Last week, the World Economic Forum (WEF) convened in Davos, where thought leaders, from Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, met to discuss the world’s pressing issues and the innovative new ways that we can solve them.

But at a conference so committed to progress, and the progress of women, the gender disparity and poor showing of women is jarring, and worrying.

To give you an idea – only about 17% of the attendees were female.  And only 20% of those invited to attend the WEF and discuss issues on panels were women. It’s not that women are choosing not to attend the forum, it’s that they’re not being invited either.
The issue, of course, is not Davos-specific.

Davos is symptomatic of a much larger trend; the world economic forum invites leaders from around the world to attend, and the lack of women in attendance is a clear reflection of the fact that there are too few women in positions of power and influence across the world.

This is not to say that there haven’t been increasing numbers of women in positions of influence. We’ve had a female vice-presidential nominee and seen the likes of Meg Whitman and Sheryl Sandberg in business.

But these women are few and far apart: only 3% of the chief executives running Fortune 500 companies are women and women comprise only 18.9% of the world’s legislators.

The numbers really say it all.

Even though we are taking steps toward progress, we are far from equality. Even though we are seeing higher numbers of women getting college degrees and joining the workforce (even in traditionally male-dominated professions), they remain a minority at higher levels.  The world is still run, in large part, by men.

At Davos, Sheryl Sandberg tried to explain the reason for this situation, saying: “Little girls are called bossy…success and likability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women.”

While such culturally ingrained stereotypes ring too true and will take a long time to change, the fact that we’re now talking about bossy little girls is a step in the right direction.

And to work toward gender equality at all levels of leadership around the world, we need female leaders, such as Sandberg, to be part of the conversation.  That is to say, we need events like the World Economic Forum not only to acknowledge the significant disparity (as they have done), but also to help change the ratio themselves: to invite more women and involve them in the conversation.

Photo Credit: Wold Economic Forum via Creative Commons License.

The stories we hear of women in developing countries are often heart breaking – they’re the stories of struggle, of lack of empowerment – like the one from this past week about the Afghan woman expected to marry her rapist.

It’s not only heartening and inspiring – but also incredibly important – when we hear about people like the ‘Avon ladies’ of Bangladesh.  These incredible women are breaking cultural barriers and redefining their role in society.  Their work might not be revolutionary – they are the Bangladeshi equivalent of traveling, door-to-door salesmen, working through a partnership between Unilever, Danone, and BIC and Care International – to sell products ranging from soaps and razors to cosmetics.

In a country where a mere 4% of women work for a wage, where they earn less than their male counterparts, and where it is accepted that a woman’s place is in the home, not at work – these women, selling soap, sachets, and shampoo – are the true revolutionaries.

The program, of course, has faced its fair share of criticism on a broad range of issues: the low turnover rate, the fact that the program still restricts women to the domestic sphere, the fact that these products aren’t locally made . . . the list is long and is not without merit.

But it’s worth taking a second to notice the nature of the complaints.  The conversation itself is shifting – albeit slowly – from one which questions what the place of women in developing societies is and whether they will be able to leave the domestic sphere and join the workforce – to one that accepts their role in the workplace, that accepts their role as door-to-door sales women, and questions, instead, the nature of the products they sell.

While the program might not be perfect, it’s undoubtedly a step in the right direction, because it is these grassroots efforts that are going to carve a new role for women in the developing world – one that changes the nature of the conversation and imagines a space for women both at home and at work.

The ‘Avon ladies’ of course aren’t alone.  They are part of a much larger story of empowerment. The larger story includes the 97% of Grameen bank borrowers who are women – starting small projects and working their way out of poverty; the women who are victims of human trafficking and have learned crafts – such as jewelry making as a tool to enable economic independence and empowerment; and the women at the bottom of the caste pyramid in North India who have created a weekly newspaper.

As each of these individual efforts – like that of the ‘Avon ladies’ – changes the conversation to one about what women are doing in developing contexts instead of one about whether they will be able to get involved – we make small strides toward empowerment and equality.

Photo Credit: Suzanne Lee of The Guardian

“You come to expect the vitriol, the insults, the death threats,” writes Laurie Penny of The Independent.

What has Penny done to deserve the barrage of attack and abuse?  Oh, well, she’s a woman writer.

Over the past weeks, women bloggers and writers including Penny have taken to Twitter (#mencallmethings) to share their stories of the abuse they have faced as women writing online.

