Who owns women bodies

Dravid is of Indian and Samoan descent and grew up in New Zealand. This protective attitude towards the female body has become ingrained in her psyche and simultaneously made her feel like a prisoner in her own skin. The comedian acknowledges that her experience growing up was different to her western friends because of those restrictions that were placed on her body. And sometimes these rules render women powerless to speak out.

Violence against women is one example. Problems associated with drinking in the late 19th century spurred on the suffrage movement. Male drinking culture triggered domestic violence. Rachel Stewart says men need to speak up in curbing violence against women. Award-winning columnist Rachel Stewart was in her teens when she witnessed repeated violence at home.

She was living in the States with her mother and stepfather who would lash out at her mother on a monthly basis. One day, Rachel had had enough. He had to take two months off work for broken ribs and told work that he fell off a ladder. They all believed him. Stewart says the only way to stem violence against women is to get men to intervene because men listen to each other. But more often than not, they just turn a blind eye. Listen to the podcast to hear more about the issues women still face today, as well as the story behind crotch-less bloomers, why toilets weren't available for women until 60 years after colonisation and why sports has largely been the domain of men.

But the more educated a woman was, the more likely she was to have decision-making power over her own body, it said. Separately, the UNFPA said despite constitutional guarantees of gender equality in many countries, on average, women enjoy just 75 percent of the legal rights of men. And only 71 percent of countries guarantee access to overall maternity care, while only 75 percent ensure full, equal access to contraception.

Kanem said many of the shortfalls in bodily autonomy have worsened during the COVID pandemic, with record numbers of women and girls at risk of gender-based violence and harmful practices such as early marriage.

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Whether it's sex, health care or using contraception, women in developing countries lack control over decisions affecting their bodies, the UN says. Attacks includes rape, forced sterilization and genital mutilation. Half of women in the developing world reportedly lack choice over what happens with their own bodies.

Almost half of women in 57 countries around the world are denied the freedom to decide on what to do with their own bodies, the United Nations said in a report on Wednesday.

This includes issues around sex, contraception and health care. The My Body is My Own study lists attacks on women, including rape, forced sterilization, virginity tests and genital mutilation. Their lives are governed by others. The underlying issues are often based on structural, societal problems, such as social taboos around sex for women and entrenched patriarchy, she said.

This leads to male relatives having power over women's choices, Kanem said. Kanem went on to say that when women are denied this power, it reinforces inequalities and perpetuates violence arising from gender discrimination, which is at the root of the problem.