Thoughts on women...

A short post today. The care of pregnant women is at the core of my role as a midwife. Therefore the fact that pregnancy is a time in a woman's life when she is more likely to be affected by domestic violence is even more heart-breaking. It is both more likely to start and more likely to increase in frequency and severity. It is mind-blowing to me that this is even possible, and I am a person who is well informed and not altogether optimistic about the actions of men toward women. The consequences of violence against pregnant women include growth restricted babies, pre-term birth, haemorrhage and spontaneous abortion (miscarriage and stillbirth). The psychological impact is far reaching to women including a multitude of mental health disorders. The impact of children caught up in domestic violence include physical harm, poor self esteem, higher incidences of adverse childhood events, drug abuse in teenage, eating disorders, depression, self harm and suicide. Womens Aid published a ...

Exploitation: "the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work" The exploitation of women and girls represents the ultimate outcome of multiple layers of inequality. Women and girls are more likely to be in poverty, less likely to have an education, more likely to have suffered abuse at the hands of family members. Girls who have no access to school but need to work end up with no autonomy over workplace so are more vulnerable to being exploited by 'recruiters'. They are therefore disproportionately represented in modern slavery - 99% of victims of sexual exploitation are women and girls. One of the reasons modern slavery continues to proliferate is the gendered power imbalance which is upheld by patriarchal structures globally. Culture, some religious beliefs, laws, societal norms and gender roles all contribute to this power imbalance and this is clearly demonstrated in human trafficking where women are dehumanised to the extent t...