title: Frankfurt School

text: In the 1970s, perceiving the limitations of the New Left, Marcuse de-emphasized the third world and revolutionary violence in favor of a focus on social issues in the United States. He sought to recruit other movements on the political periphery, such as environmentalism and feminism, to a popular front for socialism. During this period, he spoke enthusiastically about women's liberation, seeing in it echoes of his earlier work in "Eros and Civilization". Seeing that the revolutionary moment of the 1960s was over, Marcuse advised students to avoid even a suggestion of terrorism. Instead he advocated the "long march through the institutions" and recommended educational institutions as a refuge for radicals in the U.S.


title: Frankfurt School

text: The Frankfurt School was a significant influence on Paolo Freire in the conception of critical pedagogy, alongside influences from orthodox Marxism, the Praxis School, and Frantz Fanon. Freire's work made major inroads towards increasing literacy in Brazil and the third world, which Freire saw as an essential step towards raising class consciousness. Critical pedagogy was meant initially to address the needs of peasants resisting oppression rather than students in the United States, who attend universities as part of a process of entering the social or economic elite. Amidst the decline of the New Left, rise of neoconservativism, and election of Ronald Reagan, leftist academics turned from revolutionary economic Marxism towards cultural Marxism. Animated by Aronowitz's reminder of Marx's dictum, "the ultimate task of philosophy and theory was not merely to 'comprehend reality' but to change it", Henry Giroux sought to make the university classroom a site for class struggle. Giroux drew on the work of Gramsci and the British cultural Marxists in conceiving of teachers as a revolutionary vanguard. Alongside Michael Apple, Giroux popularized Freire in educational studies, to the point that Freirian language and techniques of critical pedagogy became ubiquitous in liberal arts classrooms of the 1990s. The value of these practices were questioned in the broader cultural conversation on political correctness.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: Half-Life is a series of first-person shooter (FPS) games developed and published by Valve. The games combine shooting combat, puzzles and storytelling.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: The original "Half-Life," Valve's first product, was released in 1998 for Windows to critical and commercial success. Players control Gordon Freeman, a scientist who must survive an alien invasion. The innovative scripted sequences were influential on the FPS genre, and the game inspired numerous community-developed mods, including the multiplayer games "Counter-Strike" and "Day of Defeat". "Half-Life" was followed by the expansions "" (1999), "" (2001) and "" (2001), developed by Gearbox Software.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: In 2004, Valve released "Half-Life 2" to further success, with a new setting and characters and physics-based gameplay. It was followed by the extra level "" (2005) and the episodic sequels "" (2006) and "" (2007). The first game in the "Portal" series, set in the same universe as "Half-Life", was released in 2007.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: Over the following decade, numerous "Half-Life" games were canceled, including "", a version of "Half-Life 3", and games developed by Junction Point Studios and Arkane Studios"." In 2020, after years of speculation, Valve released its flagship virtual reality game, "". Set 5 years before "Half-Life 2", players control Freeman's ally Alyx Vance in her quest to defeat the alien Combine.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: Valve's first product, "Half-Life," was released on November 19, 1998 for Windows. Players control Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist at the Black Mesa Research Facility, where an experiment accidentally causes a dimensional rift and triggers an alien invasion. Unlike many other games at the time, the player has almost uninterrupted control of Freeman, and the story is told mostly through scripted sequences. "Half-Life" received acclaim for its graphics, gameplay and seamless narrative. It won over 50 "Game of the Year" awards and is considered one of the most influential FPS games and one of the best video games ever made.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: "Half-Life" was followed by an expansion pack, "Opposing Force", on November 1, 1999, developed by Gearbox Software. Players control US Marine corporal Adrian Shephard, who fights a new group of aliens and black operations units.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: "Opposing Force" was received favorably by critics, many citing the game as being as influential on setting expansion pack standards as the original game had been in influencing the overall genre. The game won the Computer Game of the Year Interactive Achievement Award of 2000 from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: Gearbox went on to develop "Blue Shift", "Half-Life"s second expansion pack. Like "Opposing Force", "Blue Shift" was published by Sierra Entertainment. Announced in 2000, the game was initially developed as a bonus campaign for the Dreamcast port of "Half-Life"; however, the port was cancelled and "Blue Shift" was instead released for Windows on June 12, 2001.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: "Blue Shift" puts the player in the position of Barney Calhoun, a security guard working at Black Mesa. The game takes place within the early parts of "Half-Life", with Calhoun attempting to escape the facility with a small group of scientists. "Blue Shift" also includes a High Definition pack, which upgrades the quality of the models and textures in both "Blue Shift" and the preceding games in the series. Critics praised the atmosphere and new graphics, but noticed the lack of new content and short length.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: The third expansion for "Half-Life" was "Decay". The game was again developed by Gearbox and published by Sierra. However, unlike previous games, "Decay" is only available with the PlayStation 2 version of "Half-Life". "Decay" is unique within the "Half-Life" series as the only cooperative game—two players must work together to progress through the game. "Decay" focuses on two of Freeman's colleagues, Gina Cross and Colette Green, as the two work with other scientists to counter the effects of the dimensional rift and ultimately attempt to close it.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: Released on November 14, 2001, "Decay" received a weak but overall positive reception from critics, many reviewers stating that it was fun to play through with a friend, but that the game's more puzzle-oriented gameplay detracted from the overall experience. An unofficial Windows port was released in September 2008.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: On November 16, 2004, Valve released "Half-Life 2". The game had a six-year development cycle, which saw several delays and the leak of the game's source code. "Half-Life 2" returns the player to the role of Gordon Freeman. Set twenty years after the original game, Earth has been occupied by the Combine, a transdimensional race that exploited the events of the first game to invade. The G-Man inserts Freeman into City 17 in Eastern Europe to combat the Combine occupation. "Half-Life 2" garnered near-unanimous positive reviews and received critical acclaim much like its predecessor, winning over 35 Game of the Year awards for 2004. Considered one of the greatest video games of all time, the game has been critically praised for its advances in computer animation, sound, narration, computer graphics, artificial intelligence and physics. "Half-Life 2" was the first game to use Valve's Steam content delivery system, a system that eventually led to Valve falling out with publisher Sierra Entertainment.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: On October 27, 2005, Valve released "Lost Coast", a short, playable tech demo demonstrating high-dynamic-range rendering. Consisting of a single map, "Lost Coast" was based on a cut segment of "Half-Life 2." The player, as Freeman, climbs a cliff to destroy a Combine artillery launcher in a monastery.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: In May 2006, Valve announced a trilogy of episodic games that would continue the "Half-Life 2" story, with the final episode planned for release by Christmas 2007. Newell said that the approach would allow Valve to release products more quickly after the six-year "Half-Life 2" development, and that he considered the trilogy the equivalent of "Half-Life 3". According to Newell, where "Half-Life" saw the G-Man transform Freeman into his tool, and "Half-Life 2" saw Freeman being used by G-Man, the episodes would see G-Man lose control.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: "Episode One" was released on June 1, 2006. The player controls Freeman as he and Alyx escape City 17 before a dark energy reactor core destroys it. It introduced several graphical effects, including new lighting features and more advanced facial animation. The story focuses on Alyx. "Episode One" received a generally positive critical reaction, although the short length was a common point of criticism.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: "Episode Two" was released for Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on October 10, 2007 as part of the compilation "The Orange Box." It was distributed digitally on Steam and at retail by Electronic Arts. "Episode Two" focuses on expansive environments, travel and less linear play. As Freeman, the player travels with Alyx into the surrounding countryside, pursued by Combine forces. "Episode Two"s new technologies and gameplay features were praised by reviewers; however, though it was significantly longer than "Episode 1", the length was again a point of criticism.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: Valve released "Half-Life: Alyx," a virtual reality (VR) game, on March 23, 2020, for Windows. In this prequel to "Half-Life 2", players control Alyx as she and her father Eli establish the resistance against the Combine in City 17. Described by Valve as its "flagship" VR game, it was developed using the Source 2 engine and supports all PC-compatible VR headsets. Players use VR to interact with the environment and fight enemies, using gravity gloves to manipulate objects, similarly to the gravity gun from "Half-Life 2". "Alyx" was released to acclaim. Reviewers at publications such as "VG247", "Tom's Hardware" and "Video Games Chronicle" described it as VR's "killer app".


title: Half-Life (series)

text: Several "Half-Life" games have been canceled, including "", a version of "Half-Life 3", and games developed by Junction Point Studios and Arkane Studios"."


title: Half-Life (series)

text: The "Portal" series, which takes place in the same universe as the "Half-Life" games, is a series of puzzle games developed by Valve. The first game in the series, "Portal", was initially released alongside "Episode Two" in "The Orange Box" on October 10, 2007. The player controls a test subject named Chell as she moves through the laboratories of Black Mesa's primary rival, Aperture Science, completing various tests with a device that allows her to create linked portals in physical space. In the later stages of the game, the player battles GLaDOS, a corrupt artificial intelligence computer that monitors her every move. The game is the spiritual successor to "Narbacular Drop", with many of the same team members working on the game. "Portal" has been acclaimed as one of the most original games in 2007, receiving praise for its unique gameplay and darkly humorous story. An Xbox Live Arcade expansion was released on October 22, 2008, and its sequel, "Portal 2", was released on April 19, 2011.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: In April 2000, Valve acquired the rights to the fan-made modification "Counter-Strike". After some cooperation between the original team and Valve's developers, Valve sold the game in retail, retitled "Half-Life: Counter-Strike". Set in various locations around the world with little connection to the events of the main "Half-Life" story, the game is a multiplayer shooter in which players assume the roles of members of combating teams of the governmental counter-terrorist forces and various terrorist militants opposing them. Due to originally being a mod of "Half-Life", the game shared several assets with the 1998 game, including Black Mesa containers, vehicles and scientists, with the Black Mesa logos visible in several maps in the retail version implicitly setting them in the same universe. It was bundled with "Half-Life" in many subsequent packages, including "Half-Life: Platinum Pack" and "Half-Life: Platinum".


