More on the pro-women line

I found the discussion on my post about blaming women vs. blaming patriarchy interesting. But thought the issues got a little muddied, because the post I was responding to was talking about the sex industry. I really don't understand how anyone could hold women within the sex industry responsible for their own objectification. That makes no sense to me, so I would start responding to people, and wanting to rant in eight different directions at once.

But there's a really interesting post at Feministe about Indian women aborting female fetuses, which I think will make it easier to explore the issues. From the Daily Telegraph (I know, but it might be true even so):

The gender ratio of babies has fallen to fewer than 600 girls for every 1,000 boys in the Punjab, a predominantly Sikh region, partly because for the equivalent of £10 even poor farmers can afford a scan to determine the sex of a foetus. Worldwide, 1,050 female babies are born for every 1,000 boys.

I don't think any feminist reaction to this involves blaming women for the decision to terminate the fetuses, or trying to restrict their ability to have an abortion. Because that many women are not abortin female fetuses on a whim, or because they're misogynist. There are structural reason that they're doing it, and ultimately they're making rational choices.

I don't think anyone should say to any woman: 'those reservations you have about having a girl-child, don't worry it'll all be hugs and puppies'. Because each woman knows her life better than I do. If we want to change the choices women make then we have to change the conditions under which they make those choices.