I put up a similar question on another board:
Given that we have:
Genital mutilation in Egypt
Bride burning in India
Sex tours in Thailand
The “AIDS Highway” in Africa and
A UN resolution specifically for women
What is the biggest problem facing women today?
The main answer I got was “identity.”
I don’t know what it is and I really can’t see how it’s worse than the problems above.
So what is it, and why should it take precedence for women outside of the industrial nations?
When you ask a vague question, you will get a vague answer.
Women around the world face the highest rates of poverty. In poor countries, they are more likely to face disease. In much of the world, girl’s education lags way behind. In many places women do not have basic rights over things like who they marry, what jobs they work, or where they are allowed to go. In others, they just face constant chronic sexism that cuts straight to the heart of their sense of self.
Is there one thing that unifies all these things?
Not really, except that in general, women get the short end of the stick.
This idea of “identity” is more of the solution than the problem. If people want to stop being oppressed, the first thing they have to do is realize that they are oppressed and that they have the right not to be. If women realize that they are not just unlucky individuals, but rather part of a system that is set up against women, maybe then they can start to dismantle these systems and build better ones.
So while I wouldn’t say “identity” as the answer to your question, I can see where that answer might come from.
It sounds to me like you probably asked the question badly. Ask the typical ( for example ) American woman what the biggest problem facing “women” today is, and she’ll probably interpret that as “American women”. If you asked her what is the biggest issue facing “women in general worldwide” you’d likely get a different answer than from asking about just “women”.
Bride Burning? I thought it was widow burning. And in all those countries with the possible exception of Egypt, I think that it is not something that affects most women.
Well, widow burning is the traditional thing to complain about, but bride burning does happen. Every year thousands of newly married women die in “kitchen accidents”, usually when their dowry is found to be lacking. Usually it is the husband’s family who douses the girl in kerosene and sets her on fire. It’s pretty horrible and it’s shockingly common.
As for these things not affecting all women- the effects of this stuff are still felt by all women. If your neighbor had been burned alive because of his race, and you shared that race, wouldn’t that affect you?
There’s far more bride burning than widow burning in India these days. Brides are killed because of disputes over dowries, because of perceptions of infidelity, because husbands want to remarry, because they married the wrong man or because they refuse to marry the right man. Murdering such unwanted brides is often achieved by burning them to death and blaming it in an exploding kerosene burner.
In Delhi, a woman is burned to death almost every twelve hours. In contrast suttee, the practice of widow burning, has been almost unheard of for the last few decades.
Cool, finally somebody who knows what this “identity” term means. 
I’m trying to track down a paper or summary about it, do you know a writer or source I could look at?
Sure; but some woman on another continent isn’t your neighbor. Yes, you should still care for ethical reasons; but the fact is that what happens to women in India is unlikely to affect what happens to women thousands of miles away to any significant extent.
Those attitudes don’t stay in India. They travel. Not only do those attitudes affect women thousands of miles away, they affect men also. And more positive and life-affirming attitudes affect the men and women in India.
Which country has not had a woman to head its government – India, Pakistan, Israel, Great Britain, the United States?
Not very much, between the distance and the language barrier.
Meaningless; having women at the top has never had any special tendency to be good for the women who are not. Powerful women aren’t any more likely to care about the welfare of other women than powerful men generally care about the welfare of other men. The elite as a rule cares only about the elite, and no one else regardless of gender.
The issue of identity in regards to feminism is not a solution, it is a separation, which is another problem and actually a further step away from unity with others through God. It is a attempt of righting a wrong by going further in a wrong direction and only serves to amplify the hurt and pain.
A abused woman may seek to isolate herself from the world so as to separate herself from the abuser, as such she is claiming her identity separate from his in the act of pulling away. Yes she has her own identity, but what is really needed is healing, which involves connecting to the whole, to people who care and the ones she needs to really come alive and live.
Separation is ultimately death, it is a very painful state and one where your identity in yourself is worthless. Very strong women in their own ID will eventually find themselves very lonely, while those who connect to the body of Love of God will find themselves very powerful in that love.
Are you under the impression that feminists advise abused women to cut themselves off from all human contact?
You are very mistaken.