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How Trump is speeding up the religious war on women's bodies globally

November 02, 2020
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Photo by Mélodie Descoubes on Unsplash
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This post was written by Gillian Kane, Senior Policy Advisor for Ipas

In August, a pregnant 10-year old girl from Southeast Brazil traveled almost a thousand miles to get an abortion. Abortion is highly restricted in Brazil, but legal in cases of rape. The child - who had been raped by her uncle from the age of six - was initially denied this right when staff at her local hospital refused to provide the service.

She then began her long journey north, to a different state. Her case became public. By the time she arrived at the new hospital, anti-abortion protestors had gathered, blocking her entrance. The child entered the hospital hidden in the trunk of a minivan, clutching two stuffed animals. On Aug. 17, she had an abortion.

Three days later, Todd Chapman, President Trump's U.S. Ambassador to Brazil gave a speech on U.S.-Brazil relations at a prestigious think tank in São Paulo. Chapman did not mention the case roiling the country. Nor did he reprimand the government for initially denying a legal health service to a child who had been raped.

Instead, buried in a throwaway line, was a reference to the Geneva Consensus Declaration, an international initiative he claimed would advance the health of women. Given the Administration's appalling record on women's rights, coupled with its eagerness to partner with authoritarian leaders, there is ample reason to distrust any global effort from the White House involving women and girls.

Indeed, the Consensus does not protect women's health. It is in fact, an international anti-abortion manifesto. Gutting abortion rights is one the Trump Administration's bedrock goals, and tomorrow's election is pushing them into overdrive. Evidence the ramming through of Amy Comey Barrett's nomination. Barrett's addition to the Supreme Court threatens the constitutional right to abortion; Roe v. Wade may soon be dismantled.

Trump and his right-wing Republican enablers dream of this happening all over the world. Last week, on Oct. 22, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, formally revealed the Geneva Consensus Declaration at a virtual signing ceremony.

A possible Trump defeat has put intense stress on the Administration, and its conservative religious allies, to leave a lasting impact on the U.N. The Administration is using the Consensus to pressure the global community to join them promoting discriminatory standards and ending access to safe abortion.

This is a hard sell.

In four years the Administration has been incapable of bringing together a majority of nations to endorse their reactionary agendas. Since the summer, the U.S. has aggressively lobbied countries to join the agreement, but they have failed to find many signatories.

There are 193 U.N Member States. The Administration has only secured co-sponsorship from five: Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, and Uganda, and the endorsement of 27 other countries, none our long-time allies, and a majority with appalling records on women's health and human rights. This is an embarrassment for the U.S., and likely accounts for the delay in unveiling the document, which was first projected to launch in early September.

While presented as a consensus document, the Geneva Declaration, with a few dozen signatories, is anything but. Its legitimacy is also an issue. A document generated outside of formal UN negotiations is non-binding and unenforceable. Trump's America First foreign policy represents a retreat from long-established systems of global governance.

The U.S. has defunded or withdrawn from a number of U.N. agencies—many which run development and health projects—and abandoned global commitments providing the human rights framework for government accountability. Where the U.S. is still active at the U.N., they focus on reversing rights for women and LGBTQ people.

This withdrawal has weakened U.S. influence.

The Administration's isolationism is paradoxical; it wants to exit, but also preserve and exert authority. While fostering alternate UN multilateral cooperation, the Administration is also advancing Pompeo's Commission on Unalienable Rights. The Commission–-stacked withmembers who advance conservative interpretations of religious freedom and are hostile to women's and LGBTQ rights–has been rejected by traditional U.S. allies.

The Trump Administration can only find partnerships with governments who similarly disregard established human rights. That a U.S. Ambassador would broadcast an international anti-woman initiative days after a 10-year-old rape survivor was denied a legal abortion, also demonstrates its cruelty.

And that of its like-minded partners.

Immediately after the child received the abortion, the Brazilian government increased restrictions on access to abortion for rape victims. The U.S. has miscalculated. The Administration's ambition to position the Geneva Consensus Declaration and the Commission on Unalienable Rights as the standard setting coalition and human rights framework will be unfulfilled. There is no international consensus to support a reactionary agenda that eviscerates women's rights.

The Trump Administration cannot drive this agenda at the global level, no matter what happens on Nov. 3.

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Can tech help female entrepreneurs break the bias?

Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.