title: Half-Life (series)

text: When "Half-Life: Counter-Strike" was remade as "", it was bundled in all retail versions of "Half-Life 2", as well as all of the initial digital versions. Some game journalists referred to it as ""Half-Life 2"'s multiplayer version." Both the standard retail edition and the Bronze digital edition of "Half-Life 2" came with "Counter-Strike: Source", while the retail Collector's Edition and the digital Gold edition also included "" and "". "Half-Life: Counter-Strike" spawned its own series which gradually became separate from the main "Half-Life" games, bar occasional references (such as an Easter egg referencing "Portal" present in "").


title: Half-Life (series)

text: "Black Mesa" is a third-party remake of the original "Half-Life" developed and published by Crowbar Collective and made in the Source engine. Originally published as a free mod in September 2012, it was approved by Valve for a commercial release. It was fully released on March 6, 2020 for Windows and Linux.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: The remake's final release was praised by reviewers, who compared it to an official Valve title. On review aggregator "OpenCritic", "Black Mesa" had an average 86/100 review score with 100% approval rating based on 14 reviews.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: The success of the "Half-Life" series has spurred the creation of several spin-off games for "Half-Life 2". "Codename Gordon" (sometimes called "Codename: Gordon") is a two-dimensional Flash sidescroller shooter developed by NuclearVision, and was released over Valve's Steam online delivery system on May 18, 2004, as a promotional game for the then-upcoming "Half-Life 2".


title: Half-Life (series)

text: Characters from "Half-Life" have appeared in other games. "Peggle Extreme", a special edition of "Peggle" bundled with the PC version of "The Orange Box" features levels based on "Half-Life 2", "Team Fortress 2" and "Portal". The headcrab is also an unlockable character in "Super Meat Boy" when bought on Steam. The Headcrab also appeared in an April Fools event in the MMO "Vindictus" as an event item along with the Crowbar, possibly due to the game being created on the Source Engine as well. In the game "Magicka" there is a playable character (after the addition of a DLC), which closely resembles the original zombie from the Half-Life universe, equipped with a crowbar. Gordon also appears in "Renegade Ops" and the headcrab is available as a pet in "Torchlight 2".


title: Half-Life (series)

text: "Half-Life" has also inspired a number of fan-made mods, some which have gained recognition on their own. "Garry's Mod" started as a sandbox mode using "Half-Life 2" assets but since has become a commercial product and given users the ability to incorporate other assets. Among notable fan-made campaigns is "Minerva", which was designed to extend the story from "Half-Life 2".


title: Half-Life (series)

text: Throughout the "Half-Life" franchise, a wide array of characters are introduced. The original "Half-Life" introduces Gordon Freeman, a theoretical physicist working at the Black Mesa Research Facility who serves as the main silent playable protagonist for the franchise. Freeman is hired and put into stasis by the G-Man, an enigmatic and questionable businessman with capabilities and powers beyond any ordinary human being. The expansion packs to the original game introduce other protagonists and characters, such as Corporal Adrian Shephard in "Half-Life: Opposing Force" and Black Mesa security guard Barney Calhoun in "Half-Life: Blue Shift" (who later reappears in the "Half-Life 2" games). "Half-Life 2" and the games following it introduce a new, more focused cast of characters fighting the oppressive Combine Empire. This notably includes Alyx Vance, a prominent member of the Resistance and the daughter of former Black Mesa scientist Eli Vance. Alyx would later serve as the protagonist of "Half-Life: Alyx."


title: Half-Life (series)

text: The developer of the "Half-Life" series, Valve, was founded in 1996 in Kirkland, Washington by former Microsoft employees Mike Harrington and Gabe Newell. Valve began working on the first "Half-Life" soon after formation, and settled on a concept for a horror-themed 3D action game, using the "Quake" engine as licensed by id Software. The game was a hit at the 1997 E3 convention, where its animation system and artificial intelligence were demonstrated. The game's success led to its first expansion pack, "Half-Life: Opposing Force", which was developed by Gearbox Software, a then-new company based in Plano, Texas, and announced on April 15, 1999. Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford said in an interview that he believed Valve gave them the opportunity to produce a sequel to "Half-Life" to allow Valve to focus on future games. The game was demonstrated at the 1999 E3 convention, where new locations, characters and the story were revealed.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: The second "Half-Life" expansion pack, "Half-Life: Blue Shift", was again developed by Gearbox Software and announced by its publisher, Sierra Entertainment, on August 30, 2000. Sierra intended to release "Blue Shift" for the Dreamcast, and it was set to include higher detail models and textures that were double the polygon count of the models from "Half-Life". However, after several months of delays, Sierra terminated development on the Dreamcast version of "Blue Shift" on June 16, 2001, and the company instead released "Blue Shift" for the PC on June 12, 2001. Afterward, Gearbox began working on a "Half-Life" game for the PlayStation 2. The game, "Decay", was showcased at E3 2001, where Gearbox demonstrated the game's use of new model sets, which were around twice as detailed as those in "Blue Shift".


title: Half-Life (series)

text: For several years, Valve secretly worked on "Half-Life 2". Valve developed a new game engine, Source, which handles the game's visual, audio and artificial intelligence elements. The Source engine comes packaged with a heavily modified version of the Havok physics engine that allows for an extra dimension of interactivity in both single-player and online environments. In the episodic games that followed "Half-Life 2", Valve made minor tweaks to the game's engine. In "Episode One", Valve modified Alyx's AI to allow her to react to player actions. The game runs on an upgraded version of Valve's proprietary Source engine, and features both the engine's advanced lighting effects, and a new version of its facial animation/expression technology.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: In the 2010s, Valve made several attempts to develop further "Half-Life" games, but could not settle on a direction, and its flat management structure made it difficult for projects to gather momentum. Designer Robin Walker said Valve used "Half-Life" games to "solve some interesting collision of technology and art that had reared itself"; they failed to find a unifying idea that provided a sense of "wonderment, or opening, or expansion". In the mid-2010s, Valve began experimenting with virtual reality (VR); they built prototypes using their various intellectual properties such as "Portal", and found that "Half-Life" best suited VR. Their flagship VR game, "Half-Life: Alyx", entered production using Valve's new Source 2 engine in 2016, with the largest team in Valve's history, including members of Campo Santo, a studio Valve acquired in 2018.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: On February 6, 2013, while speaking at the 2013 DICE conference about storytelling in games and film, J. J. Abrams and Gabe Newell announced that they had plans for a game and a film collaboration. Abrams said, "There's an idea we have for a game that we'd like to work with Valve on," while Newell said, "We're going to figure out if we can make a "Portal" movie or "Half-Life" movie together". In an interview in March 2016, Abrams stated that while he has been working on many other projects since, he still has plans to direct these films in the future, with both films in the writing stage.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: A short film, "Half-Life: Uplink", was developed by Cruise Control, a British marketing agency, and released on March 15, 1999. However, Sierra withdrew it from circulation after Sierra and Valve had failed to resolve licensing issues with Cruise Control over the film. The critical reception of the film was very poor. The film's plot was that of a journalist attempting to infiltrate the Black Mesa Research Facility and discover what was happening there.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: In early 2009, the Purchase Brothers, a Toronto-based film company, released a five-minute film based on "Half-Life 2: Episode One," "". The film combines live-action footage with 3D animation created using the Source SDK. It was well received by Valve. On August 25, 2010 they released a nearly 15-minute-long sequel.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: In late 2010, a trailer for a "Half-Life" inspired independent short film, "Beyond Black Mesa," was released. Directed by Brian Curtin, it follows the character Adrian Shephard. The full short film was released online on January 21, 2011.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: In December 2008, Valve announced that the two main "Half-Life" games had sold 15.8 million units in retail (9.3m for the first, 6.5m for the second), while the "Half-Life" expansions had sold 1.9 million ("Opposing Force": 1.1 million, "Blue Shift": 800,000) and "Half-Life 2" expansions 1.4 million (all for "Episode One").


title: Half-Life (series)

text: Additionally, "The Orange Box", which included "Half-Life 2" and both of its episodic expansions, sold 3 million units at retail by that time. This put franchise sales at 18.8 million full games ("Half-Life": 9.3m, "Half-Life 2:" 9.5m) and 9.3 million expansions ("Opposing Force:" 1.1m, "Blue Shift": 0.8m, "Episode One:" 4.4m, "Episode 2:" 3.0m), as of December 2008.


title: Half-Life (series)

text: These figures did not account for digital sales. "Half-Life: Counter-Strike" sold 4.2 million units standalone by the same time, while its remake, "Counter-Strike: Source" was bundled with every sold retail copy of "Half-Life 2". "Forbes" reported that, including digital sales, "Half-Life 2" had sold over 12 million copies by February 2011.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: M*A*S*H (stylized on-screen as MASH) is a 1970 American black comedy war film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner Jr., based on Richard Hooker's 1968 novel "". The picture is the only theatrically released feature film in the "M*A*S*H" franchise, and it became one of the biggest films of the early 1970s for 20th Century Fox.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: The film depicts a unit of medical personnel stationed at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) during the Korean War. It stars Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt, and Elliott Gould, with Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, René Auberjonois, Gary Burghoff, Roger Bowen, Michael Murphy, and in his film debut, professional football player Fred Williamson. Although the Korean War is the film's storyline setting, the subtext is the Vietnam War – a current event at the time the film was made. "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau, who saw the film in college, said "M*A*S*H" was "perfect for the times, the cacophony of American culture was brilliantly reproduced onscreen".


