Post Tagged with: "Women"

Infograph: Mythbuster – 10 Myths About Women and Cycling

October 10, 2013 at 5:00 pm

Via Momentum Mag

Have you been in Washington, DC and New York City recently? These two cities, along with a growing number of other American cities, offer a great bikesharing programs. A good majority of the users of these systems are women, who have fondly embraced cycling (not just as a workout but also for many other reasons) and the numbers are growing rapidly as the popularity of the bikesharing continues to expand across the country.

A recent report from League of American Bicyclists shows a growing a trend seen on streets nationwide: Women are changing the face of bicycling, and bicycling is transforming the lives of women. Momentum Mag, in conjunction with League of American Bicyclists, has put together an infographic that highlights 10 common myths about women cycling, which is filled with all kinds of interesting statistics.  Check it out

Image Courtesy: Momentum Mag

Click here to download the high-resolution version.

While we are at it, let me also share the Women on a Roll report, which serves as the basis for this infograph.

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Unsuck the Saudi obsession with female virginity? Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council says no more virginity in Saudi if women drive

December 2, 2011 at 4:35 pm

(Source: Telegraph, UK via Reddit)

Allowing women drivers in Saudi Arabia will tempt them into sex, promote pornography and create more homosexuals, according to some conservative Muslim scholars.

Image Courtesy: mlibysvensson.com via Google Images

Saudi women will have to languish little longer in their plush,& palatial homes and continue their wait for tasting the freedom of driving that so many women around the world take it for granted.  The following appeared in today’s Telegraph (and in many news sites on the web): “Academics at the Majlis al-Ifta’ al-A’ala, which is Saudi Arabia‘s highest religious council, said the relaxation of the rules would inevitably lead to “no more virgins”.   The academics, working in conjunction with Kamal Subhi, a former professor at the conservative King Fahd University, produced the conclusions in a report for the country’s legislative assembly, the Shura Council.”  Click here to read the full story.

Editor’s note:  So, how is the world reacting to this news? As always, the brilliant global hive of Redditors made quite a few interesting comments/remarks on this women-no-drive policy shoved down the throats of Saudi women.  Jokes apart, it brings up many serious questions.  Many Islamic nations across the globe, such as Malaysia & Bahrain, are as staunchly religious as Saudi Arabia but have understood the value of freedom and enabled their women to drive.  No Malaysian cleric will ever step up and utter such non-sense statements and get away with it easily.  Heck, at this point one can go on the limb and say even the most oppressive of regimes such as Myanmar and North Korea don’t treat their women like some 2nd class citizens.  What is up with the Saudi’s and their obsession with female virgins?

I pity the plight of the Saudi head of state. His situation is like someone caught between the devil and the deep sea.  On one side, he must be nervously watching the revolutions sweeping across the Middle East and on the other side, he has to deal with these religious zealots stoking anti-regime sentiments with such recommendations, and ordering how others should live based on their own interpretation of a religious manual.  If anything, Saudi monarchs have an ultimate decision to make here and determine if they will side with the rest of the world and treat their women as equals and not second class citizens. Let’s us sincerely hope that the women will ultimately win their freedom.

Here are a couple of related articles published over a period on Transportgooru.com:

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Adding More Sister Power – 14 Female U.S. Senators Write Letter To Saudi King Urging To Overturn Ban on Female Drivers

July 26, 2011 at 6:53 pm

(Source:  Mashable)

Image Courtesy: Position2.com

The women of Saudi Arabia, who are steadfastly fighting the monarchy for the right to drive, today received a shot in the arm for their ongoing campaign from their counterparts across the oceans.  Social media website Mashable.com report the on the development (excerpt):

Fourteen female United States senators have sent a letter to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, asking him to lift the ban that keeps women from driving within the kingdom.

The letter — dated July 26 — comes as a major boost for an ongoing social media campaign against the ban.

The bipartisan letter admits that the kingdom has recently taken some steps that advance women’s rights, including the appointment of its first woman deputy minister and the establishment of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, “the only university in Saudi Arabia that allows women to study alongside men and where women are allowed to drive motor vehicles on campus.”