Scrolling through the thousands of tweets and blog posts emerging about the topic, themes start to emerge: rape, “slut,” “hoe”… you get the picture.  The threats and insults these women have faced are often graphic, often sexual, and almost always unwarranted and hurtful.

The theme of trolls leaving unsavory comments on websites of course isn’t new, or exclusive to women writing online.  Part of the deal when writing on the internet – man or woman – is opening yourself up to criticism and comments. The issue here, though, isn’t criticism.  It’s the misogyny veiled as criticism. Calling a woman a ‘slut’ in response to a political post or threatening to rape her isn’t criticism.  It’s abusive.

Further while the internet has blurred boundaries and most content produced online falls under free speech, as Helen Lewis-Hastley of the New Statesman makes an important distinction – that the right to free speech is not the right to make threats against another person.

These comments are worrying not only because they make the internet feel a little less safe, but also because they are telling about society. That some deem it acceptable to criticize a writer based on gender, to comment with threats of sexual violence is worrying.  And that someone’s gender can be seen by trolls and critics as a writer’s weak spot – an easy target to attack – is just appalling.

The price that women pay for sharing their opinions should not be threats and abuse, and equally importantly, should not be sexualized threats and gender-based abuse.

Many bloggers – often those who have faced such comments – have spoken up in recent weeks about #mencallmethings and the abuse that they face.  While anger from these women is expected and universal, that they often argue that these trolls are an expected part our reality is a harsh truth.

For example, Kate Smurthwaite of Cruellablog writes, “These comments reveal a deep-seated hatred towards women.  I find that unsurprising in our culture.  Violent, extreme pornography is normal internet fare.  Gang rape and prostitution are subjects for popular music.  At least 95% of actual rapists are on the streets.”  #mencallmethings is just the tip of a very big iceberg – it’s indicative of bigger problems in society – that “we still live in a sexist society, [and] any woman who sticks her head above the parapet will encounter misogynistic abuse,” according to Natalie Dzerins of Forty Shades of Grey.

It’s worth noting, of course, that while the internet has in a sense enabled this trolls – giving them an easy voice, these trolls are not representative of all commentators.

Just look at the solidarity found on #mencallmethings. Just as there are critics and abusers, there are many offering comfort and calling out for change.

And as the women who face vitriol share their struggles and their stories, they further an important discussion, not only about comments on the internet, but about the underlying causes for these comments in society.  By discussing the opinions and stereotypes fueling this abuse, we take another step toward tackling the misogyny behind it.

However, few of the images we conjure include the $8 billion industry that involves about 12 million people a year, the third largest illegal trade after drugs and arms: sex trafficking.

By definition, sex trafficking is a specific form of human trafficking – when people are involuntarily transported, abducted, or harbored and exploited for sexual purposes.

The definition might seem technical and dry, but the stories of victims are far from it – sex trafficking includes the teenage girls who cross the border from Mexico to the United States in hopes of finding a better life but find instead a brothel; the children who are sold for 15-minute slots throughout the day; the runaways who are abducted and sold.

These stories aren’t just heart-wrenching accounts from the third world.  They are the stories from small towns and big cities across America.  The shocking numbers tell all: Tens of thousands of women and children are trafficked from Mexico to the United States every year and many American children, estimates run as high as 100,000, who are often runaways but also those from ‘good’ families – are abducted, coerced, or lured away from home and then sold for sex.

The problem we face is not only the horrific reality that people are trafficked and that there is a market, both in the United States and around the world, that exists to exploit these people, but also that we know so little about the problem and its magnitude.

And so, it’s the people who are making noise about sex trafficking who are the ones making a difference.  The people like Triveni Acharya, who runs the Rescue Foundation in India, where she rescues and rehabilitates young girls who are victims of sex trafficking.  By taking on the prostitution rings and pimps on a daily basis, Acharya doesn’t just make change, she also makes the headlines, raising awareness with her raids and rehabilitation program.

And it’s people like Lydia Cacho, a courageous journalist who has tried to tell the story of sex trafficking from every angle – not only by interviewing extensively, but by going undercover as well, who are raising awareness by raising their voices.

Masuma is a news junkie who has lived on three continents. This has led to an interest in global issues and international politics. She is particularly interested in understanding the role the media plays in politics – especially how it influences public policy and how it can facilitate cross-cultural conversation and debate. She is a recent graduate from Oxford, with an honors BA in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. When not following the news, Masuma can be found baking a mean cheesecake, on a road trip, or learning to kick-box.