"For example, it is estimated that one out of every three women in the world has suffered sexual assault or violence from an intimate partner .......
“For example, it is estimated that one out of every three women in the world has suffered sexual assault or violence from an intimate partner
…….one out of every five women in the world was a “child bride” and married before the age of eighteen.
These shocking statistics that affect upwards of one billion women in the world remind us that for all of the symbolic optics we witness in Western nations about women’s empowerment, throughout much of the world, women still live as second-class citizens.”
59 nations have no laws on the books addressing sexual harassment in the workplace……
18 nations around the world allow husbands to legally prevent their wives from working…..
130 million girls are denied the human right to education…. (higher education is sliding away in the West too)
200 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation….
300,000 maternal deaths a year (an increase from 287,000 in 2020)….
the majority of women are involved in agricultural work, but women comprise less than 15% of the world’s landowners..…
Global Women’s Institute Blog Bridging Research and Action for Change
Published by June/2023
Here’s the quiet truth many womanists and feminists live with:
When something harms women, a whole crowd suddenly appears…
not with tools,
not with time,
not with money,
not with protection,
not with solutions.
But with a complaint.
“Why aren’t feminists fixing this? Feminists?”
That sentence is a handoff, not a concern.
It turns women’s suffering into a management problem for women to solve alone.
It treats feminism like a customer service desk for patriarchy.
It assumes:
women have unlimited capacity
women exist to absorb every crisis
women should organize, educate, fund, build, protest, research, heal, protect, and repair
while everyone else gets to stand with folded arms and critique the workload, priorities, and project choices.
And the math is insulting.
There are thousands of active, unresolved harms:
violence
exploitation
poverty
unpaid labor
trafficking
medical neglect
workplace abuse
digital harassment
legal discrimination
child protection failures
immigration risks
disability neglect
No movement in human history could “finish” that list.
So when someone says:
“Why aren’t feminists working on this?”
What they often mean is:
“Why aren’t women doing more unpaid labor so I don’t have to do anything uncomfortable?”
A womanist answer is simple and grounded:
If you see the fire, pick up water.
If you see the wound, learn first aid.
If you see the injustice, bring resources, skills, protection, money, labor, policy, or shelter.
Don’t bring commentary.
Don’t bring deflection.
Don’t bring assignment.
Bring action. Now, please.
Because liberation work is not a suggestion box.
It’s a construction site.
And everyone standing around pointing at the builders while refusing to lift a single beam is not an ally.
They’re part of the delay.
Women are not the help.
We are not the emergency response team for a broken world we did not design. We are not the unpaid labor force for everyone else’s conscience. We are not the customer service desk for violence, neglect, exploitation, and cowardice.
It is tired. It is lazy. It is disrespectful.
Every time something goes wrong for women, the same script appears:
“Why aren’t feminists fixing this?”
As if women have endless bodies.
Endless time.
Endless money.
Endless nervous systems and abundant great health.
Endless grief capacity.
As if we were put on this earth to absorb damage while others critique our workload.
No.
If you see a problem, pick up a damn tool.
Bring labor.
Bring protection.
Bring resources.
Bring policy.
Bring money.
Bring your body.
Bring your reputation.
Bring your comfort into the fire.
But stop standing around pointing at women like we’re the janitorial staff of injustice.
We did not create these systems.
We did not fund them.
We did not benefit from them.
We did not authorize them.
And we are not obligated to spend our entire lives cleaning them up while everyone else stays intact.
Care is powerful.
Solidarity is powerful.
But dumping responsibility on women and calling it “activism” is exploitation.
Women are not the help.
We are human beings.
And that alone already demands more respect than this world has been willing to give.