Argentina

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So beautiful. I love her wrinkles.

Population: 41,343,201
Capital: Buenos Aires
Language: Spanish
Religion: nominally Roman Catholic 92% (less than 20% practicing)
Life Expectancy: 76.76 years
GDP per Capita: $14,700


• In just Buenos Aires province, police receive an average of 53 complaints of domestic violence a day
• 103 women die from breast cancer each week
• According to this website “Argentina has more plastic surgeries and non-surgical procedures than all but 12 countries in the world. That’s the conclusion of a new global survey carried out by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, or ISAPS. Last year Argentines had 132,486 plastic surgeries; according to the survey. Argentina has an estimated 517 plastic surgeons, putting in 11th place worldwide. That’s more than France (464), Canada (425) and the U.K. (274).


For Argentina I want to focus on one group of women specifically, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is a human rights activist organization that has fought for over thirty years for the right to re-connect with their abducted children. The mothers' children were abducted by Argentine government agents during the "Dirty War" 1976-1983, many of the children were tortured and killed. "The military has admitted that over 9,000 of those kidnapped are still unaccounted for, but the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo say that the number is closer to 30,000" (link)


The 14 founders of the association include, Azucena Villaflor de De Vincenti, Berta Braverman, Haydée García Buelas, María Adela Gard de Antokoletz, Julia Gard, María Mercedes Gard and Cándida Gard (4 sisters), Delicia González, Pepa Noia, Mirta Baravalle, Kety Neuhaus, Raquel Arcushin and Sra. De Caimi. These brave 14 women started the demonstrations on the Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada presidential palace, on 30 April 1977. Since then the women have continued to gather and protest wearing white head scarves with their children's names embroidered on them every Thursday afternoon.


The women have continued to raise awareness and hold on to the memory of their lost children throughout the years by the creation of an independent university, bookstore, library and cultural center. Read more here


Here is another link to the mothers’ website.


Below is a well done video of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, it will at least give you some sort of idea of what it looks like

Also here is the song that U2 wrote about the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo—Its called Mothers of the disappeared.

Thanks for reading!

Brazil

Elaine Davidson is the "Most Pierced Woman" according to the Guinness World Records and she’s Brazilian!! Check her out on wikipedia to see just how many piercings she has….you won’t believe it! I'm not at all saying that this is a common thing to do among Brazilian women, i just thought it was fascinating.  

Population: 201,103,330

Capital: Brasília

Language: Portuguese

Religion: Roman Catholic 73.6% (nominally)

Life Expectancy: 72.26 years

GDP per Capita: $10,900

• 30% of adult women who say they have experienced physical abuse by a male partner or intimate

• 72% of murdered women were killed by a relative of friend

• Abortion is illegal or only done to save women’s life

• 217 women die each week from breast cancer

• Has a total of 6 Miss Universe winners, from 1952-2010, which is one of the highest in the world.

• Is a source country for sex trafficking. In fact, “Brazil has one of the worst child prostitution problems in the world and is one of the favored destinations of sex tourists from Europe and the United States” LINK.

If you’re interested here is an overview of what women in Brazil have gone through throughout history. It’s very straight forward and full of interesting facts; Womens history in Brazil

Now moving on to something a little different, Ms. Rouseff!

Dilma Vana Rousseff is the 36th and current President of Brazil. She is the first woman and economist to hold office in the country, in 2005 she was also the first woman to become Chief of Staff of Brazil. She became a socialist in her youth and "joined various left-wing and Marxist urban guerrilla groups that fought against the military dictatorship. Rousseff was captured and jailed between 1970 and 1972 and reportedly tortured." She help found the Democratic Labor Party in Rio Grande do Sul state. She was included in the Forbes' list of the most powerful people in the world, at the 16th position. You can read all about her here.

"Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said Tuesday on a popular television program that she has opened the way for every girl in the country who dreams of being president."

"What is most important about my being president is that now all girls can aspire be president and it will be seen as completely normal in Brazil that a woman becomes president"

"Rousseff said that her taking office as president represents the breaking of a paradigm and blamed the macho mentality for spreading an image of her as a "tough" woman." "Did you ever see a man who became leader of the country being called 'tough?'" the president asked, adding that "women are expected to be fragile, at least the image people have is that women are fragile...and when a woman takes a position of leadership, of authority, she's seen as stepping outside her proper role."

"She said that since poverty in Brazil is worst among women and children, she will adapt government programs for combating destitution to make them favor women more, especially single parents"

Here is the link to the article that the above quotes are from

Wow! What a role model for girls and women of Brazil and of the world! She's a women who has been through a lot and has achieved a lot. If your interested there is lots of information and biographies on her out there, go ahead and research it! Its so neat to see everything that she has done. She hasn't let the fact that she is a women hold her back! I'm am positive it hasn't been easy for her but now she's inspiring women all over the country, how exciting!



Dilma Rousseff (Kinda opposite of Elaine Davidson eh?)
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Sweden

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Population: 9,074,055
Capital: Stockholm
Language: Swedish
Religion: Lutheran 87%
Life Expectancy: 81.2 
GDP per Capita: $43 654 per capita

• In 1999 Sweden became the first country to have a majority of female government ministers
• No other country has a higher proportion of women as parliamentarians (43 percent) and cabinet ministers (50 percent),
• Sweden leads the developed world in the percentage of professional and technical workers who are women. The proportion of women in the labor force is the highest worldwide.
• Sweden is considered a leader in gender equality. Advancement in this arena is a significant national self-stereotype, a symbol of what distinguishes Swedes from others.
• In 1999, Sweden became the first nation to criminalize the buyer, not the seller, of sexual services


Interesting fact: In 1995, Sweden began reserving one month of parental leave for fathers. After the birth of a child, a couple receives fifteen months of paid leave to divide between them, with one month set aside for each parent; a father who chooses not to participate forfeits the couple's parental benefit payment for that month. Check out this website for more info!

