User:Abl9dw/sandbox

Article evaluation: Women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Evaluating Content:

The content provides a basic summary of the presence of gender inequality within the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The only information provided about the amount of Congolese women in the professional world was from 1979 and the 1990's. Updated information regarding the percentage of women in professional fields such as law, government and medicine should be added to the Urban Women section underneath the Economy and Society subheading.

Evaluating Tone:

On many instances the tone of this article is not neutral. For example, under the Women's Organizations subheading, when describing the accomplishments of a Congolese Feminist Group, The Association of Women Merchants, the page states that the group," failed to advance the interests of the assembled women merchants". The article continued by stating that the group," instead turned into a vehicle for class interests, namely those of the middle-class president". A neutral article would state the actions and outcomes of The Association of Women Merchants on Congolese women, and allow the reader to draw conclusions whether the organization successfully supported the women merchants.

Evaluating Sources:

The article contains credible sources, such as one from the Library of Congress. The links work properly and directed me to the sources which supported the claims made in the article. I did notice the repeated use of certain sources throughout the article. The Library of Congress source was used to cite the majority of the article's statistics, which could be problematic since the article was published some 23 years ago in 1993. The figures may be outdated and not accurately represent the true state of Congolese women.

Talk Page: I noticed that there was no recent activity on this particular page. The last time it was edited was on December 7th of 2014. The article has a C-class rating and it is currently of interest to the following projects: WikiProject Africa/ Democratic Republic of the Congo, WikiProject Gender Studies, WikiProject Women's History, and WikiProject Feminism.

Bibliography:

https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2017&dlid=276989#wrapper

Andree Blouin Article Revisions: Blouin credits the untimely death of her son as her primary motivation for becoming a political activist. Her son's death could have been prevented with the right medication, however because her son was of African ancestry, he was denied proper medical treatment.

The article is noticeably lacking background information about Blouin and has not been updated recently according to the talk page. I plan to add information regarding her childhood and upbringing and add a subheading dedicated to activism. I will include information regarding her role in helping Guinean nationalist Sekou Toure in the country's fight for independence from France. Lastly, I will describe her efforts to mobilize women in Central Africa to join the Parti Solidaire Africain political party, her position in Patrice Lumumba's government, and subsequent banishment from the Congo.

Potential Sources Bibliography:


 * 1) Bouwer K. (2010) Andrée Blouin: A Sister Among Brothers in Struggle. In: Gender and Decolonization in the Congo. Palgrave Macmillan, New York
 * 2) Keeping track of women writingAfrican penwomen of the colonial era: http://aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au/colonies_20e_eng_afr.html#fnB31
 * 3) Ormerod, Beverley, and Jean-Marie Volet. "Ecrits Autobiographiques Et Engagement: Le Cas Des Africaines D'expression Française." The French Review 69, no. 3 (1996):   426-44. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.umsl.edu/stable/396492.