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: The film won the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film, later named the Palme d'Or, at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival. The film went on to receive five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and won for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 1996, "M*A*S*H" was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and recommended for preservation. The Academy Film Archive preserved "M*A*S*H" in 2000.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: The film inspired the television series "M*A*S*H", which ran from 1972 to 1983. Gary Burghoff, who played Radar O'Reilly, was the only actor playing a major character who appeared in both the movie and the TV series. Altman despised the TV series, calling it "the antithesis of what we were trying to do" with the movie.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: In 1951, the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in South Korea is assigned two new surgeons, "Hawkeye" Pierce and "Duke" Forrest, who arrive in a stolen Army Jeep. They are insubordinate, womanizing, mischievous rule-breakers, but they soon prove to be excellent combat surgeons. Other characters already stationed at the camp include bumbling commanding officer Henry Blake, his hyper-competent chief clerk Radar O'Reilly, dentist Walter "Painless Pole" Waldowski, the incompetent and pompous surgeon Frank Burns, and the contemplative Chaplain Father Mulcahy.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: The main characters in the camp divide into two factions. Irritated by Frank's religious fervor, Hawkeye and Duke get Blake to move him to another tent so newly arrived chest surgeon Trapper John McIntyre can move in. The three doctors (the "Swampmen", after the nickname for their tent) have little respect for military protocol, having been drafted into the Army, and are prone to pranks, womanizing, and heavy drinking. Frank is a straitlaced military officer who wants everything done efficiently and by the book, as is Margaret Houlihan, who has been assigned to the 4077th as head nurse. The two bond over their respect for regulations and start a secret romance. With help from Radar, the Swampmen sneak a microphone into a tent where the couple are making love and broadcast their passion over the camp's PA system, embarrassing them badly and earning Houlihan the nickname "Hot Lips." The next morning, Hawkeye goads Frank into assaulting him, resulting in the latter's removal from the camp for psychiatric evaluation. Later, when Hot Lips is showering, the Swampmen prank her by pulling the tent sides off and exposing her naked body, in order to settle a bet over whether or not she is a natural blonde. Furious and embarrassed, Hot Lips screams at Blake for letting his staff run wild and failing to discipline them.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: Painless, described as "the best-equipped dentist in the Army" and "the dental Don Juan of Detroit", becomes depressed over an incident of impotence and announces his intent to commit suicide, believing that he has turned homosexual. The Swampmen agree to help him carry out the deed, staging a feast to evoke Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, arranging for Father Mulcahy to give Painless absolution and communion, and providing him with a "black capsule" (actually a sleeping pill) to speed him on his way. Hawkeye persuades the gorgeous Lieutenant "Dish" Schneider—who has remained faithful to her husband and is being transferred back to the United States for discharge—to spend the night with Painless and allay his concern about his "latent homosexuality". The next morning, Painless is his usual cheerful self, and a smiling Dish leaves camp in a helicopter to start her journey home.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: Trapper and Hawkeye are sent to Japan on temporary duty to operate on a Congressman's son and hopefully, play some golf. When they later perform an unauthorized operation on a local infant, they face disciplinary action from the hospital commander for misusing Army resources. Using staged photographs of him in bed with a prostitute, they blackmail him into keeping his mouth shut.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: Following their return to camp, Blake and General Hammond organize a football game between the 4077th and the 325th Evac Hospital and wager several thousand dollars on its outcome. At Hawkeye's suggestion, Blake applies to have a specific neurosurgeon – Dr. Oliver Harmon "Spearchucker" Jones, a former professional football player for the San Francisco 49ers – transferred to the 4077th as a ringer. Hawkeye also suggests that Blake bet half his money up front and keep Jones out of the first half of the game. The 325th scores repeatedly and easily, even after the 4077th drugs one of their star players to incapacitate him. Hammond confidently offers high odds, against which Blake bets the rest of his money. Jones enters the second half, which quickly devolves into a free-for-all, and the 4077th gets the 325th's second ringer thrown out of the game and wins with a final trick play.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: Not long after the football game, Hawkeye and Duke get their discharge orders and begin their journey home – taking the same stolen Jeep in which they arrived.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: The screenplay, by Ring Lardner Jr., is different from Hooker's original novel. In the DVD audio commentary, Altman describes the novel as "pretty terrible" and somewhat "racist" (the only major black character has the nickname "Spearchucker"). He claims that the screenplay was used only as a springboard. Despite this assertion by Altman, however, while some improvisation occurs in the film and Altman changed the order of major sequence, most sequences are in the novel. The main deletion is a subplot of Ho-Jon's return to the 4077th as a casualty (when Radar steals blood from Henry, it is for Ho-Jon's operation under Trapper and Hawkeye's scalpels; when the surgeons are playing poker after the football game, they are resolutely ignoring Ho-Jon's corpse being driven away). The main deviation from the script is the trimming of much of the dialogue.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: In his director's commentary, Altman says that "M*A*S*H" was the first major studio film to use the word "fuck" in its dialogue. The word is spoken during the football game near the end of the film by Walt "Painless Pole" Waldowski when he says to an opposing football player, "All right, Bud, your fucking head is coming right off!" The actor, John Schuck, said in an interview that Andy Sidaris, who was handling the football sequences, encouraged Schuck to "say something that'll annoy him." Schuck did so, and that particular statement made it into the film without a second thought. Previously confined to cult and "underground" films, its use in a film as conventionally screened and professionally distributed as "M*A*S*H" marked the dawn of a new era of social acceptability for profanity on the big screen, which had until a short time before this film's release been forbidden outright for any major studio picture in the United States under the Hays Code.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: Although a number of sources have reported that Lardner was upset with the liberties taken with his script,


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: Altman, relatively new to the filmmaking establishment at that time, lacked the credentials to justify his unorthodox filmmaking process and had a history of turning down work rather than creating a poor-quality product. Altman: "I had practice working for people who don't care about quality, and I learned how to sneak it in." "Twentieth Century Fox had two other wars going on, "Patton" and "Tora! Tora! Tora!"" Altman remembered. "Those were big-budget pictures, and we were cheap. I knew that if I stayed under budget and didn't cause too much trouble, we could sneak through."


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: The filming process was difficult because of tensions between the director and his cast. During principal photography, Sutherland and Gould allegedly spent a third of their time trying to get Altman fired, although this has been disputed. Altman later commented that if he had known about Gould and Sutherland's protests, he would have resigned. Gould later sent a letter of apology, and Altman used him in a number of his later works – including "The Long Goodbye", "California Split", "Nashville", and "The Player" – but Altman never worked with Sutherland again.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: Because of the context of the film being made – during the height of America's involvement in the Vietnam War – 20th Century Fox was concerned that audiences would not understand that it was ostensibly taking place during the Korean War. At the request of the studio, a caption that mentions the Korean setting was added to the beginning of the film, and PA announcements throughout the film served the same purpose. Only a few loudspeaker announcements were used in the original cut. When Altman realized he needed more structure to his largely episodic film, editor Danford Greene suggested using more loudspeaker announcements to frame different episodes of the story. Greene took a second-unit crew and filmed additional shots of the speakers. On the same night these scenes were shot, American astronauts landed on the moon. The Korean War is explicitly referenced in announcements on the camp public address system and during a radio announcement that plays while Hawkeye and Trapper are putting in Col. Merrill's office, which also cites the film as taking place in 1951.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: Johnny Mandel composed incidental music used throughout the film. Also heard on the soundtrack are Japanese vocal renditions of such songs as "Tokyo Shoe Shine Boy", "My Blue Heaven", "Happy Days Are Here Again", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", and "Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo"; impromptu performances of "Onward, Christian Soldiers", "When the Lights Go On Again", and "Hail to the Chief" by cast members; and the instrumental "Washington Post March" during the climactic football game.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: "M*A*S*H" features the song "Suicide Is Painless", with music by Mandel and lyrics by Mike Altman, the director's then 14-year-old son. The version heard under the opening credits was sung by uncredited session vocalists John Bahler, Tom Bahler, Ron Hicklin, and Ian Freebairn-Smith; on the single release, the song is attributed to "The Mash". The song is reprised later in the film by Pvt. Seidman (played by Ken Prymus) in the scene in which Painless attempts to commit suicide.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: Columbia Masterworks issued a soundtrack album of the film in 1970 (all songs by Johnny Mandel unless otherwise noted):


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: "M*A*S*H" received its first home video release in 1977 on both VHS and Betamax. This 1977 release of the film was the original, unedited version and was one of the first 50 titles released to home video by Magnetic Video Corporation ("M*A*S*H" was number #38).


