What do Iran and the U.S. have in common?

If news reports are correct, two of the seven U.N. member states that have not ratified the CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) are Iran and the United States.

Here are two pieces of writing on it that might be well worth your time (for various reasons):

first, Senate Revisits the ‘Women’s Treaty’, by Amy Lieberman
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/7148/senate-revisits-the-womens-treaty

second, The Case against the U.N. Women’s Treaty by (turncoat?) Christina Hoff Sommers
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/253400/case-against-un-womens-treaty-christina-hoff-sommers

Apart from the more obviously important issues, was/is it inappropriate for me to include a parenthetical “turncoat” before Christina Hoff Sommers’ name? Does justice/morality/ethics require me to list her name as author just as I list other names as authors? Whether justice/morality/ethics does so or not, what other words might readers use to describe her? Any thoughts to share on this or related matters?

U.N. Women, CEDAW, and Saudi Arabia

The U.N. Women statement (on “Facts & Figures”) linked below claims that, “[t]he work of UN Women will be framed by… the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women [CEDAW]…”

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Update: the U.N. Women website now indicates that CEDAW is one of four or so documents guiding their work:

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http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/guiding-documents/

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http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/convention.htm

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Apparently, Saudi Arabia ratified CEDAW with three or so reservations. Here is one of them:
1) “The Kingdom does not consider itself bound by paragraphe 2 of article 9 of the Convention…”

– *** Please note that paragraph 2 of article 9 states, “Parties shall grant women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children.”

What do readers make of this?

In case anyone is interested, here is a link to the 2009 Freedom House Ratings for Saudi Arabia – you can easily find ratings (or country reports) for different years and regions by changing the two drop down menus.
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&year=2009&country=7696

Gender Inequality Index

Click here for links on/for the 2013 Gender Inequality Index
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Click here for links on/for the 2012 Gender Inequality Index
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Although many of the links in the comments below (mostly on/for grassroots organizations) still work, the UNDP keeps changing the URLs for the links just below in the main post here and I have stopped updating to keep up with them. All the UNDP links above for the 2012 and 2013 Gender Inequality Indexes currently work.

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Apparently, the recently released 2010 Human Development Report (HDR) added three new indices to the Human Development Index (HDI). They are The Multidimensional Poverty Index, The Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, and the Gender Inequality Index.

The Gender Inequality Index ranks countries by taking account of five indicators: 1) maternal mortality ratio, 2) adolescent fertility rate, 3) the share of parliamentary seats held by each sex, 4) secondary and higher education attainment levels, and 5) by women’s participation in the work force.

This index is (supposed to be) “a composite measure reflecting inequality in achievements between women and men in three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market.”

Saudi Arabia, which ranks 55 in the “high human development” category, ranks 128 in the Gender Inequality Index.

Here is the new Gender Inequality Index:
…link deleted, see above…

Here is the Human Development Report webpage on it:
…link deleted, see above…

Many details here for different interpretations in different ways…

…Update from 2012 (and comment #70 below):

Out of 187 countries in the 2011 Human Development Index, the United States ranks 47, the United Kingdom ranks 34, and Canada ranks 20 in the 2011 Gender Inequality Index.

You can download a PDF of the 2011 Gender Inequality Index (with rank and indicators listed in the order of the more comprehensive Human Development Index) by clicking and/or saving here:
…link deleted, see above…

You can download a PDF that provides a graphical presentation of the human development indices, including the gender inequality indicators, here:
…link deleted, see above…

You can download a PDF of Frequently Asked Questions about the Gender Inequality Index here:
…link deleted, see above…