Valerie M. Hudson

Eleanor Roosevelt once said that universal human rights begin “in small places, close to home.” It might be more accurate to say that they begin in the home, as the most intimate expression of whether human rights are respected within a society occurs between husbands and wives. Too often, however, the circumstances under which men and women come together to form households fall short of meeting basic standards of human rights. more

Last month, China announced that it would retain its one-child fertility policy to do its part to slow world population growth. This news will have come as a bitter disappointment to the Chinese demographers and policymakers who have been calling for a relaxation of the one-child policy for several years. Regrettably, it appears these progressive forces have lost a behind-the-scenes bureaucratic battle. more

The Western news media has made much over the recent decision by Egypt's transitional government to ban foreign election monitors from the country's upcoming parliamentary polls. The more important story, however, has been buried: The transitional regime, which includes no women, has scrapped quotas for women in the national legislature. Now Egypt's women need more than moral support, especially from the U.S. more

The future of women's rights in the Arab Spring countries has been an open worry in recent months. Observers have noted there are no women in the transitional government in Egypt. Fundamentalist elements in Yemen that had opposed raising the marriage age for girls, currently at 8 years old, are among the chief opposition forces trying to bring down the Saleh government.
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China's long-awaited census results put the Chinese population at 1.37 billion, an increase of only about 74 million people over the past decade that has resulted in the premature aging of China. But probably the most unwelcome aspect of the census results is that China's sex ratio at birth has risen once again. While there are many factors involved, China struggles with a self-imposed handicap: the one-child policy. more

Many Western observers hope that India's growth as a global power will both balance China's rise and ensure that rise remains peaceful. Indeed, the U.S. has identified India as a crucial partner for the coming century. But the continued disappearance of India's women and girls described in preliminary census figures released last week is putting the future of India's security partnership with the West at risk. more

While the traditional approach to national security would suggest that there is no linkage between the security of women and the security of states, there is an interesting new wave of research that is increasingly undermining that assumption. If male-female relations within a society -- one of its strongest and most influential characteristics -- are based on dominance and inequity, the state and its security will be affected.
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