The 14 senators  aren’t the only female politicians to throw their support behind the Women2Drive movement.  In the recent months, a number of House of Representatives members — including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.— also expressed their support for the campaign last month. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at a news conference, following a Change.org petition started by activist coalition Saudi Women for Driving, calling the women’s efforts brave.  On the other side of the Atlantic, the European Union’s Catherine Ashton, high representative and European Commission vice president, has also issued statements to show her support.

The question remains how much these external forces can sway the King and the his key decision-makers, who are fighting for their own battle against the hardcore religious zealots jockeying for control/power within the Kingdom.   Let’s hope the Women of Saudi Arabia win their freedom soon.

Click here to read the entire article.

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Bucking the trend? Why Dutch women don’t work longer hours and still be happy:

November 18, 2010 at 2:18 pm

Maybe y’all American women want to consider moving to Netherlands? Great read

Amplify’d from www.economist.com

IN AMERICA, as pretty much everywhere in the world, the happy narrative of development and freedom has involved more women working in the cash economy, achieving financial independence and thus greater autonomy. It’s interesting when you find a country that seems to buck these sorts of universal narratives, and as Jessica Olien points out in Slate, the Netherlands bucks the women’s-development narrative in a pretty odd fashion: it has extremely high indicators for gender equality in every way (education, political participation, little violence against women, ultra-low rates of teen conception and abortion) except that women don’t work. Or not full-time, anyway, at anything like the rates at which women work in most OECD countries. Moreover, they don’t seem to want to. Nearly 60% of Dutch working women aged 25-54 worked part-time in 2001, compared to 15% in the United States, 25% in France and 35% in Germany; but where 25% of French women working part-time say they want to work full-time, just 4% of Dutch women do. The Dutch began identifying women’s failure to participate in the workforce more aggressively as a major social problem in the 1990s, which led to a tax reform intended to incentivise women out of the cosy “trap” of part-time work. Instead, most women used the better tax treatment as a way to work less. And Ms Olien, an American who’s spent a few months living in the Netherlands, wonders whether the Dutch haven’t got the smoother end of the stick:

Read more at www.economist.com
 
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/960A1a

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Bucking the trend? Why Dutch women don’t work longer hours and still be happy:

November 18, 2010 at 2:09 pm

Maybe y’all American women want to consider moving to Netherlands? Great read

Amplify’d from www.economist.com

IN AMERICA, as pretty much everywhere in the world, the happy narrative of development and freedom has involved more women working in the cash economy, achieving financial independence and thus greater autonomy. It’s interesting when you find a country that seems to buck these sorts of universal narratives, and as Jessica Olien points out in Slate, the Netherlands bucks the women’s-development narrative in a pretty odd fashion: it has extremely high indicators for gender equality in every way (education, political participation, little violence against women, ultra-low rates of teen conception and abortion) except that women don’t work. Or not full-time, anyway, at anything like the rates at which women work in most OECD countries. Moreover, they don’t seem to want to. Nearly 60% of Dutch working women aged 25-54 worked part-time in 2001, compared to 15% in the United States, 25% in France and 35% in Germany; but where 25% of French women working part-time say they want to work full-time, just 4% of Dutch women do. The Dutch began identifying women’s failure to participate in the workforce more aggressively as a major social problem in the 1990s, which led to a tax reform intended to incentivise women out of the cosy “trap” of part-time work. Instead, most women used the better tax treatment as a way to work less. And Ms Olien, an American who’s spent a few months living in the Netherlands, wonders whether the Dutch haven’t got the smoother end of the stick:

Read more at www.economist.com
 
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/960A1a

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Bucking the trend? Why Dutch women don’t work longer hours and still be happy:

