Challenges Women Confronted in the 1990s

Four important challenges confronted women in the 1990s: increasing practical literacy, gaining access to employment opportunities at all levels in the economy, promoting change in the perception of women’s roles and status, and gaining a public voice both within and outside political process.

There have been various attempts at social and legal reform aimed at improving women’s lives during the twentieth century. Indeed there may be contradictions inherent in the gender agenda of some nationalist projects, yet more and more steps are being taken so women can participate actively in programs especially in the area of the physical sciences. This is an area where women are now becoming more and more recognized. In the nineteenth century there was a struggle to introduce female education, to ease some of the restrictions on women’s activities. Yet more and more, women began to be active participants and many of the earliest proponents of education improved social status for women. They advocated cooking and sewing classes conducted in a religious framework to advance women’s knowledge and skills. Feminists campaigned for increased breast cancer research, more convenient and cheaper contraceptive methods. Research on the physiology of menopause and elimination of unnecessary surgical interventions such as hysterectomies, Cesarean sections and radical mastectomies. These campaigns were supported by several advocacy groups. In 1990 the U.S. National Institute of Health established the Office of Research on Women’s Health and launched the Women’s Health Initiative to redress gender inequities in medical research. (Creager & Schiebinger).

For the women in developing countries, for example, promoting the education of women was a first step in moving beyond the constraints. The nationalist struggle helped fray the threads in socially imposed curtains. Simultaneously, women’s roles were questioned, and their empowerment was linked to the larger issues of nationalism and independence (ibid).

A review of Muslim history and culture brings to light many areas in which Qur’anic teaching notwithstanding, women continued to be subjected to diverse forms of oppression and injustice, often in the name of Islam, while the Qur’an because of its protective attitude toward all downtrodden and oppressed classes of people, appears to be weighted in many ways in favor of women...

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...ford while the woman has no choice in the matter. Among some tribes husbands do not sleep with their wives except for purposes of procreation. They do not eat with their wives and children. When the wife brings him his food, she places it on the ground before him so that he will not be contaminated by her touch. He then pulls it toward himself with his foot (Abdullah. 1988).

There is hope though for women in this area. More and more women are realizing that they can rectify systemic injustices. They look toward a future when feminist theorizing has a more profound influence on society including medicine and health. This, in a way, is where they are most capable because of their motherly instincts. They look toward a future when the voices of the socially marginalized are fully recognized, and the needs of all social groups are incorporated into a system of healthcare justice that is responsive to the diverse needs of all across the globe.

In sum, the overall purpose of feminist issues such as these is the development of a human community that values the health and well being of all, regardless of any impediments to gender and race.