Women of Today Have Come Along Way

Women of today have come along way because society has recognized that they have voices as well as men do. From the entire world, women have maintained their place due to the new customs that have arisen over the years. They have been able to go vote and work, which puts them as equals with men For example, South Korea; there is a female president instead of a make. Therefore, women have overcome the stereotypes that society has created from sixty years ago. No matter what country or culture women are in, it has been proven during the last two decades they are no longer inferior when it comes to being equals with men. In other words, regardless of what society throws at women, they become stronger and more powerful every day.

In Mexico, Mexicans place a high value on family and traditional values. Although women make up an increasingly large portion of the labor force (about one-quarter in the mid-1990s), many women continue to work within the home since it has been the custom for many years. Therefore, children, in middle- and upper-income homes, typically remain at home longer than their counterparts in the United States. There are vast differences, however, in the daily lives of Mexican women depending on income level. Women in middle- and upper-income households typically have outside help with childcare, cleaning, and meal preparation. Women in poor and working-class households often work both inside and outside The home, with many of them working at more than one outside job. Even though may seem as if Mexican women are not very productive away from home, it does not mean all Mexican women are that way. Therefore, regardless of the majority Mexican women, some of they are have hopes and dreams that will make them very strong women (MEXICO).

Unlike Mexican women, in the last year some 170 Cuban women working in all branches of communications have met regularly to discuss the challenges faced by women and propose some solutions. They came together following the First beroamerican Women in Communications Conference in 1993, and decided they needed a permanent structure to attempt to resolve the many problems discussed there. With that in mind, women have become stronger and more powerful over the last twenty years and still are becoming that way (Cuba).

Non-representation of women in leadership positions throughout all of the media; stereotypical and often negatives images of women, especially on the TV screen, and more recently in advertising; lack of coverage of women in the leadership roles they do play to name a few. They cited the need to build self-esteem, raise consciousness, learn to use new technology and handle new concepts, develop themselves professionally and create gender-conscious modes of social communication (Cuba).

During the year since Margin's creation, the women communicators have delved into a number of other problems as well ones that impact on their lives as workers, as single women, or as wives and mothers. Problems such as the reappearance of prostitution in the country after its virtual elimination over the last three decades. Or the hidden racism that has been showing its ugly head increasingly over the last few years as revolutionary constraints that formerly at least silenced if not eliminated such sentiments have broken down (Cuba).

Not to mention the perennial problem of the "double shift" that workingwomen still bear, despite the 1975 Family Code mandate that all people in a household should share equally in the housework and care of the children. Even though this may be true, with the Family Code, women are still becoming stronger and more powerful no matter what society throws at them (Cuba).

Other topics analyzed and debated at these workshops: sexism in language; the dilemma faced by women over 50, "when your body changes"; domestic violence (a formerly taboo subject in Cuba where most men and women believed or pretended it didn't exist); current tendencies in investigative journalism and social communication (Cuba).

Cuban women decided to focus on the media not just because Magin's founders were communications workers. "Mass media exercises a tremendous influence over people's ideas and over what actual happens in the world," explained MIrta Rodriguez Calderon, a journalist at the weekly Bohemia magazine and one of Magin's co-founders. "A text, a song, a scene, a behavior, multiplied by millions of readers, listeners or viewers who receive that message takes on a truth of its own; it's implanted in people's minds" (Cuba).

Just the fact that women are raising some of these issues is in itself revolutionary. This year for the first time the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) uttered the word "prostitution" in their Congress, debating this and other urgent problems created in a world turned topsy-turvy (Cuba).

However, in India, discrimination against women does not end with childhood, nor is it confined to the countryside. Although India has had a woman as prime minister, the percentage of women serving in political or administrative office still remains very low. Some women are major leaders of grassroots movements, and women play an active role in India's vigorous press. Yet women are rare in senior business positions and in the legal and medical professions. Women's movements to combat violence against women have had considerable success in raising awareness of the issue and stimulating government action (India).

Even though women had to struggle in India, there is Pandit, Vijaya Lakshmi, Indian diplomat, who was active in the Indian struggle for independence. She was born in Allahabad, the sister of the statesman Jawaharlal Nehru, and educated at the University of Allahabad. In 1921 she married the Indian lawyer and nationalist leader Ranjit Sitaram Pandit. In the early 1920s, as a strong partisan of Mohandas Gandhi, she joined the civil disobedience movement against British rule and subsequently served four terms in prison for her nationalist activities. In 1937 Pandit was elected to the provincial legislature of the United Provinces and designated minister of local self-government and public health. She held the latter post until 1939 and again from 1946 to 1947, the first woman in India to become a minister. She was Indian ambassador to the U.S.S.R. And to the U.S. She also headed the Indian delegation to the United Nation and presided over the UN General Assembly. A member of the Indian parliament, she later served as Indian high commissioner to Britain and ambassador to Ireland and to Spain. From 1962 to 1964 she was governor of Maharashtra State and then again won a seat in the Indian parliament. In 1977 Pandit joined the Janata coalition party and campaigned against her niece, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (India).

Along with India, South Korea has build up support for women so that they can be equal. The Korean Women's Development Institute or KWDI was established in 1983 to promote women's social participation and welfare by carrying out research and studies on women, by providing education and training for women, and by assisting women's activities. A law passed by the Korean National Assembly in 1982 mandates the KWDI to assist government in popularizing gender consciousness, as well as in promoting gender equality in policy formulation and implementation. Originally under the auspices of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and then under the Ministry of Political Affairs, KWDI is now being coordinated by the Special Committee on Women's Affairs directly under the Office of the President (South Korea).