Crossing+Boundaries

= = = Crossing Boundaries (1156-1165) = Thomas Byrne, Kiernan Mullin

Women's Traditions and Feminist Challenges The status of women began changing after WWII. Currently, women constitute 40 to 50 percent of the workforce in industrial societies compared to 20% in developing countries and less than 10% in Islamic societies. Whether they are industrial, service, or agricultural workers, women earn less than men earn for the same work and are generally kept our of the highest paid careers. After World War II more women went to work and they started to protest job discrimination, pay differential between men and women, and lack of legal equality. These complaints expanded into the feminist movement. The feminist movements of the 1960s also concentrated on achieving reproductive and sexual freedom. Feminists demanded affordable child care, birth control and abortion, more attention to women's health needs, rape crisis centers, and women's shelters. The U.S Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination based on race and gender. **In China:** The legal positions of women in communist societies were very similar to men. Mao Zedong once declared that "Women hold up half the sky". As communists gained power in China, they were dedicated to ensuring equality to women. The "Marriage Law" abolished patriarchal practices and gave equal rights to men and women in areas of work, property ownership, and inheritance. Although this law was passed, women have still not gained complete equal rights in China. Old Confucian values continue to degrade women. According to confucianism, women had to obey their fathers at all times when they were not married, obey their husbands while married, and obey their son(s) if they are widows. **Domesticity and abuse:** Because of women and girls being expected to stay at home in Arab and Muslim lands, their literacy rates are low. In India, Women and girls had an even lower literacy rate. The literacy rates in these lands are continuing to increase but in 2001 only 54% of women in India were literate. Women in south Asia are often victims of domestic abuse. There were reportedly 6,000 dowry deaths in 1995, in India. In Pakistan more than five hundred husband set fire to their wives. Their motives range from the wife overcooking food to dowry conflicts. **Women Leaders:** Indira Gandhi and Benazir Bhuto led India and Pakistan as effective politicians. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga became the first female president of Sri Lanka. Daw Aung Suu Kyi was a prominent leader in Myanmar. She led a nonviolent revolution against Myanmar's "Facist government". Her party won a landslide victory but were not allowed to come to power. She was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts. The U.N launched a decade for Women program in 1975 that holds global conferences on the status of women. Migration Migration is the movement of people from one place to another. Migration has helped shape the formation and identity of societies around the world. During the eighteenth century withindustrialization population experts distinguished between two different types of migration, which were internal and external migration. Internal migration are the largest human migrations to this day and is the flow from rural to urban areas. In the last half of the twentieth century internal migration brought rapid urbanization around the world. In many societies such as western and northern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and temperate South America and North America the percent of people who live in urban areas is over 75%. Urbanization is a difficult and challenging movement for rural people who have chosen or forced to a new way of life. Societies in Latin America, Africa, and southern Asia a large amount of people have migrated to metropolitan areas such as slums for relief from rural poverty. Major slums are located around large cities like: Mexico City, Cairo, and Rio de Janeiro. The original services and resources in these slums such as portable water, electricity, and medical care are diminishing because of the constant increase of new people. External migration is the voluntary or forced international migration. People choose to leave ones country for many reasons such as escaping war, fleeing from persecution, searching for better jobs, more available health care, education opportunities and many other services. Since 1960 thirteen million people have migrated from southern Europe and Northern Africa to western Europe. Also since 1960 over ten million migrants have entered and permanently resided in the United States. In countries of southwest Asia over half of the working population of these oil-producing countries are foreigners. International migrants established communities that have helped accelerate and broaden the scope of cross-cultural interaction. Although these communities transform cities into multicultural environments they also brought resentment and conflict. Citizens in the host country believed migrants undermined national identity and past that they also believed that the foreigners would work for low wages. From this tension there has been pressure on governments to limit immigration and sometimes even expel migrants. Violence even came about along with racial tension from xenophobia, or an unreasonable fear of foreigners. Cross-Cultural Travelers Mass tourism came about by providing safer and faster transport and by involving two new features which were leisure and travel. In the nineteenth century the first two travel agencies were established by Thomas Cook and Karl Baedeker. In the 1800s tourism was fashionable for rich Europeans and later was adopted by the working class. By the twentieth century leisure travel had another symbolic value when travelers could show off what they needed for their travels such as the clothes they would need. Companies created the packaged tour after World War II, which allowed millions of travelers to swarm across the world. **Effects of Mass Tourism** Mass tourism is now the largest industry on the planet. The tourism buisness has created jobs around the world for about 255 million people. The down-side to these jobs are that they are usually low-paying jobs, and most of the profit goes to the developed world. Tourism also can act as a glodalizing influence and sometimes makes irreversible changes within cultural traditions in a host community.
 * Internal Migration **
 * Urbanization **
 * External Migration **
 * Migrant Communities **
 * Mass Tourism **

sources:

http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/444.html http://www.china-travel-tour-guide.com/about-china/confucianism.shtml