A Syrian Kurdish woman crosses the border between Syria and Turkey at the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province. (Photo: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images)
Beyond the Helpless Victim: Media Representation of Women in Conflict Zones
Prominent media outlets represent the scale of a conflict’s violence through the injury and death of women, but otherwise neglect them.
By Carolina Marques de Mesquita – December 20, 2016
Under the May 2016 Wall Street Journal headline “Islamic State Bombings Kill Dozens in Baghdad,” we read the following: “The first bomb struck a crowded market in the predominantly Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Sadr City, killing at least 62 people and wounding 86, mostly women and children.” In April, under the Washington Post headline “U.S.-Russia Cooperation Frays as Syria Truce Falls Apart,” we learn that “at least 90 people, including more than two dozen women and children, have been killed over the last four days in shelling and airstrikes by the Russian-backed Syrian government on rebel-held zones in the strategic city of Aleppo.” In both of these articles, women appear as an afterthought: while their presence is certainly emotionally powerful, they remain a parenthetical note to the “real” story.
The examples I’ve provided above represent the extent of women’s representation across much of the journalism that I have examined in an ongoing media analysis through New America’s Better Life Lab. Since September, I’ve catalogued search results for terms such as “Iraq + women” or “Afghanistan + women + peace” in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal to discover patterns in their 2016 reporting on women in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and South Sudan.
Iris Bohnet, a behavioral economist from Harvard, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where 80 percent of participants are men. CreditKatrin Bennhold/The New York Times
By Katrin Bennhold - Jan. 20, 2017
Iris Bohnet, a behavioral economist from Harvard, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where 80 percent of participants are men. CreditKatrin Bennhold/The New York Times
DAVOS, Switzerland — Iris Bohnet navigates the narrow carpeted stairs to the wood-paneled hotel lobby balancing a smartphone, two bags and a winter coat the size of a duvet. It’s below freezing here. She’s been up for an hour already, checking emails and sending a quick note to her husband, who is looking after their two boys, but mostly, she admits, blow-drying her hair. This is her first observation of the day.
Ms. Bohnet studies gender inequality. A behavioral economist at the Harvard Kennedy School, she is one of about 600 female participants at this year’s World Economic Forum. There are about 2,400 men — that’s 80 percent of all participants. The gender imbalance here very much reflects the dearth of female leaders in the real world. As one female American executive put it: “Who do they think they are? The Senate?”
Direct Link to Full 19-Page 2017 Report:
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=E/CN.6/2017/3
20 January 2017 – Today’s investments in health R&D are poorly aligned with global public health needs. As little as 1% of all funding for health R&D is allocated to diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, although they account for more than 12% of the global disease burden. The WHO Global Observatory on Health R&D builds on existing data to enable decisions on R&D priorities.
Global Observatory on Health R&D
Извор: Светска здравствена организација - 20.01.2017
21 December 2016 - Children make up almost a third of all human trafficking victims worldwide, according to a report released today by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Additionally, women and girls comprise 71 per cent of human trafficking victims, the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons states.
"Trafficking for sexual exploitation and for forced labour remain the most prominently detected forms, but victims are also being trafficked to be used as beggars, for forced or sham marriages, benefit fraud, or production of pornography," said UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov in presenting the report.
The report found that while women and girls tend to be trafficked for marriages and sexual slavery, men and boys are typically exploited for forced labour in the mining sector, as porters, soldiers and slaves. While 28 per cent of detected trafficking victims worldwide are children, in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central America and the Caribbean children comprise 62 and 64 per cent of victims, respectively.