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: Ster-Kinekor Video and Fox Video released the film with 20th Century Fox, which was released in 1992 in South Africa.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: In the 1990’s, Fox Video re-released a VHS version of the film as part of its "Selections" banner, which ran 116 minutes and was rated PG. However, this is not the alternate PG version that was released in 1973. It has the same run-time as the theatrical release; none of the aforementioned scenes or theme music was removed. The actual 1973 PG-edited version has never been issued on home video in the United States. It was released on DVD on January 8, 2002.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: "M*A*S*H" was a box-office hit; it was the third highest-grossing film released in 1970 (behind "Love Story" and "Airport"). The film opened January 25, 1970, at the Baronet Theatre in New York City and grossed $37,143 in its first week. According to 20th Century Fox records the film required $6,550,000 in rentals to break even, and by 11 December 1970 had made $31,225,000, thus making a profit for the studio. Ultimately, the film made $81.6 million against a budget of $3.025 million.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: The film was re-released to theaters in North America in late 1973. To attract audiences to the "M*A*S*H" television series, which had struggled in the ratings in its first season, 20th Century Fox reissued the film in a version running 112 minutes and bearing a PG rating. Some of the more explicit content from the original R-rated cut was edited out, including segments of graphic surgical operations, Hot Lips' shower scene, and the use of the word "fuck" during the football game. According to film critic and historian Leonard Maltin, the film's main theme song, "Suicide is Painless", was replaced with music by Ahmad Jamal. The re-release earned an estimated $3.5 million at the box office.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: "M*A*S*H" received mostly positive reviews from critics. The film holds an 84% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 56 reviews, with an average rating of 8.30/10. The website's consensus states, "Bold, timely, subversive, and above all, funny, "M*A*S*H" remains a high point in Robert Altman's distinguished filmography." The film also holds a score of 80 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: In a rave review, John Mahoney of "The Hollywood Reporter" called the film "the finest American comedy since "Some Like It Hot"", and "the "Mister Roberts" of the Korean War", as well as ""The Graduate" of 1970". "Time" magazine, in a review titled "Catch-22 Caliber", wrote of the film, "though it wears a dozen manic, libidinous masks, none quite covers the face of dread... "M.A.S.H.", one of America's funniest bloody films, is also one of its bloodiest funny films." "The New Yorker" critic Pauline Kael wrote of the film, "I don't know when I’ve had such a good time at a movie. Many of the best recent American movies leave you feeling that there's nothing to do but get stoned and die, that that's your proper fate as an American. This movie heals a breach." John Simon described M*A*S*H as an 'amusingly absurdist army satire'.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: In contrast, Roger Greenspun of "The New York Times" wrote of "M*A*S*H", "To my knowledge [it] is the first major American movie openly to ridicule belief in God – not phony belief; real belief. It is also one of the few (though by no means the first) American screen comedies openly to admit the cruelty of its humor. And it is at pains to blend that humor with more operating room gore than I have ever seen in any movie from any place... Although it is impudent, bold, and often very funny, it lacks the sense of order (even in the midst of disorder) that seems the special province of successful comedy."


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: In a retrospective review for the "Chicago Reader", Jonathan Rosenbaum noted that "the film... helped launch the careers of Elliott Gould, Donald Sutherland, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, and subsequent Altman regulars Rene Auberjonois and John Schuck, and won screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. an Oscar." Rosenbaum characterized the film as "a somewhat adolescent if stylish antiauthoritarian romp... But the misogyny and cruelty behind many of the gags are as striking as the black comedy and the original use of overlapping dialogue. This is still watchable for the verve of the ensemble acting and dovetailing direction, but some of the crassness leaves a sour aftertaste." Writing in "The Guardian" for the film's 50th anniversary, Noah Gittell also criticized it for having "a deep and unexamined misogyny", noting that the treatment of the Houlihan character in particular anticipated such later teen sex comedies as "Animal House", "Porky's", and "Revenge of the Nerds".


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: In 1996, "M*A*S*H" was deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.


title: M*A*S*H (film)

text: The film is number 17 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" and number 54 on "AFI" list of the top 100 American movies of all time.


title: Gender equality

text: Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing different behaviors, aspirations and needs equally, regardless of gender.


title: Gender equality

text: Gender equality is the goal, while gender neutrality and gender equity are practices and ways of thinking that help in achieving the goal. Gender parity, which is used to measure gender balance in a given situation, can aid in achieving gender equality but is not the goal in and of itself. Gender equality is more than just equal representation, it is strongly tied to women's rights, and often requires policy changes. , the global movement for gender equality has not incorporated the proposition of genders besides women and men, or gender identities outside of the gender binary.


title: Gender equality

text: UNICEF says gender equality "means that women and men, and girls and boys, enjoy the same rights, resources, opportunities and protections. It does not require that girls and boys, or women and men, be the same, or that they be treated exactly alike."


title: Gender equality

text: On a global scale, achieving gender equality also requires eliminating harmful practices against women and girls, including sex trafficking, femicide, wartime sexual violence, gender wage gap, and other oppression tactics. UNFPA stated that, "despite many international agreements affirming their human rights, women are still much more likely than men to be poor and illiterate. They have less access to property ownership, credit, training and employment. This partly stems from the archaic stereotypes of women being labelled as child-bearers and home makers, rather than the bread winners of the family. They are far less likely than men to be politically active and far more likely to be victims of domestic violence."


title: Gender equality

text: As of 2017, gender equality is the fifth of seventeen sustainable development goals (SDG 5) of the United Nations. Gender inequality is measured annually by the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Reports.


title: Gender equality

text: Christine de Pizan, an early advocate for gender equality, states in her 1405 book "The Book of the City of Ladies" that the oppression of women is founded on irrational prejudice, pointing out numerous advances in society probably created by women.


title: Gender equality

text: The Shakers, an evangelical group, which practiced segregation of the sexes and strict celibacy, were early practitioners of gender equality. They branched off from a Quaker community in the north-west of England before emigrating to America in 1774. In America, the head of the Shakers' central ministry in 1788, Joseph Meacham, had a revelation that the sexes should be equal. He then brought Lucy Wright into the ministry as his female counterpart, and together they restructured the society to balance the rights of the sexes. Meacham and Wright established leadership teams where each elder, who dealt with the men's spiritual welfare, was partnered with an eldress, who did the same for women. Each deacon was partnered with a deaconess. Men had oversight of men; women had oversight of women. Women lived with women; men lived with men. In Shaker society, a woman did not have to be controlled or owned by any man. After Meacham's death in 1796, Wright became the head of the Shaker ministry until her death in 1821.


title: Gender equality

text: Shakers maintained the same pattern of gender-balanced leadership for more than 200 years. They also promoted equality by working together with other women's rights advocates. In 1859, Shaker Elder Frederick Evans stated their beliefs forcefully, writing that Shakers were "the first to disenthrall woman from the condition of vassalage to which all other religious systems (more or less) consign her, and to secure to her those just and equal rights with man that, by her similarity to him in organization and faculties, both God and nature would seem to demand". Evans and his counterpart, Eldress Antoinette Doolittle, joined women's rights advocates on speakers' platforms throughout the northeastern U.S. in the 1870s. A visitor to the Shakers wrote in 1875:


title: Gender equality

text: The Shakers were more than a radical religious sect on the fringes of American society; they put equality of the sexes into practice. It has been argued that they demonstrated that gender equality was achievable and how to achieve it.


title: Gender equality

text: In wider society, the movement towards gender equality began with the suffrage movement in Western cultures in the late-19th century, which sought to allow women to vote and hold elected office. This period also witnessed significant changes to women's property rights, particularly in relation to their marital status. (See for example, Married Women's Property Act 1882.)


title: Gender equality

text: Since World War II, the women's liberation movement and feminism have created a general movement towards recognition of women's rights. The United Nations and other international agencies have adopted several conventions which promote gender equality. These conventions have not been uniformly adopted by all countries, and include:


title: Gender equality

text: Such legislation and affirmative action policies have been critical to bringing changes in societal attitudes. A 2015 Pew Research Center survey of citizens in 38 countries found that majorities in 37 of those 38 countries said that gender equality is at least "somewhat important", and a global median of 65% believe it is "very important" that women have the same rights as men. Most occupations are now equally available to men and women, in many countries.


title: Gender equality

text: Similarly, men are increasingly working in occupations which in previous generations had been considered women's work, such as nursing, cleaning and child care. In domestic situations, the role of Parenting or child rearing is more commonly shared or not as widely considered to be an exclusively female role, so that women may be free to pursue a career after childbirth. For further information, see Shared earning/shared parenting marriage.


title: Gender equality

text: Another manifestation of the change in social attitudes is the non-automatic taking by a woman of her husband's surname on marriage.


title: Gender equality

text: A highly contentious issue relating to gender equality is the role of women in religiously orientated societies. Some Christians or Muslims believe in Complementarianism, a view that holds that men and women have different but complementing roles. This view may be in opposition to the views and goals of gender equality.


