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gender equality
'Intolerable and Alarming': Proportion of Women Killed in War Doubled in 2023
"Women continue to pay the price of the wars of men," said one U.N. official.
Oct 23, 2024
The proportion of women killed in wars doubled last year compared with 2022 figures, with women comprising 4 out of every 10 conflict zone deaths around the world, according to a report published Tuesday by the United Nations.
U.N. Women, the agency behind the report, also found that cases of conflict-related sexual violence verified by the world body increased by 50% in 2023.
"These increases in deaths during war and in violence against women are taking place against a backdrop of increasing blatant disregard of international law designed to protect women and children during war," U.N. Women said.
"For example," the agency continued, "women in war zones are also increasingly suffering from restricted access to healthcare. Every day, 500 women and girls in conflict-affected countries die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. By the end of 2023, 180 women were giving birth every day in war-torn Gaza—most without necessities or medical care."
Earlier this year, the U.N. Security Council released a report estimating that 33,433 civilians including at least 13,337 women were killed in conflict zones around the world in 2023, a 72% increase from the previous year.
The vast bulk of these deaths occurred in Gaza, from which Hamas launched the deadliest-ever attack on a single day against Israel on October 7, 2023. The report states Hamas militants killed at least 280 women that day while abducting at least 90 other women and 36 children. The publication does not say how many Israeli women or children were killed by so-called "friendly fire" that day or under Israel's Hannibal Directive, which authorizes fratricide to prevent Israelis from falling into enemy hands.
Since October 7, more than 152,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed or wounded, including more than 10,000 people who are missing and believed to be dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed-out buildings. According to Gaza and international officials, more than 5,000 women and 10,000 children were killed in the embattled coastal enclave between October 7 and the end of 2023.
Israel is on trial for alleged acts of genocide at the International Court of Justice over its conduct in Gaza.
The report details the dire situation in Sudan, "which already had one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world before the outbreak of the armed conflict in April 2023," and where "2.64 million women and girls of reproductive age are now in need of urgent assistance, including 260,000 pregnant women."
"Amid reports of widespread sexual violence, most victims were unable to access the necessary medical care during the first 72 hours after being raped, including post-exposure prophylaxis or emergency contraception, and the United Nations received reports of victims of rape having been denied an abortion because it was outside of the timeline allowed for by law," the publication notes.
The new report also notes "a lack of overall progress on women's full, equal, and meaningful participation in peace processes."
"Preliminary data from the analysis of over 50 processes indicate that in 2023, on average, women made up only 9.6% of negotiators, 13.7% of mediators, and 26.6% of signatories to peace agreements and cease-fire agreements," the publication states. "The data show little progress over the past decade. None of the peace agreements reached in 2023 included a women's group or representative as a signatory."
U.N. Women Executive Director Sima Bahous lamented that "women continue to pay the price of the wars of men."
"This is happening in the context of a larger war on women," she continued. "The deliberate targeting of women's rights is not unique to conflict-affected countries but is even more lethal in those settings."
"We are witnessing the weaponization of gender equality on many fronts," Bahous added. "If we do not stand up and demand change, the consequences will be felt for decades, and peace will remain elusive."
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Tens of Thousands of Women Strike in Iceland Over Pay Gap, Gender-Based Violence
"An 'equality paradise' should not have a 21% wage gap and 40% of women experiencing gender-based or sexual violence in their lifetime," said one organizer.
Oct 24, 2023
Schools, health systems, and television broadcasters in Iceland were among the businesses that said they would have to close or reduce services on Tuesday due to the country's first full-day women's strike in nearly 50 years—potentially helping to prove the point that tens of thousands of women and non-binary workers are hoping to make by demonstrating that their labor is vital and must be paid accordingly.
Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir is among the women taking part in the "kvennafrí," or "women's day off," and told reporters she expects women in her cabinet to strike as well, as organizers push to close Iceland's gender pay gap and end gender-based violence.
While Iceland has been recognized for 14 straight years as having the smallest gap in gender equality among the countries in the World Economic Forum's annual rankings, strike organizer Freyja Steingrímsdóttir toldThe Guardian it is hardly an "equality paradise," and women are demanding greater action from the government to ensure true parity.
On average, Icelandic women still earn about 10% less than men, and as much as 21% less in some professions. Forty percent of women report experiencing gender-based violence.
"An 'equality paradise' should not have a 21% wage gap and 40% of women experiencing gender-based or sexual violence in their lifetime," said Steingrímsdóttir, communications director for the Icelandic Federation for Public Workers. "That's not what women around the world are striving for."
