New edition of this Atlas of Women which seeks to study questions of femininity in their entirety.
Bruno Modica
Isabelle Attané, Carole Brugeilles and Wilfried Rault. (Dir.) World Atlas of Women, Editions Autre – second edition 2024.
Ten years after the first edition, and in the context, very particular at the moment, of the Mazan rape trial, this publication will certainly attract attention. An atlas is not simply a collection of maps, accompanied, in the case of the Autres editions, with explanatory texts. In this specific case, we find a real editorial line which starts from the bodies of women with the final observation on the persistent inequalities and the struggles which remain to be waged. In the meantime we will examine the private sphere and the public spaces in which women operate.
From a demographic point of view, if in modern societies the increase in life expectancy gives women a numerical advantage in the distribution of the population, at the global level there remain more men than women, in particular because Inequalities of treatment during childhood apply primarily to the female sex. However, their life expectancy, once again more so in modern societies, is much longer than that of men.
Contraception is obviously a subject on which the authors have focused, in particular on the maintenance of constraints which in reality reflect a desire, in different societies, to control women’s bodies. It would also have been interesting to have a regional focus on Muslim countries, particularly because the relationship between religious prescriptions and the actual practices of women is not necessarily in favor of the former.
Africa: mutilations that persist
We will also read with great interest that we are witnessing – finally! – to a decline in female sexual mutilation, even if the figure remains monstrously high at more than 200 million women who undergo excision. We will note in passing that it is not only in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa that this practice remains, but that it remains particularly high in Egypt and Sudan. Likewise, in Mali, particularly in the area where the armed terrorist groups that the French army had to combat were particularly significant, this practice concerns a large majority of little girls.
Once again, in the current context, sexual violence, like feminicide, is addressed, and we see that there are cultural variations with a high prevalence of these practices in the Indian subcontinent.
Facing the couple and marriage
The part which is devoted to the private sphere shows the evolution in terms of sexual life, very widely differentiated in terms of precocity in particular. In modern societies, the use of contraception, which we can sometimes still find insufficient, allows a prolonged period of juvenile sexuality largely differentiated from matrimonial unions. However, in most societies, with varying differences, women’s union takes place at a younger age than men’s. The fact remains that, in all latitudes, sexuality outside marriage is becoming more widespread, as is an evolution in a more liberal direction in terms of forms of union.
Despite these developments, there is still a significant gap in terms of reconciling working life and family life, which still remains difficult. In this regard, public policies remain essential, and this is not simply a question of culture, since even in the Netherlands almost 40% of mothers hold part-time jobs to devote themselves to raising their children.
Women in public space
The place of women in the public space is also discussed, particularly from the angle of schooling, and today we cannot help but think of the fate of Afghan women who are deprived of any schooling, as well as access to employment elsewhere. Income inequalities remain persistent, especially since domestic work time is not taken into account, which would, if taken into account, be a factor reducing inequalities.
This leads us to address the last part on the battles that remain to be fought, simply because inequalities remain numerous, both in the area of political rights and in access to what can be considered essential, i.e. -say food. Among the new indices that make it possible to evaluate situations, there is one that takes into account gender inequality with obviously very significant disparities between continents, but also within continents. The situation is radically different between Romania, for example, and Sweden. Different international organizations are seeking to refine the calculation of this index based on the continents.
The sections covered in this Atlas obviously touch on the intimate, and if we must take the indications with caution, they allow us to have an ultimately quite precise and very complete idea of this movement in favor of equality which began in previous century and which certainly deserves to be pursued.
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