Thursday 6 May 2010

mother's day report

from the "time to appreciate what we have" files, the herald informs us that nz is the 6th best place to be a mother:

Save the Children's annual Mother's Day report says the average Kiwi woman will have 20 years of formal education and live to age 82, with almost all having health professionals present when they give birth.

By contrast in the worst place in the world for mothers, Afghanistan, a typical woman will have only four years of formal schooling and die by age 44, and only one in seven has a health professional present in childbirth....

The rankings are based on a weighted average of children's wellbeing and women's status in health, education, income and politics.

which, of course, means that we are doing well compared to others. but should we comparing our status in comparison to other countries, where women have fewer opportunities and lower healthcare? or with our male counterpart in this country, with whom we have something more in common ie theoretically at least, the same opportunities and the same access to health and education?

sometimes these articles seem to have a tone of "you're doing well here, so stop complaining". however, it is interesting to see who we're doing better than. the united states doesn't feature in the top 9, surprisingly. on the other hand, australia rates at number 2. also interesting is that the countries with higher taxes seem to do a lot better than countries with lower taxes. norway, sitting at the top, would be the country our minister of women's affairs quoted in a press release as the one which "requires companies to have a 40 percent quota of women directors".

4 comments:

A Nonny Moose said...

To counterpoint, and make teh wimminz jelus, Stuff has "The Worlds Richest Mums"

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/3664346/The-worlds-richest-mums

Telling: "Of the 70 billionaire moms, only eight built their vast fortunes on their own, compared to 555 self-made billionaires who are fathers, according to Forbes.com."

*mentally hears wafts of some Dude singing "She ain't nothing but a gold digger, gold digger..."*

Anonymous said...

I think that the'other people have it worse so we should stop complaining' attitude is quite prevelant in New Zealand. I personally don't think it's helpful and as you say, we should be comparing within NZ. This attitude is applied wherever it suits - women's rights, indigenous rights, children's rights - and is essentailly a cop out and an excuse to let the status quo prevail.

lenore said...

I think it is important to understand the plight of many women around the world to keep our lives in perspective. BUT FFS there are still so many issues and when you have 3 daughters like I have, I get bloody angry. Like I made the mistake of watching 3 news and the sports section spent quite a bit of time on the NZ men's 20 20 cricket, even showing other teams and then after filming and discussing the events, there was a one second mention that the NZ women's team had made the 20 20 world cricket final. What the f#%*? what century am i in again? The invisibleness of women in sport in the media unless we are lucky to get a bit of netball (and I hate netball) is just a small area of a huge struggle for us to be fairly represented. It is so important not to get complacent.

And while I am feeling angry, piss on Mothers day - what a load of bloody crap to try and sell us stuff to make us feel like we are special when at the same time taking away assistance for mothers who are really struggling!

A Nonny Moose said...

And just a reminder that you'll have to clean up the dishes after the kids have made you that breakfast in bed, so don't get too comfy...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/wellbeing/3673817/Undervalued-mums-toil-hardest-at-home