’t expect. The Sunday talking heads and columnists are all over the map in their reactions. What conclusions ought we to draw? Are women really facing a violent and calculated assault? Or is using the word “war” in this context another attempt to fan the flames of an already overheated round-the-clock media machine?

First, a recap. In the year just ended, states passed 92 new laws placing restrictions on access to abortion, such as waiting periods of 24 hours or more, compulsory ultrasounds, or prohibiting private insurers from covering pregnancy termination for private individuals paying with private funds. Congress debated ending federal funding for family planning. i.e. contraception, and cutting off all funds for Planned Parenthood, where they are dedicated only to routine care, cancer screening, and contraceptive services. For the moment, funding continues for the non-abortion related services, however 9 states have passed laws which prevent all federal funding for providers who also perform abortions in those states, even though the money was and always had been used for non-abortion related services. So, women and girls without health insurance, dependent on not-for-profit clinics, find abortions more difficult to obtain, and even access to contraceptives dwindling, which defies all logic. Is this movement to restrict access to contraception and abortion equivalent to a “war”?

It’s remarkable that our elected representatives (and those who hope to be so), who claim that jobs and the economy consume all their working hours, can manage to do so much about a “women’s issue”. Historically, “women’s issues” don’t get all that much attention. Equal pay for equal work stubbornly remains a hope rather than a reality. Paid sick days as a basic labor standard, like safe workplaces or a 40 hour workweek, exists in California, New Jersey, and a couple of cities. Family leave under FMLA is available to about half the private sector workforce, but it’s not paid. Paid time off when a baby is born or a child adopted might be available at the employer’s discretion, and professionals may have this option, but it’s no guarantee, and very rare for shift or hourly wage workers.

One of the most repeated criticisms of the Komen/Planned Parenthood kerfuffle was the outrage that something as pure and wholesome as the mission to eradicate an indiscriminate killer of women should have become caught up in abortion politics. Really, this is a naive view. Women’s bodies, and women’s lives, have always been treated as a public good, the subject of the most impassioned debate, and fought over relentlessly like the “no man’s land” of the western front. Who decides whether or not we should bear children? Who decides whether or not we can control our fertility? Who decides what medical procedures are included in the health care insurance we can buy? Who decides if we work, where and for how much? When we work for money outside the home, who decides how and where and by whom our children are cared for? Who decides if we can slip the leash of work and home to be at the bedside of a dying parent? Do you decide, or do other people, through laws, social pressure, cultural values, and economic realities, decide for you?

Most recently, the financial crisis and economic recession have deeply affected women in many different ways as they struggle to meet rising costs of food, fuel, education, housing, transport, health services and are forced to take on more and precarious work in challenging and often exploitative conditions.

At the same time, women have long been negotiating fractures in the system and filling the gaps left by cuts in social spending. And there are many important experiences from which to learn. Indigenous, peasant and rural women building food sovereignty. Grassroots women developing strategies of resilience and empowerment in the face of both environmental and economic disasters. Young women and girls using new information and communication technologies in diverse and creative ways to mobilize and bring about social change. Sex workers, migrant workers and domestic workers redefining what it means to work and why care work should count. Women with disabilities, trans activists and women living with HIV/AIDS continuing to question unbridled emphasis on growth and productivity at the expense of human dignity. And feminist economists naming and analyzing the forces shaping and assigning value to social production and reproduction.

The current dominant economic system also has profound impacts on women’s sexual and reproductive rights and LGBTQI rights. Times of economic crisis often lead to even greater attempts to control sexuality and further limit access to sexual and reproductive health services and rights, especially for women living in poverty and other marginalized groups.

We are also currently witnessing the impact of economic policies that promote unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, which have resulted in the massive exploitation of our planet’s natural resources, increasing conflict and exacerbating inequalities amongst the poorest and most vulnerable communities. At the same time, due to gendered divisions of labour, patriarchal cultural norms and laws and economic inequalities, women continue to be denied access to and control of resources, including land, education, health services, credit and technologies.