title: Gender equality

text: In addition, there are also non-Western countries of low religiosity where the contention surrounding gender equality remains. In China, a cultural preference for a male child has resulted in a shortfall of women in the population. The feminist movement in Japan has made many strides which resulted in the Gender Equality Bureau, but Japan still remains low in gender equality compared to other industrialized nations.


title: Gender equality

text: The notion of gender equality, and of its degree of achievement in a certain country, is very complex because there are countries that have a history of a high level of gender equality in certain areas of life but not in other areas. Indeed, there is a need for caution when categorizing countries by the level of gender equality that they have achieved. According to Mala Htun and S. Laurel Weldon "gender policy is not one issue but many" and:


title: Gender equality

text: Not all beliefs relating to gender equality have been popularly adopted. For example, topfreedom, the right to be bare breasted in public, frequently applies only to males and has remained a marginal issue. Breastfeeding in public is now more commonly tolerated, especially in semi-private places such as restaurants.


title: Gender equality

text: It is the vision that men and women should be treated equally in social, economic and all other aspects of society, and to not be discriminated against on the basis of their gender. Gender equality is one of the objectives of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. World bodies have defined gender equality in terms of human rights, especially women's rights, and economic development. The United Nation's Millennium Development Goals Report states that their goal is to "achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women". Despite economic struggles in developing countries, the United Nations is still trying to promote gender equality, as well as help create a sustainable living environment is all its nations. Their goals also include giving women who work certain full-time jobs equal pay to the men with the same job.


title: Gender equality

text: There has been criticism from some feminists towards the political discourse and policies employed in order to achieve the above items of "progress" in gender equality, with critics arguing that these gender equality strategies are superficial, in that they do not seek to challenge social structures of male domination, and only aim to improve the situation of women within the societal framework of subordination of women to men, and that official public policies (such as state policies or international bodies policies) are questionable, as they are applied in a patriarchal context, and are directly or indirectly controlled by agents of a system which is for the most part male. One of the criticisms of the gender equality policies, in particular, those of the European Union, is that they disproportionately focus on policies integrating women in public life, but do not seek to genuinely address the deep private sphere oppression.


title: Gender equality

text: A further criticism is that a focus on the situation of women in non-Western countries, while often ignoring the issues that exist in the West, is a form of imperialism and of reinforcing Western moral superiority; and a way of "othering" of domestic violence, by presenting it as something specific to outsiders – the "violent others" – and not to the allegedly progressive Western cultures. These critics point out that women in Western countries often face similar problems, such as domestic violence and rape, as in other parts of the world. They also cite the fact that women faced de jure legal discrimination until just a few decades ago; for instance, in some Western countries such as Switzerland, Greece, Spain, and France, women obtained equal rights in family law in the 1980s. Another criticism is that there is a selective public discourse with regard to different types of oppression of women, with some forms of violence such as honor killings (most common in certain geographic regions such as parts of Asia and North Africa) being frequently the object of public debate, while other forms of violence, such as the lenient punishment for crimes of passion across Latin America, do not receive the same attention in the West. It is also argued that the criticism of particular laws of many developing countries ignores the influence of colonialism on those legal systems. There has been controversy surrounding the concepts of Westernization and Europeanisation, due to their reminder of past colonialism, and also due to the fact that some Western countries, such as Switzerland, have been themselves been very slow to give women legal rights. There have also been objections to the way Western media presents women from various cultures creating stereotypes, such as that of 'submissive' Asian or Eastern European women, a stereotype closely connected to the mail order brides industry. Such stereotypes are often blatantly untrue: for instance women in many Eastern European countries occupy a high professional status. Feminists in many developing countries have been strongly opposed to the idea that women in those countries need to be 'saved' by the West. There are questions on how exactly should gender equality be measured, and whether the West is indeed "best" at it: a study in 2010 found that among the top 20 countries on female graduates in the science fields at university level most countries were countries that were considered internationally to score very low on the position of women's rights, with the top 3 being Iran, Saudi Arabia and Oman, and only 5 European countries made it to that top: Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, Georgia and Greece.


title: Gender equality

text: Controversy regarding Western cultural influence in the world is not new; in the late 1940s, when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was being drafted, the American Anthropological Association warned that the document would be defining universal rights from a Western perspective which could be detrimental to non-Western countries, and further argued that the West's history of colonialism and forceful interference with other societies made them a problematic moral representative for universal global standards.


title: Gender equality

text: There has been criticism that international law, international courts, and universal gender neutral concepts of human rights are at best silent on many of the issues important to women and at worst male centered; considering the male person to be the default. Excessive gender neutrality can worsen the situation of women, because the law "assumes" women are in the same position as men, ignoring the biological fact that in the process of reproduction and pregnancy there is no 'equality', and that apart from physical differences there are socially constructed limitations which assign a socially and culturally inferior position to women – a situation which requires a specific approach to women's rights, not merely a gender neutral one. In a 1975 interview, Simone de Beauvoir talked about the negative reactions towards women's rights from the left that was supposed to be progressive and support social change, and also expressed skepticism about mainstream international organizations. There have been questions about the acceptability of international intervention into societal domestic issues from international organizations, especially since the multitude of such international bodies can create confusion, including through contradictory rulings on the same issue: for example the ECtHR upheld in 2014 France's ban on wearing a burqa in public, while the United Nations Human Rights Committee concluded in 2018 that France's ban on burqa in public violates human rights. International bodies have been criticized for being based on an ideology of one size fits all approach to issues, which does not take into account that a specific approach may work in one culture but not in another, and that historically international intervention into another country has often done more harm than good; and that ultimately the problems from a culture must be solved from within that culture, not through forceful foreign intervention. A criticism of international organizations is that while they purport to support universal global human rights, they often support the interests of Western elites. The legitimacy of international organizations has came into question in the 21st century especially in the light of international scandals, such as child sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers.


title: Gender equality

text: In 2010, the European Union opened the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) in Vilnius, Lithuania to promote gender equality and to fight sex discrimination. In 2015 the EU published the Gender Action Plan 2016–2020.


title: Gender equality

text: Gender equality is part of the national curriculum in Great Britain and many other European countries. By presidential decree, the Republic of Kazakhstan created a Strategy for Gender Equality 2006–2016 to chart the subsequent decade of gender equality efforts. Personal, Social and Health Education, religious studies and Language acquisition curricula tend to address gender equality issues as a very serious topic for discussion and analysis of its effect in society.


title: Gender equality

text: A large and growing body of research has shown how gender inequality undermines health and development. To overcome gender inequality the United Nations Population Fund states that, "Women's empowerment and gender equality requires strategic interventions at all levels of programming and policy-making. These levels include reproductive health, economic empowerment, educational empowerment and political empowerment."


title: Gender equality

text: UNFPA says that "research has also demonstrated how working with men and boys as well as women and girls to promote gender equality contributes to achieving health and development outcomes."


title: Gender equality

text: Social constructs of gender (that is, cultural ideals of socially acceptable masculinity and femininity) often have a negative effect on health. The World Health Organization cites the example of women not being allowed to travel alone outside the home (to go to the hospital), and women being prevented by cultural norms to ask their husbands to use a condom, in cultures which simultaneously encourage male promiscuity, as social norms that harm women's health. Teenage boys suffering accidents due to social expectations of impressing their peers through risk taking, and men dying at much higher rate from lung cancer due to smoking, in cultures which link smoking to masculinity, are cited by the WHO as examples of gender norms negatively affecting men's health. The World Health Organization has also stated that there is a strong connection between gender socialization and transmission and lack of adequate management of HIV/AIDS.


title: Gender equality

text: Certain cultural practices, such as female genital mutilation (FGM), negatively affect women's health. Female genital mutilation is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. It is rooted in inequality between the sexes, and constitutes a form of discrimination against women. The practice is found in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and among immigrant communities from countries in which FGM is common. The preference rate in Kenya is 21 per cent and an estimated 4 million girls and women have undergone FGM in Kenya with hot spot areas/ communities including the Kuria community both in Kenya and Tanzania border, Kisii, Maasai, Somali, Samburu and Kuria ethnic groups. UNICEF estimated in 2016 that 200 million women have undergone the procedure.


title: Gender equality

text: According to the World Health Organization, gender equality can improve men's health. The study shows that traditional notions of masculinity have a big impact on men's health. Among European men, non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory illnesses, and diabetes, account for the vast majority of deaths of men aged 30–59 in Europe which are often linked to unhealthy diets, stress, substance abuse, and other habits, which the report connects to behaviors often stereotypically seen as masculine behaviors like heavy drinking and smoking. Traditional gender stereotypes that keep men in the role of breadwinner and systematic discrimination preventing women from equally contributing to their households and participating in the workforce can put additional stress on men, increasing their risk of health issues and men bolstered by cultural norms, tend to take more risks and engage in interpersonal violence more often than women, which could result in fatal injuries.


title: Gender equality

text: Violence against women (VAW) is a technical term used to collectively refer to violent acts that are primarily or exclusively committed against women. This type of violence is gender-based, meaning that the acts of violence are committed against women expressly "because" they are women, or as a result of patriarchal gender constructs. Violence and mistreatment of women in marriage has come to international attention during the past decades. This includes both violence committed inside marriage (domestic violence) as well as violence related to marriage customs and traditions (such as dowry, bride price, forced marriage and child marriage).