Interesting fact: According to many articles, magazines and people Sweden is ranked one of the top places for women to live!


So when I was researching women of Sweden I kept seeing the name Irene Anderson, so I decided to check her out a bit. Turns out she is a Swedish body builder. She is known to many as the strongest woman in Sweden. Here is the link to her website if you’re interested. And below is one of her videos; 

Just for the record “The first U.S. Women's National Physique Championship, promoted by Henry McGhee and held in Canton, Ohio in 1978, is generally regarded as the first true female bodybuilding contest - that is, the first contest where the entrants were judged solely on muscularity (Todd, 1999)” –read more here

I find this concept of female bodybuilding extremely fascinating. Sometimes the extremes that some of these women (and also men) go to seem crazy to me. It’s also interesting to think about it in terms of gender definitions. Most people would not deny that these women do have very masculine bodies…for a lot of us this seems strange and not right, but then the question becomes “who is determining what is right and wrong for females and males?” “Who says women can’t have muscles like men, and who says that muscles like that are solely masculine.” It makes me question the terms and definitions that society and culture indoctrinates into us. Is society right? Is it a nature vs. nurture concept? Hmmmmm….so many questions and thoughts to leave you pending with...and unfortunately i have no set answers for you, but I encourage you to think about it for yourself! 

Thanks for reading! :)

France

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Population: 60,656,178
Capital: Paris
Language: French
Religion: Roman Catholic 83%-88%
Life Expectancy: 79.6 years
GDP per Capita: $ 41, 051 per capita

• A women dies every four days as a result of partner violence
• 215 women die a week from breast cancer
• In 1991 a constitutional amendment required political parties to put up 50% of women candidates in almost all local and national election
• Women did not receive the vote until 1944
• 82 percent of parliamentary seats are occupied by men.
• French women earn 26 percent less than men but spend twice as much time on domestic tasks.
• They have the most babies in Europe, but are also the biggest consumers of anti-depressants.


I found an article from the New York Times about women in France; here are what I thought were the most interesting quotes from it:

“A recent 22-country survey by the Pew Research Center summed it up: three in four French people believe men have a better life than women, by far the highest share in any country polled”


“French women are exhausted,” said Valérie Toranian, editor-in-chief of Elle magazine in France. “We have the right to do what men do — as long as we also take care of the children, cook a delicious dinner and look immaculate. We have to be superwoman.”


“Irrespective of income, parents get a monthly allowance of €123, or about $170, for two children, €282 for three children and an additional €158 for every child after that.”


“[I] try to stay longer than [my] male colleagues in the evenings. Otherwise, “everyone will just assume that I’m leaving because of my children and that I am not committed to the job.”

You can read the article yourself here
The article talks a lot about how women in France are expected to “do it all.” But for me “Doing it all” just sounds like so much, so where is the balance?
I think it’s really neat how France has free nursery and childcare for children not yet in school, I think that would make such a difference in people’s lives.
Also I found the fact that families get a government allowance depending on the number of children they have and no matter how much money they make extremely interesting. “Family allowance is paid to families with two or more dependent children living in France. It is neither means-tested nor related to previous employment periods. The amount of the family allowance as of 1st January 2010 is 32% of the monthly family benefit base (€124.54) for two children and 41% (€159.57) for each additional child.” link Interesting eh?

Russia

Population: 141, 850, 000
Capital: Moscow
Language: Russian
Religion: Primarily Russian Orthodox
Life Expectancy: 67.8
GDP per Capita: $8 676 per capita

• 36000 women are beaten every day by a husband or partner
• 70% say they have experienced physical abuse by a male partner or intimate (one of the highest in the world)
• In 1994, 565,000 cases of domestic violence were reported to the police
• 32% of all murders are women killed by domestic violence. In fact approximately every forty minutes one women dies from domestic violence, that’s around 14 000 a year.
• Both a source and destination country for sex trafficking

Beautiful art expressing violence against women,

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Russian proverb – “A beating man is a loving man”

In researching Russia I discovered that domestic violence is a huge problem. And to make it worse police are often hesitant to intervene and “interfere” with family matters. Men who do beat or rape their wives are unlikely to face prosecution; therefore most cases of domestic violence are left unreported. As well women who are looking for help do not have very many options. In 2009 there were only 20 shelters in the entire country for women fleeing domestic violence and not one of them was found in Moscow the largest city in Russia. It’s hard to say that the problem is getting any better, this year alone 18 non-governmental organizations or charities working on issues of domestic violence against women were closed in Russia, due to a lack of federal and local funding. I found and read so many articles that talk about this violence, check them out for your self;

Domestic-Violence-Kills

Russia-domestic-violence-against-women

World Press- Violence against women in Russia

I couldn’t believe these statistics and more then that I couldn’t believe that I had never heard these shocking numbers before. I mean I know that domestic violence is a big problem around the world, but I had no idea Russia was the worst. I can’t imagine what it would be like for those women, having no where to go and no one to turn to…what would you do, where would you go?  

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