Taking place 48 years after the last full-day women's strike, in which 25,000 people rallied in Reykjavík and 90% of women staged a work stoppage affecting paid and unpaid labor, this year's protest has adopted the slogan, "Kallarðu þetta jafnrétti?" or "You call this equality?"
Icelandic President Gudni Th. Johannesson expressed his support for the strike, saying women's "activism for equality has changed Icelandic society for the better and continues to do so today."
The country's trade unions—which count 90% of Icelandic workers as members—are key organizers of the action and are calling on women and nonbinary workers to join the strike.
The 1975 action was tied to passage of an equal rights law the following year and the election of the country's first female president—the first woman to be democratically elected president in any country—in 1980. Other successes have followed in recent years, such as the passage of a law that requires some companies to prove they're paying people of different genders equally for equal work.
Former Climate Minister Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir toldThe Guardian that men continue to fail to take responsibility for domestic labor, leaving unpaid work such as childcare to women who are also attempting to succeed in the workplace.
"If you look at it economically women seem to be punished for taking these extra burdens, which is not righteous," Halldórsdóttir told the outlet. "It's something that we need to look into and need to change."
Organizers are calling for the wages of workers in female-dominated professions to be made public and for the federal government to take greater action against gender-based violence, ensuring perpetrators are held accountable. One 2018 University of Iceland study found that only 12% of survivors of sexual assault press charges, and those who do have their cases dismissed nearly 75% of the time. Women told researchers they feared the "shame, guilt, and condemnation" that would come with having their cases tried in the justice system.
"We are now trying to connect the dots, saying that violence against women and undervalued work of women in the labor market are two sides of the same coin and have an effect on each other," Drífa Snædal, spokesperson for Stígamót, an anti-sexual violence group, told The Guardian.
Kate Jarman, a director of corporate affairs at a National Health Service hospital in the United Kingdom, said a similar women's strike in the U.K. would force numerous workplaces with majority-female staff to "recognize our worth."
The Left in the European Parliament also expressed support for the action.
"Solidarity with the strikers," the progressive political party said.
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'Heartbreaking': Court Reinstates Tennessee Ban on Gender-Affirming Care for Minors
"We want all the transgender youth of Tennessee to know this fight is far from over and we will continue to challenge this law until it is permanently defeated and Tennessee is made a safer place to raise every family," legal advocates said.
Jul 09, 2023
A 2-1 split panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled Saturday that Tennessee can enforce its ban on gender-affirming healthcare for minors—reversing a lower court's preliminary injunction, ignoring the guidance of every major medical organization in the United States, and delivering a crushing blow to trans youth and their supporters.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson found that S.B. 1—which prohibits doctors from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and other forms of gender-affirming care to minors and requires trans youth currently receiving such care to stop within nine months—discriminates on the basis of sex and is therefore unconstitutional, siding with plaintiffs who sued Tennessee. The Trump administration appointee blocked large swaths of the law, which was set to take effect on July 1, from being implemented.
Saturday's decision, which came in response to an emergency appeal from Republican Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, temporarily lifts Richardson's order and allows S.B. 1 to take immediate effect while the lawsuit proceeds.
Skrmetti applauded the appeals court, saying, "The case is far from over, but this is a big win." The panel plans to reach a final verdict by September 30, at which point the law could be struck down or upheld.
"This ruling is beyond disappointing and a heartbreaking development for thousands of transgender youth, their doctors, and their families," the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP said in a joint statement. "As we and our clients consider our next steps, we want all the transgender youth of Tennessee to know this fight is far from over and we will continue to challenge this law until it is permanently defeated and Tennessee is made a safer place to raise every family."
The U.S. Justice Department in April filed a separate lawsuit against the Tennessee law.
"This ruling is beyond disappointing and a heartbreaking development for thousands of transgender youth, their doctors, and their families."
Two of the three judges on the Sixth Circuit panel argued that the plaintiffs "have not shown that a right to new medical treatments is 'deeply rooted in our history and traditions,' and thus beyond the democratic process to regulate"—echoing language used by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito when he wrote the majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade and suggesting that transgender rights should be left to the discretion of state lawmakers. Notably, they are the first two federal judges in the country to allow a prohibition on gender-affirming care to fully take hold.
As part of their broader attack on LGBTQ+ people, Republican-controlled legislatures have approved bans or restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors in at least 20 states since 2021, forcing many families and doctors to move or consider relocating. The federal judiciary, which has repeatedly blocked such laws from being enforced, had been a key source of reprieve until Saturday.
In addition to Richardson in Tennessee, judges in five other states—Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, and Kentucky—have determined that trans youth healthcare bans are unconstitutional or likely unconstitutional.
Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld U.S. District Judge Jay Moody's preliminary injunction against Arkansas' ban. Last month, in what was the first ruling on the merits of such a law, Moody concluded the state had violated the U.S. Constitution—namely the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection and due process clauses as well as First Amendment rights—and issued a permanent injunction. Republican Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said he plans to appeal the ruling, though it will be heard by the same court that already backed Moody in 2022.
At his Law Dork blog, journalist Chris Geidner explained the shoddy reasoning behind and dangerous implications of Saturday's 17-page ruling—written by Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, and endorsed by Judge Amul Thapar, who, like Richardson, was picked by former President Donald Trump.
After Sutton cited the aforementioned series of decisions halting multiple gender-affirming care bans around the country, he wrote: "We appreciate their perspectives, and they give us pause. But they do not eliminate our doubts about the ultimate strength of the challengers' claims."
Despite being the only court to dismiss plaintiffs' constitutional arguments, Geidner noted, "Sutton still attempted to claim the mantle of judicial modesty, stating that these are just 'initial views,' and adding: 'We may be wrong. It may be that the one week we have had to resolve this motion does not suffice to see our own mistakes.'"
"Nonetheless," Geidner pointed out, "Sutton was okay with his court being the sole one in the nation to allow such restrictions to be enforced."
Dissenting Judge Helene White said that she would have limited Richardson's statewide injunction so that it applied only to the plaintiffs and the Vanderbilt University Medical Center where they sought care. But unlike Sutton and Thapar, White sided with the many judges who have ruled in similar cases, writing that "the law discriminates based on sex" and "is likely unconstitutional."
Geidner went on to describe how Saturday's ruling "alters the legal landscape for these bans, at least temporarily."
As discussed at the outset, Tennessee is now allowed to enforce S.B. 1, barring any further court orders.
"The untenable position that adolescents, their caregivers, and their doctors have been put in is not only illegal, but also deeply unethical and dangerous."
Chase Strangio—a prominent ACLU lawyer working on several challenges to anti-trans laws nationwide, including Tennessee's—told Geidner that "things are moving quickly and for many families, waiting for legal relief is not an option. The untenable position that adolescents, their caregivers, and their doctors have been put in is not only illegal, but also deeply unethical and dangerous."
Strangio, the deputy director for transgender justice within the ACLU's LGBTQ & HIV Project, said that the ACLU "will continue to aggressively litigate these cases in Tennessee and across the country."
When asked whether the challengers would try to get the stay lifted, either by the full Sixth Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court, Strangio stated, "We are still evaluating all our options with our primary concern of course being how can we help ensure that people in Tennessee are not cut off from the care they need."
Sutton's self-imposed deadline to resolve the case is September 30.
Meanwhile, Kentucky falls within the Sixth Circuit. In a Saturday court filing, Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron cited the panel's ruling as a reason why U.S. District Judge David Hale should "immediately" issue a stay of his June 28 decision granting a preliminary injunction.
According to Geidner, "The Sixth Circuit also consolidated Cameron's appeal of the Kentucky injunction in a separate order Saturday, which not only brings that case on the same schedule as the Tennessee appeal but also essentially confirms that Sixth Circuit would almost certainly issue a stay of the Kentucky injunction if the district court does not do so."
He continued:
Finally, the new, if tentative, lack of unanimity itself matters for two reasons—one rhetorical and one practical. Obviously, having unanimity is its own argument against the constitutionality of these bans. Additionally, although only at the stay request posture, the ruling increases the likelihood that a "circuit split" on these bans will develop—a factor that greatly increases the chances of the U.S. Supreme Court taking up one of these cases.
Few people know that better than Sutton.
It was, after all, Sutton's 2014 decision in the marriage cases out of Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee that prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the issue of same-sex couples' constitutional right to marriage equality. Less than two months before Sutton's decision in those cases, the Supreme Court denied other states' requests to hear similar appeals when the federal appeals courts were in unanimity on the issue. After Sutton's decision created a circuit split, however, the Supreme Court took up the issue.
Geidner's argument dovetails with one put forth last week by The Intercept's Natasha Lennard, who warned that the GOP is poised to replicate its anti-abortion strategy—pushing the issue up the judicial ladder until it reaches a potentially favorable audience among the high court's reactionary majority—to destroy LGBTQ+ rights.
"Republicans have made clear that they plan to brute force their eliminationist assault on trans people into legal reality," Lennard wrote. "The far right knows how to bend legal paradigms to their will through tireless and well-funded campaigns, working through the minority rule of Republican-led statehouses until eventually reaching the Supreme Court. The same playbook hacked away at abortion access until an established right was wholly overturned, and settled law was ripped to shreds."
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