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March 13, 2012 at 06:46 AM
As the third annual Women in the World Summit concluded on March 10 in New York City, A Daily Beast commenter on a blog posted:
“Most American women know how good they have it without visiting a third-world country where women are treated as pack animals. In America women are respected, revered and of course they have ‘the vote’. The occasional leftie that hates America would be unhappy anywhere — it’s really herself that she dislikes.”
Indeed. The three-day summit amply illustrated how stark oppression against women can still be in today’s world. Suma Tharu, a 16-year old who managed to escape indentured servitude in Nepal sang for the crowd at Lincoln Center while the “moral obligation to educate girls” around the world was discussed. It should be clear to any rational thinking person that women’s rights in some parts of the planet have a long way to go. But, as the commenter points out, should American women be satisfied because in most cases they are “respected, revered” and have the right to vote?
The insurance industry was involved in the event. Paul Alexander, senior vice president of communications for Liberty Mutual Insurance introduced the “Responsibility Project: Women in Film” series, which immediately made me think of a feature I wrote for the March issue of National Underwriter Life & Health on the state of women in the insurance industry. What I found while conducting research for that article was that, although women comprise half of the workforce in the industry, they are vastly underrepresented when it comes to high-level executive positions.
