Feminism, morality, and human rights

Despite numerous international initiatives, including the establishment of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 1946, the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) by the UN General Assembly in 1979 and, recently, the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 to promote gender equality and equal participation, and to end violence against women, the plight of women in the world continues to be distressing. Women comprise about “70% of the world’s 1.3 billion absolute poor” and continue to be disproportionately deprived of food, medicine, and education. ¹ As of 2018, the WHO estimates that, globally, 35% of women have experienced “physical and/or sexual violence” from an intimate partner or a non-partner. ² The WHO further estimates that “approximately 830 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth every day”, with 99% of those women located in the developing world. ³ Indeed, scholars have appropriately wondered “whether being female, itself, threatens one’s survival in the world”. ⁴