title: Gender equality

text: According to some theories, violence against women is often caused by the acceptance of violence by various cultural groups as a means of conflict resolution within intimate relationships. Studies on Intimate partner violence victimization among ethnic minorities in the United Studies have consistently revealed that immigrants are a high-risk group for intimate violence.


title: Gender equality

text: In countries where gang murders, armed kidnappings, civil unrest, and other similar acts are rare, the vast majority of murdered women are killed by partners/ex-partners. By contrast, in countries with a high level of organized criminal activity and gang violence, murders of women are more likely to occur in a public sphere, often in a general climate of indifference and impunity. In addition, many countries do not have adequate comprehensive data collection on such murders, aggravating the problem.


title: Gender equality

text: In some parts of the world, various forms of violence against women are tolerated and accepted as parts of everyday life.


title: Gender equality

text: In most countries, it is only in more recent decades that domestic violence against women has received significant legal attention. The Istanbul Convention acknowledges the long tradition of European countries of ignoring this form of violence.


title: Gender equality

text: In some cultures, acts of violence against women are seen as crimes against the male 'owners' of the woman, such as husband, father or male relatives, rather the woman herself. This leads to practices where men inflict violence upon women in order to get revenge on male members of the women's family. Such practices include payback rape, a form of rape specific to certain cultures, particularly the Pacific Islands, which consists of the rape of a female, usually by a group of several males, as revenge for acts committed by members of her family, such as her father or brothers, with the rape being meant to humiliate the father or brothers, as punishment for their prior behavior towards the perpetrators.


title: Gender equality

text: Richard A. Posner writes that "Traditionally, rape was the offense of depriving a father or husband of a valuable asset — his wife's chastity or his daughter's virginity". Historically, rape was seen in many cultures (and is still seen today in some societies) as a crime against the honor of the family, rather than against the self-determination of the woman. As a result, victims of rape may face violence, in extreme cases even honor killings, at the hands of their family members. Catharine MacKinnon argues that in male dominated societies, sexual intercourse is imposed on women in a coercive and unequal way, creating a continuum of victimization, where women have few positive sexual experiences. Socialization within rigid gender constructs often creates an environment where sexual violence is common. One of the challenges of dealing with sexual violence is that in many societies women are perceived as being readily available for sex, and men are seen as entitled to their bodies, until and unless women object.


title: Gender equality

text: The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a typology of violence against women based on their cultural life cycles.


title: Gender equality

text: Significant progress towards the protection of women from violence has been made on international level as a product of collective effort of lobbying by many women's rights movements; international organizations to civil society groups. As a result, worldwide governments and international as well as civil society organizations actively work to combat violence against women through a variety of programs. Among the major achievements of the women's rights movements against violence on girls and women, the landmark accomplishments are the "Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women" that implies "political will towards addressing VAW " and the legal binding agreement, "the Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)". In addition, the UN General Assembly resolution also designated 25 November as International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.


title: Gender equality

text: A typology similar to the WHO's from an article on violence against women published in the academic journal "The Lancet" shows the different types of violence perpetrated against women according to what time period in a women's life the violence takes place. However, it also classifies the types of violence according to the perpetrator. One important point to note is that more of the types of violence inflicted on women are perpetrated by someone the woman knows, either a family member or intimate partner, rather than a stranger.


title: Gender equality

text: The Gender Equality Commission of the Council of Europe identifies nine forms of violence against women based on subject and context rather than life cycle or time period:


title: Gender equality

text: Killings of transgender individuals, especially transgender women, continue to rise yearly. 2020 saw a record 350 transgender individuals murdered, with means including suffocation and burning alive.


title: Gender equality

text: In 2009, United States data showed that transgender people are likely to experience a broad range of violence in the entirety of their lifetime. Violence against trans women in Puerto Rico started to make headlines after being treated as "An Invisible Problem" decades before. It was reported at the 58th Convention of the Puerto Rican Association that many transgender women face institutional, emotional, and structural obstacles. Most trans women do not have access to health care for STD prevention and are not educated on violence prevention, mental health, and social services that could benefit them.


title: Gender equality

text: Trans women in the United States have encountered the subject of anti-trans stigma, which includes criminalization, dehumanization, and violence against those who identify as transgender. From a societal standpoint, a trans person can be victim to the stigma due to lack of family support, issues with health care and social services, police brutality, discrimination in the work place, cultural marginalisation, poverty, sexual assault, assault, bullying, and mental trauma. The Human Rights Campaign tracked over 128 cases that ended in fatality against transgender people in the US from 2013 to 2018, of which eighty percent included a trans woman of color. In the US, high rates of Intimate Partner violence impact trans women differently because they are facing discrimination from police and health providers, and alienation from family. In 2018, it was reported that 77 percent of transgender people who were linked to sex work and 72 percent of transgender people who were homeless, were victims of intimate partner violence.


title: Gender equality

text: The importance of women having the right and possibility to have control over their body, reproduction decisions, and sexuality, and the need for gender equality in order to achieve these goals are recognized as crucial by the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and the UN International Conference on Population and Development Program of Action. The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that promotion of gender equality is crucial in the fight against HIV/AIDS.


title: Gender equality

text: Maternal mortality is a major problem in many parts of the world. UNFPA states that countries have an obligation to protect women's right to health, but many countries do not do that. Maternal mortality is considered today not just an issue of development but also an issue of human rights.


title: Gender equality

text: The right to reproductive and sexual autonomy is denied to women in many parts of the world, through practices such as forced sterilization, forced/coerced sexual partnering (e.g. forced marriage, child marriage), criminalization of consensual sexual acts (such as sex outside marriage), lack of criminalization of marital rape, violence in regard to the choice of partner (honor killings as punishment for 'inappropriate' relations). The sexual health of women is often poor in societies where a woman's right to control her sexuality is not recognized.


title: Gender equality

text: Adolescent girls have the highest risk of sexual coercion, sexual ill health, and negative reproductive outcomes. The risks they face are higher than those of boys and men; this increased risk is partly due to gender inequity (different socialization of boys and girls, gender based violence, child marriage) and partly due to biological factors.


title: Gender equality

text: Family planning is the practice of freely deciding the number of children one has and the intervals between their births, particularly by means of contraception or voluntary sterilization. Abortion is the induced termination of pregnancy. Abortion laws vary significantly by country. The availability of contraception, sterilization and abortion is dependent on laws, as well as social, cultural and religious norms. Some countries have liberal laws regarding these issues, but in practice it is very difficult to access such services due to doctors, pharmacists and other social and medical workers being conscientious objectors. Family planning is particularly important from a women's rights perspective, as having very many pregnancies, especially in areas where malnutrition is present, can seriously endanger women's health. UNFA writes that "Family planning is central to gender equality and women's empowerment, and it is a key factor in reducing poverty".


title: Gender equality

text: Family planning is often opposed by governments who have strong natalist policies. During the 20th century, such examples have included the aggressive natalist policies from communist Romania and communist Albania. State mandated forced marriage was also practiced by some authoritarian governments as a way to meet population targets: the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia systematically forced people into marriages, in order to increase the population and continue the revolution. By contrast, the one-child policy of China (1979–2015) included punishments for families with more than one child and forced abortions. The fine is so-called "social maintenance fee" and it is the punishment for the families who have more than one child. According to the policy, the families who violate the law may bring the burden to the whole sociey. Therefore, the social maintenance fee will be used for the operation of the basic government. Some governments have sought to prevent certain ethnic or social groups from reproduction. Such policies were carried out against ethnic minorities in Europe and North America in the 20th century, and more recently in Latin America against the Indigenous population in the 1990s; in Peru, President Alberto Fujimori (in office from 1990 to 2000) has been accused of genocide and crimes against humanity as a result of a sterilization program put in place by his administration targeting indigenous people (mainly the Quechuas and the Aymaras).


title: Gender equality

text: Human rights organizations have expressed concern about the legal impunity of perpetrators of crimes against women, with such crimes being often ignored by authorities. This is especially the case with murders of women in Latin America. In particular, there is impunity in regard to domestic violence.


title: Gender equality

text: Women are often, in law or in practice, unable to access legal institutions. UN Women has said that: "Too often, justice institutions, including the police and the courts, deny women justice". Often, women are denied legal recourse because the state institutions themselves are structured and operate in ways incompatible with genuine justice for women who experience violence.


title: Gender equality

text: "Harmful traditional practices" refer to forms of violence which are committed in certain communities often enough to become cultural practice, and accepted for that reason. Young women are the main victims of such acts, although men can be affected. They occur in an environment where women and girls have unequal rights and opportunities.


title: Gender equality

text: These practices include, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:


title: Gender equality

text: Son preference refers to a cultural preference for sons over daughters, and manifests itself through practices such as sex selective abortion; female infanticide; or abandonment, neglect or abuse of girl-children.


title: Gender equality

text: Abuses regarding nutrition are taboos in regard to certain foods, which result in poor nutrition of women, and may endanger their health, especially if pregnant.


title: Gender equality

text: The caste system in India which leads to untouchability (the practice of ostracizing a group by segregating them from the mainstream society) often interacts with gender discrimination, leading to a double discrimination faced by Dalit women. In a 2014 survey, 27% of Indians admitted to practicing untouchability.


