Women & Children First......Into the Abyss, that is!

"Great" line from a recent article: In a time of war and record unemployment, the GOP is sending a message: fertile women are the country’s number one enemy, and their freedoms must be quashed at all costs. I know many people are thinking "What is UP with all this attack on women, children, and the poor lately?" And all I can say is lately? This country has historically, shamefully, lagged beyond other "modern," industrialized nations in how we treat women & children.

The just-passed Mother's Day prompted a piece in the Chronicle that shows the U.S. ranks 34th out of 44 developed countries in a ranking of conditions for motherhood. Of course the top ten is a Who's Who of those dirty "Socialist" countries that actually use their resources and taxes on helping people rather than killing them: Norway, Australia, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Belgium, Holland, and France. The U.S. is a whole 2 spots above Belarus and below such earthly paradises as: Slovakia, Croatia, and Latvia! Woo-hoo! BTW, they measured things like maternity leave, income, political clout, life expectancy, maternal & infant mortality, etc.).

Most shockingly, a woman in the U.S. is seven times as likely as a woman in Italy or Ireland to die from pregnancy-related causes, and her risk is FIFTEEN times that of a woman in Greece! SERIOUSLY? We need to send U.S. women to fucking Greece so that they're less likely to die in childbirth?? What's wrong with this picture??

Here on the home front, another recent study looked just at the U.S., and at women in general, to determine the "worst states to be a woman in." The list, on the whole, shouldn't be a surprise to anyone with half a brain: Mississippi, Texas, S. Dakota, Indiana, Oklahoma (top 5, baby!), Kansas, Minnesota(!), Georgia, Arizona, and Louisiana.

As mentioned, it's not enough that we treat women like shit, we have to be evil to the kids, too (I guess this is a good thing for little girls, so they can be ready for a lifetime of second-class citizenship). And if you think moms have it bad here, kids rank even worse: 34th (what's interesting here is that Japan ranks 2nd for kids, but 28th for moms).

Again, you've got your Swedens and your Norways and your Frances in the Top 10, while the U.S. languishes below such kid-friendly countries as Lituania and Hungary and right above Serbia! Woo-hoo! We beat Serbia! We're number 34! We're number 34!

I think what makes these stats most appalling is the ignorance in this country re: how "awesome" we are and how shitty everyone else is. But what does it say about a country that is SO rich, SO powerful, etc., and yet can't even crack the top 20 in terms of how we treat women & children? It's sad, scary, horrible, and anger-inducing beyond belief!

As the Chronicle so nicely summed it up, "The Hallmark cards, flowers, and family brunches are nice gestures. But...let us not be under any illusion that we are doing enough (for women)." Or children, for that matter. :(

For more info/stats on women & children throughout the world, click HERE.

For more info/stats on the 10 worst states to be a woman, click HERE.