November 18, 2010 at 1:46 pm

Maybe y’all American women want to consider moving to Netherlands? Great read

Amplify’d from www.economist.com

IN AMERICA, as pretty much everywhere in the world, the happy narrative of development and freedom has involved more women working in the cash economy, achieving financial independence and thus greater autonomy. It’s interesting when you find a country that seems to buck these sorts of universal narratives, and as Jessica Olien points out in Slate, the Netherlands bucks the women’s-development narrative in a pretty odd fashion: it has extremely high indicators for gender equality in every way (education, political participation, little violence against women, ultra-low rates of teen conception and abortion) except that women don’t work. Or not full-time, anyway, at anything like the rates at which women work in most OECD countries. Moreover, they don’t seem to want to. Nearly 60% of Dutch working women aged 25-54 worked part-time in 2001, compared to 15% in the United States, 25% in France and 35% in Germany; but where 25% of French women working part-time say they want to work full-time, just 4% of Dutch women do. The Dutch began identifying women’s failure to participate in the workforce more aggressively as a major social problem in the 1990s, which led to a tax reform intended to incentivise women out of the cosy “trap” of part-time work. Instead, most women used the better tax treatment as a way to work less. And Ms Olien, an American who’s spent a few months living in the Netherlands, wonders whether the Dutch haven’t got the smoother end of the stick:

Read more at www.economist.com
 
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/960A1a

Read more Comments Off

Bucking the trend? Why Dutch women don’t work longer hours and still be happy:

November 18, 2010 at 12:42 pm

Maybe y’all American women want to consider moving to Netherlands? Great read

Amplify’d from www.economist.com

IN AMERICA, as pretty much everywhere in the world, the happy narrative of development and freedom has involved more women working in the cash economy, achieving financial independence and thus greater autonomy. It’s interesting when you find a country that seems to buck these sorts of universal narratives, and as Jessica Olien points out in Slate, the Netherlands bucks the women’s-development narrative in a pretty odd fashion: it has extremely high indicators for gender equality in every way (education, political participation, little violence against women, ultra-low rates of teen conception and abortion) except that women don’t work. Or not full-time, anyway, at anything like the rates at which women work in most OECD countries. Moreover, they don’t seem to want to. Nearly 60% of Dutch working women aged 25-54 worked part-time in 2001, compared to 15% in the United States, 25% in France and 35% in Germany; but where 25% of French women working part-time say they want to work full-time, just 4% of Dutch women do. The Dutch began identifying women’s failure to participate in the workforce more aggressively as a major social problem in the 1990s, which led to a tax reform intended to incentivise women out of the cosy “trap” of part-time work. Instead, most women used the better tax treatment as a way to work less. And Ms Olien, an American who’s spent a few months living in the Netherlands, wonders whether the Dutch haven’t got the smoother end of the stick:

Read more at www.economist.com
 
See this Amp at http://bit.ly/960A1a

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Attention All Men: Study Says Women More Attracted To Men In Expensive Cars

March 27, 2009 at 1:14 pm

(Source: Jalopnik)

A UK university’s released a study proving what any car salesman’s ever told us, women judge men primarily by wealth and status, digging guys in expensive cars more than those driving an econobox.

The survey, run by researchers at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff, claims it shows women rate a man higher if he is behind the wheels of a “fancy motor rather than in an old banger.” The University team showed women pictures of the same man sitting in two cars — a $100,000 silver Bentley Continental and a battered Ford Fiesta.  The women, aged between 21 to 40, picked the man sitting in the Bentley ahead of the same man in the Ford.

 

The source article on Telegraph UK quotes the study’s author, Dr Dunn, that he believes this basic human trait will not change in the future – even as women become more independent and wealthy in their own rights.  He said: “It appears that the stereotype of women being positively influenced by a man’s status is true and, evolutionarily speaking, this makes sense.  “However, even with the growing number of women in high-paid careers and the fact that they can be highly successful has no effect on how attractive they are to men.  “What you find is that these new, wealthy women still show a preferment for high-status males.”

Now his researchers plan to carry out further studies – to guide men buying expensive cars in their mid-life crisis.  Dr Dunn, who admits to driving an old Ford Ka, will examine if high-status items like expensive cars can help make up for “the attractiveness-diminishing effects of age.”

Click here to read more. 
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