#jasmine feng

[theinkast]

Jasmine Feng by Yin Chao for Numero China

[lovelostfashionfound]

Jasmine Feng - Numero China October 2013

[lovelostfashionfound]

Jasmine Feng - Numero China September 2013

[lovelostfashionfound]

Jasmine Feng -  Numero China September 2013

[drcknowledgeandpower]

The issue of work life balance is a question often directed at women, though recently I have started noticing this question also being asked to men or men including the topic in their talks. Traditionally women were the ones taking care of the children and staying at home to cook and clean. This idea of women being the homemaker unfortunately carried over to women in the business world. Though men and women should share equal responsibility in taking care of their home and children, these tasks are often seen as women’s work. This is damaging to both men and women, as some men may wish to take care of his children at home and some women may want to continue to work full time after giving birth. There is currently a stigma against both of these groups of people. 

For women, it is often difficult and stressful to be the only woman in the meeting room, or the only woman on the team. In my first internship, I was the only woman on the team. In fact, I was the first woman to ever work on that team. In my second internship, there were two other women on my team, around 10 men. I really appreciated having those two women on the team as my mentors because they have a perspective that men do not have. In general men who are dominant, aggressive, and blunt are respected as being ambitious and leaders, while women who are the same are seen as bitches. I recently saw an article rewriting some famous quotes if they had been said by women in a meeting. Although of course not all women state their opinions apologetically, it is far more common for a woman to than a man. This is not because women are inherently more demure than men, but because societal pressures change them to be this way to be more acceptable. I am very impressed that Wendy Cai-Lee is so successful in different ways. Still, as some people in class who had lunch with her said, she had to be careful when spending time with her male coworkers. When they went out to drink, she would not, because it is fine for men to make a mistake in that setting, but if women do, it would ruin her reputation forever. I am disappointed that even today when so many people believe the feminist movement is unnecessary, that men and women are held to different standards.

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Abortion

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/magazine/the-dawn-of-the-post-clinic-abortion.html

I felt this article expanded my ideas on abortion a lot. There was a lot of information on abortion rights efforts overseas and how it compares to the movement in America. Rebecca Gomperts is the woman the article focuses on. She’s been helping women all over the world with safe abortions for years. I thought she had an interesting approach. Her first attempt was the result of legal loopholes that would allow her to sail a Dutch ship with an abortion clinic aboard to a country that did not allow abortions, take women on board the ship into international waters and perform the procedure there. Upon her arrival in Portugal, the ministry of defense sent 2 warships to stop the ship. However, she did not let that stop her, as she appeared on a talk show to educate women. From this, she realized the power of media and technology to give knowledge to people. Now she partners with an Indian drug exporter to ship mifepristone and misoprostol to women who have no other access to abortion. They have sent pills to Costa Rica, New Zealand, Chile, India, Poland, Pakistan, South Korea, and many more. 

One thing of note was that they do not send help to the United States, though women there can still access the information that is available on their website. The reason for this is that in the United States, women technically have access to safe and legal abortion. Though the United States as a whole is more progressive than many countries on that front, individual states have a lot of power over the choices and lives of women. Why should this be the case? From Miss Representation, I learned that only about 15% of politicians are women. How can we allow men, who have never and will never have to go through the agonizing decision of whether to abort, make decisions for women? When women are forced to carry through a pregnancy, this will affect their lives and the lives of their families. They may not be able to afford food or rent. The women may not be able to continue her studies. She may die from an illegal, misinformed abortion, or from childbirth. When men say that women must continue a pregnancy no matter the circumstance, they are saying that women’s choices do not matter, that women’s value lies in bearing children. As one woman wrote to Rebecca Gomberts said, “It’s magnificent what you’re doing, to help women realize their dreams for themselves.”