title: Gender equality

text: Traditional customs regarding birth sometimes endanger the mothers. Births in parts of Africa are often attended by traditional birth attendants (TBAs), who sometimes perform rituals that are dangerous to the health of the mother. In many societies, a difficult labour is believed to be a divine punishment for marital infidelity, and such women face abuse and are pressured to "confess" to the infidelity.


title: Gender equality

text: Tribal traditions can be harmful to males; for instance, the Satere-Mawe tribe use bullet ants as an initiation rite. Men must wear gloves with hundreds of bullet ants woven in for ten minutes: the ants' stings cause severe pain and paralysis. This experience must be completed twenty times for boys to be considered "warriors".


title: Gender equality

text: Other harmful traditional practices include marriage by abduction, ritualized sexual slavery (Devadasi, Trokosi), breast ironing and widow inheritance.


title: Gender equality

text: UNFPA and UNICEF regard the practice of female genital mutilation as "a manifestation of deeply entrenched gender inequality. It persists for many reasons. In some societies, for example, it is considered a rite of passage. In others, it is seen as a prerequisite for marriage. In some communities – whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim – the practice may even be attributed to religious beliefs."


title: Gender equality

text: An estimated 125 million women and girls living today have undergone FGM in the 29 countries where data exist. Of these, about half live in Egypt and Ethiopia. It is most commonly carried out on girls between infancy and 15 years old.


title: Gender equality

text: Early marriage, child marriage or forced marriage is prevalent in parts of Asia and Africa. The majority of victims seeking advice are female and aged between 18 and 23. Such marriages can have harmful effects on a girl's education and development, and may expose girls to social isolation or abuse.


title: Gender equality

text: The 2013 UN Resolution on Child, Early and Forced Marriage calls for an end to the practice, and states that "Recognizing that child, early and forced marriage is a harmful practice that violates abuses, or impairs human rights and is linked to and perpetuates other harmful practices and human rights violations, that these violations have a disproportionately negative impact on women and girls [...]". Despite a near-universal commitment by governments to end child marriage, "one in three girls in developing countries (excluding China) will probably be married before they are 18." UNFPA states that, "over 67 million women 20–24 year old in 2010 had been married as girls. Half were in Asia, one-fifth in Africa. In the next decade 14.2 million girls under 18 will be married every year; this translates into 39,000 girls married each day. This will rise to an average of 15.1 million girls a year, starting in 2021 until 2030, if present trends continue."


title: Gender equality

text: Bride price (also called bridewealth or bride token) is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the parents of the bride. This custom often leads to women having reduced ability to control their fertility. For instance, in northern Ghana, the payment of bride price signifies a woman's requirement to bear children, and women using birth control face threats, violence and reprisals. The custom of bride price has been criticized as contributing to the mistreatment of women in marriage, and preventing them from leaving abusive marriages. UN Women recommended its abolition, and stated that: "Legislation should ... State that divorce shall not be contingent upon the return of bride price but such provisions shall not be interpreted to limit women's right to divorce; State that a perpetrator of domestic violence, including marital rape, cannot use the fact that he paid bride price as a defence to a domestic violence charge."


title: Gender equality

text: The custom of bride price can also curtail the free movement of women: if a wife wants to leave her husband, he may demand back the bride price that he had paid to the woman's family; and the woman's family often cannot or does not want to pay it back, making it difficult for women to move out of violent husbands' homes.


title: Gender equality

text: Promoting gender equality is seen as an encouragement to greater economic prosperity. Female economic activity is a common measure of gender equality in an economy.


title: Gender equality

text: Gender discrimination often results in women obtaining low-wage jobs and being disproportionately affected by poverty, discrimination and exploitation. A growing body of research documents what works to economically empower women, from providing access to formal financial services to training on agricultural and business management practices, though more research is needed across a variety of contexts to confirm the effectiveness of these interventions.


title: Gender equality

text: Gender biases also exist in product and service provision. The term "Women's Tax", also known as "Pink Tax", refers to gendered pricing in which products or services marketed to women are more expensive than similar products marketed to men. Gender-based price discrimination involves companies selling almost identical units of the same product or service at comparatively different prices, as determined by the target market. Studies have found that women pay about $1,400 a year more than men due to gendered discriminatory pricing. Although the "pink tax" of different goods and services is not uniform, overall women pay more for commodities that result in visual evidence of feminine body image.


title: Gender equality

text: In addition, gender wage gap is a phenomenon of gender biases. That means women do the same job or work with their male counterpart, but they could not receive the same salary or opportunity at workforce. Across the European Union, for example, since women continue to hold lower-paying jobs, they earn 13% less than men on average. According to European Quality of Life Survey and European Working Conditions Survey data, women in the European Union work more hours but for less pay. Adult men (including the retired) work an average of 23 hours per week, compared to 15 hours for women.


title: Gender equality

text: Since the 1950s, social scientists as well as feminists have increasingly criticized gendered arrangements of work and care and the male breadwinner role. Policies are increasingly targeting men as fathers as a tool of changing gender relations.


title: Gender equality

text: Shared earning/shared parenting marriage, that is, a relationship where the partners collaborate at sharing their responsibilities inside and outside of the home, is often encouraged in Western countries.


title: Gender equality

text: Western countries with a strong emphasis on women fulfilling the role of homemakers, rather than a professional role, include parts of German speaking Europe (i.e. parts of Germany, Austria and Switzerland); as well as the Netherlands and Ireland. In the computer technology world of Silicon Valley in the United States, "New York Times" reporter Nellie Bowles has covered harassment and bias against women as well as a backlash against female equality.


title: Gender equality

text: Females are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at all levels of society. Fewer females are completing STEM school subjects, graduating with STEM degrees, being employed as STEM professionals, and holding senior leadership and academic positions in STEM. This problem is exacerbated by the gender pay gap; family role expectations; lack of visible role models or mentors; discrimination and harassment; and bias in hiring and promotion practices.


title: Gender equality

text: A key issue towards insuring gender equality in the workplace is the respecting of maternity rights and reproductive rights of women. Different countries have different rules regarding maternity leave, paternity leave and parental leave. Another important issue is ensuring that employed women are not "de jure" or "de facto" prevented from having a child. In some countries, employers ask women to sign formal or informal documents stipulating that they will not get pregnant or face legal punishment. Women often face severe violations of their reproductive rights at the hands of their employers; and the International Labour Organization classifies forced abortion coerced by the employer as labour exploitation. Other abuses include routine virginity tests of unmarried employed women.


title: Gender equality

text: The degree to which women can participate (in law and in practice) in public life varies by culture and socioeconomic characteristics. Seclusion of women within the home was a common practice among the upper classes of many societies, and this still remains the case today in some societies. Before the 20th century it was also common in parts of Southern Europe, such as much of Spain.


title: Gender equality

text: Women's freedom of movement continues to be legally restricted in some parts of the world. This restriction is often due to marriage laws. In some countries, women must legally be accompanied by their male guardians (such as the husband or male relative) when they leave home.


title: Gender equality

text: The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) states at Article 15 (4) that:


title: Gender equality

text: In addition to laws, women's freedom of movement is also restricted by social and religious norms. Restrictions on freedom of movement also exist due to traditional practices such as baad, swara, or vani.


title: Gender equality

text: In many parts of the world, girls' access to education is very restricted. In developing parts of the world women are often denied opportunities for education as girls and women face many obstacles. These include: early and forced marriages; early pregnancy; prejudice based on gender stereotypes at home, at school and in the community; violence on the way to school, or in and around schools; long distances to schools; vulnerability to the HIV epidemic; school fees, which often lead to parents sending only their sons to school; lack of gender sensitive approaches and materials in classrooms. According to OHCHR, there have been multiple attacks on schools worldwide during the period 2009–2014 with "a number of these attacks being specifically directed at girls, parents and teachers advocating for gender equality in education". The United Nations Population Fund says:


title: Gender equality

text: Women are underrepresented in most countries' National Parliaments. The 2011 UN General Assembly resolution on women's political participation called for female participation in politics, and expressed concern about the fact that "women in every part of the world continue to be largely marginalized from the political sphere". Only 22 percent of parliamentarians globally are women and therefore, men continue to occupy most positions of political and legal authority. As of November 2014, women accounted for 28% of members of the single or lower houses of parliaments in the European Union member states.


title: Gender equality

text: In 2015, 61.3% of Rwanda's Lower House of Parliament were women, the highest proportion anywhere in the world, but worldwide that was one of only two such bodies where women were in the majority, the other being Bolivia's Lower House of Parliament. (See also Gender equality in Rwanda).


title: Gender equality

text: Equal rights for women in marriage, divorce, and property/land ownership and inheritance are essential for gender equality. The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has called for the end of discriminatory family laws. In 2013, UN Women stated that "While at least 115 countries recognize equal land rights for women and men, effective implementation remains a major challenge".


title: Gender equality

text: The legal and social treatment of married women has been often discussed as a political issue from the 19th century onwards. Until the 1970s, legal subordination of married women was common across European countries, through marriage laws giving legal authority to the husband, as well as through marriage bars. In 1978, the Council of Europe passed the "Resolution (78) 37 on equality of spouses in civil law". Switzerland was one of the last countries in Europe to establish gender equality in marriage, in this country married women's rights were severely restricted until 1988, when legal reforms providing for gender equality in marriage, abolishing the legal authority of the husband, come into force (these reforms had been approved in 1985 by voters in a referendum, who narrowly voted in favor with 54.7% of voters approving). In the Netherlands, it was only in 1984 that full legal equality between husband and wife was achieved: prior to 1984 the law stipulated that the husband's opinion prevailed over the wife's regarding issues such as decisions on children's education and the domicile of the family.


