Trick or Treat for Feminism

...Its recently released annual report represents the triumph of Bellamy’s legacy, so much so that the document isn’t even about children...

...To make sure that women remain in the workforce, it promotes proper “birth spacing practices,” teaching girls how to “delay marriage and childbirth” through “knowledge of sexual and reproductive health...

...The authors seem to realize how absurd this is, acknowledging on the very first page of the report: “A logical question that arises from the topic of this report is, ‘Why does UNICEF, an organization that advocates for children, monitor women’s rights?’” In what can only be considered her public capitulation, Veneman herself answers the question: As these pages will make clear, the day when women and girls have equal opportunities to be educated, to participate in government, to achieve economic self-sufficiency and to be secure from gender violence and discrimination will be the day when the promise of gender equality is fulfilled and UNICEF’s mission of a world fit for children can be realized...

...But whatever her intentions, Veneman has failed to take the agency in a new direction...

...The thumbnail account on the UNICEF website says, in its entirety: The State of the World’s Children 2007 examines the discrimination and disempowerment women face throughout their lives—and outlines what must be done to eliminate gender discrimination and empower women and girls...

...Women tend to live longer than men...

...Bellamy spent a decade reorienting the agency from its core mission— child survival—so that UNICEF could pursue the dual ideologies of children’s rights and radical feminism...

...To support such women, the agency campaigns for universal, state-provided child care, which “increases the probability that mothers will enter the labour force...

...Never mind that men make up virtually 100 percent of military casualties...

...agency most effectively focused on a clearly defined mission— continues to pursue this childish feminist agenda...

...Women, in contrast, prefer to treat children immediately with antimalarial drugs from formal medical clinics...

...And so UNICEF seeks to guarantee the proper outcome of democratic elections— the victory of women...

...When asked if she would continue Bellamy’s reproductive rights agenda for adolescents, Veneman responded, “I don’t believe that these issues are relevant to the mission of UNICEF...

...But, alas, the old boys’ network, abettor of vile male habits, turns out to be a global barrier: “Cultural practices that serve to nurture and consolidate bonds of male solidarity within these networks, such as drinking, smoking or golfing, are key stepping stones on the path to political office...

...Many pages are devoted to establishing just how terrible the condition of women is...

...Douglas A. Sylva is a senior fellow at the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute...

...Women want to feed their children, while men do not: “Women prioritize nutrition...

...Children’s Fund, it is clear that she is following in the footsteps of her predecessor, Carol Bellamy...

...It’s almost as if UNICEF were pushing the single career woman with children as the ideal family type...

...While people may believe “that households function as a unit in which family members pool their time and resources to achieve a common set of goals,” UNICEF knows that households are realms of power politics: Evidence suggests that men and women frequently have very different roles and priorities when it comes to household decision-making...

...Veneman’s initial press conference as executive director was watched closely by both left and right, and the right—those seeking to return the agency to the no-nonsense approach that had saved millions of children’s lives through massive immunization drives, oral rehydration therapy, and other basic medical interventions in the 1980s—came away hopeful...

...Women (and their children) are victims because men are bad...

...feminist women, that is—by lobbying for affirmative action in politics...

...A sample of what passes for proof: “Along with children, [women] account for 80 per cent of civilian casualties during armed conflict...

...When the Bush administration followed with Veneman, she was a former secretary of agriculture with no public record on anything more controversial than genetically modified corn...

...And “Children may benefit from the fact that a female household head has full control over the allocation of household income...

...It’s about women...

...Even Mother Nature seems to have it out for women: “In Burkina Faso, for example, where members of the household simultaneously cultivate the same crop on different plots of similar size, evidence shows that, on average, yields are about 18 per cent lower on women’s plots compared to men’s plots...

...Survey results from Cameroon show that income-earning women typically spend 74 per cent of their funds to supplement the family food supply, while men spend only an estimated 22 per cent of their income on food...

...Elderly women may face double discrimination on the basis of both gender and age...

...She even quoted Mother Teresa...

...The tragedy here is that children will die because UNICEF—once respected as the U.N...

...One way to increase women’s power, and thereby improve the lives of women and children, is simply to remove the competition—men...

...Sure enough, the Clintons gave the children of the world a radical feminist lawyer and former New York politician in the person of Bellamy...

...Since the United States is UNICEF’s largest funder, the selection of the executive director in theory reflects the priorities of the American president...

...Why...

...The report is thus a study in the rationalizations necessary to justify replacing UNICEF’s mandate with one of women’s empowerment, which UNICEF defines as liberation from oppression in the household, in the workplace, and in the political sphere...

...On these small studies of obscure village life UNICEF hangs vast generalizations: “Women generally place a higher premium than men on welfare-related goals and are more likely to use their influence and the resources they control to promote the needs of children in particular and of the family in general...

...If only women weren’t excluded from politics by men, women could fix the entire world...

...It looks at the status of women today, discusses how gender equality will move all the Millennium Development Goals forward, and shows how investment in women’s rights will ultimately produce a double dividend: advancing the rights of both women and children...

...Because women are good and men are bad, UNICEF would like to transform the family...

...Research on Latin America has shown that female-headed households may even generate higher earnings, or have more income earners than their male equivalents due to more effective use of household labour...

...If George W. Bush’s handpicked executive director couldn’t salvage UNICEF, what chance does it have to be reformed from within...

...And women want to treat their children with real medicine, while men do not: A study conducted in the Volta region found that men, typically the household decision-makers in rural villages, tend to treat malaria in children with local herbal remedies and generally regard formal medical treatment as a last resort...

...And “Children living in female-headed households consume a more diverse diet than those in male-headed households, especially micronutrient and protein-rich foods that provide the necessary nutrients for the growth and mental development of young children...

...Decisions are often made through a bargaining process in which household members each attempt to use the resources they control for their own priorities...

...Quotas are a proven method of ensuring women break through the political glass ceiling...

...UNICEF and, apparently, Veneman believe that it is now UNICEF’s mandate to empower women, since empowered women lead to healthy children, especially girls...