title: Gender equality

text: In the United States, a wife's legal subordination to her husband was fully ended by the case of "Kirchberg v. Feenstra", , a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held a Louisiana Head and Master law, which gave sole control of marital property to the husband, unconstitutional.


title: Gender equality

text: There have been and sometimes continue to be unequal treatment of married women in various aspects of everyday life. For example, in Australia, until 1983 a husband had to authorize an application for an Australian passport for a married woman. Other practices have included, and in many countries continue to include, a requirement for a husband's consent for an application for bank loans and credit cards by a married woman, as well as restrictions on the wife's reproductive rights, such as a requirement that the husband consents to the wife's acquiring contraception or having an abortion. In some places, although the law itself no longer requires the consent of the husband for various actions taken by the wife, the practice continues "de facto", with the authorization of the husband being asked in practice.


title: Gender equality

text: Although dowry is today mainly associated with South Asia, the practice has been common until the mid-20th century in parts of Southeast Europe.


title: Gender equality

text: Laws regulating marriage and divorce continue to discriminate against women in many countries. In Iraq husbands have a legal right to "punish" their wives, with paragraph 41 of the criminal code stating that there is no crime if an act is committed while exercising a legal right. In the 1990s and the 21st century there has been progress in many countries in Africa: for instance in Namibia the marital power of the husband was abolished in 1996 by the "Married Persons Equality Act"; in Botswana it was abolished in 2004 by the "Abolition of Marital Power Act"; and in Lesotho it was abolished in 2006 by the "Married Persons Equality Act". Violence against a wife continues to be seen as legally acceptable in some countries; for instance in 2010, the United Arab Emirates Supreme Court ruled that a man has the right to physically discipline his wife and children as long as he does not leave physical marks. The criminalization of adultery has been criticized as being a prohibition, which, in law or in practice, is used primarily against women; and incites violence against women (crimes of passion, honor killings).


title: Gender equality

text: Two recent movements in countries with large Kurdish populations have implemented political gender equality. One has been the Kurdish movement in southeastern Turkey led by the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), from 2006 or before.


title: Gender equality

text: The mayorships of 2 metropolitan areas and 97 towns are led jointly by a man and a woman, both called co-mayors. Party offices are also led by a man and a woman. Local councils were formed, which also had to be co-presided over by a man and a woman together. However, in November 2016 the Turkish government cracked down on the HDP, jailing ten of its members of Parliament, including the party's male and female co-leaders.


title: Gender equality

text: A movement in northern Syria, also Kurdish, has been led by the Democratic Union Party (PYD). In northern Syria all villages, towns and cities governed by the PYD were co-governed by a man and a woman. Local councils were formed where each sex had to have 40% representation, and minorities also had to be represented.


title: Gender equality

text: Gender stereotypes arise from the socially approved roles of women and men in the private or public sphere, at home or in the workplace. In the household, women are typically seen as mother figures, which usually places them into a typical classification of being "supportive" or "nurturing". Women are expected to want to take on the role of a mother and take on primary responsibility for household needs. Their male counterparts are seen as being "assertive" or "ambitious" as men are usually seen in the workplace or as the primary breadwinner for his family. Due to these views and expectations, women often face discrimination in the public sphere, such as the workplace. Women are stereotyped to be less productive at work because they are believed to focus more on family when they get married or have children.


title: Gender equality

text: A gender role is a set of societal norms dictating the types of behaviors which are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for people based on their sex. Gender roles are usually centered on conceptions of femininity and masculinity, although there are exceptions and variations.


title: Gender equality

text: The way women are represented in the media has been criticized as perpetuating negative gender stereotypes. The exploitation of women in mass media refers to the criticisms that are levied against the use or objectification of women in the mass media, when such use or portrayal aims at increasing the appeal of media or a product, to the detriment of, or without regard to, the interests of the women portrayed, or women in general. Concerns include the fact that all forms of media have the power to shape the population's perceptions and portray images of unrealistic stereotypical perceptions by portraying women either as submissive housewives or as sex objects. The media emphasizes traditional domestic or sexual roles that normalize violence against women. The vast array of studies that have been conducted on the issue of the portrayal of women in the media have shown that women are often portrayed as irrational, fragile, not intelligent, submissive and


title: Gender equality

text: subservient to men. Research has shown that stereotyped images such as these have been shown to negatively impact on the mental health of many female viewers who feel bound by these roles, causing amongst other problems, self-esteem issues, depression and anxiety.


title: Gender equality

text: According to a study, the way women are often portrayed by the media can lead to: "Women of average or normal appearance feeling inadequate or less beautiful in comparison to the overwhelming use of extraordinarily attractive women"; "Increase in the likelihood and acceptance of sexual violence"; "Unrealistic expectations by men of how women should look or behave"; "Psychological disorders such as body dysmorphic disorder, anorexia, bulimia and so on"; "The importance of physical appearance is emphasized and reinforced early in most girls' development." Studies have found that nearly half of females ages 6–8 have stated they want to be slimmer. (Striegel-Moore & Franko, 2002)".


title: Gender equality

text: While in many countries, the problem lies in the lack of adequate legislation, in others the principal problem is not as much the lack of a legal framework, but the fact is that most women do not know their legal rights. This is especially the case as many of the laws dealing with women's rights are of recent date. This lack of knowledge enables to abusers to lead the victims (explicitly or implicitly) to believe that their abuse is within their rights. This may apply to a wide range of abuses, ranging from domestic violence to employment discrimination. The United Nations Development Programme states that, in order to advance gender justice, "Women must know their rights and be able to access legal systems".


title: Gender equality

text: The 1993 UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women states at Art. 4 (d) [...] "States should also inform women of their rights in seeking redress through such mechanisms". Enacting protective legislation against violence has little effect, if women do not know how to use it: for example a study of Bedouin women in Israel found that 60% did not know what a restraining order was; or if they do not know what acts are illegal: a report by Amnesty International showed in Hungary, in a public opinion poll of nearly 1,200 people in 2006, a total of 62% did not know that marital rape was an illegal (it was outlawed in 1997) and therefore the crime was rarely reported. Ensuring women have a minimum understanding of health issues is also important: lack of access to reliable medical information and available medical procedures to which they are entitled hurts women's health.


title: Gender equality

text: Gender mainstreaming is described as the public policy of assessing the different implications for women and men of any planned policy action, including legislation and programmes, in all areas and levels, with the aim of achieving gender equality. The concept of gender mainstreaming was first proposed at the 1985 Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi, Kenya. The idea has been developed in the United Nations development community. Gender mainstreaming "involves ensuring that gender perspectives and attention to the goal of gender equality are central to all activities".


title: Gender equality

text: According to the Council of Europe definition: "Gender mainstreaming is the (re)organization, improvement, development and evaluation of policy processes, so that a gender equality perspective is incorporated in all policies at all levels and at all stages, by the actors normally involved in policy-making."


title: Gender equality

text: An integrated gender mainstreaming approach is "the attempt to form alliances and common platforms that bring together the power of faith and gender-equality aspirations to advance human rights." For example, "in Azerbaijan, UNFPA conducted a study on gender equality by comparing the text of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women with some widely recognized Islamic references and resources. The results reflect the parallels between the Convention and many tenets of Islamic scripture and practice. The study showcased specific issues, including VAW, child marriage, respect for the dignity of women, and equality in the economic and political participation of women. The study was later used to produce training materials geared towards sensitizing religious leaders."


title: Akshara Haasan

text: Akshara Haasan is an Indian actress who has appeared in Tamil and Hindi-language films. The daughter of actors Kamal Haasan and Sarika Thakur, and the younger sister of Shruti Haasan, she made her film debut with the comedy drama "Shamitabh" (2015), and later appeared in "Kadaram Kondan" (2017).


title: Akshara Haasan

text: Akshara Haasan was born at 1991 in Madras (present-day Chennai), Tamil Nadu to actors Kamal Haasan and Sarika Thakur. Shruti Haasan is her elder sister. Akshara did her schooling from Abacus Montessori School, Montessori; Lady Andal in Chennai; Beacon High in Mumbai and completed her schooling in Indus International School, Bangalore.


title: Akshara Haasan

text: Akshara Haasan lives in Mumbai with her mother. She has converted to Buddhism. In one of her interview, Akshara turns out, an atheist by belief, she has now converted to Buddhism because she was drawn to it.


title: Akshara Haasan

text: Haasan has worked as an assistant director to Rahul Dholakia on the 2010 film "Society", starring her mother Sarika, as well as Ram Moorthy, Uzer Khan, E. Niwas and Ruchi Narain on my many AD films in Mumbai. During her stint as an assistant director, she rejected opportunities to feature as an actress, notably turning down an offer to work in Mani Ratnam's "Kadal". She also worked for her father's unreleased film, "Sabaash Naidu", which had her sister Shruthi Haasan in a supporting role.


title: Akshara Haasan

text: Haasan made her debut as an actress in "Shamitabh", opposite Dhanush, which also has Amitabh Bachchan in the lead and co-actor of Ajith Kumar in "Vivegam" in Tamil.