Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Should more be done to address women's issues globally?
Drawing from "The Hillary Doctrine" and your own research, should more be done on a global level to promote gender equality? Feel free to address issues of pay parity, women in political leadership, reproductive rights, and other womens issues.
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Hillary Clinton has certainly contributed tremendously to promoting women's rights, and more can be done, not only by her, but the world as a whole. We have learned that investment in women and girls is among the highest-return investments: an extra year of primary school boosts girls' eventual wages by 10% to 20%, an extra year of secondary school adds 15% to 25%. Girls who stay in school for 7 or more years typically marry 4 years later and have 2 fewer children than girls who drop out. The World Food Programme has also found out that when girls and women earn income, they reinvest 90% of it in their families (this figure for men is around 30% to 40%). It is, therefore, clearly seen that investing in women and girls, especially in girls' education, can solve many of the world's pressing problems, poverty, child labour, child marriage, just to name a few.
ReplyDeleteGender equality has been recognised by the United Nations (UN) as one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG3). Unfortunately, the UN has recognised that the progress on MDG3 has been “uneven and slow”. Clearly, there is more to be done.
ReplyDeleteSome efforts thus far include:
School fee abolition initiative (SFAI) - led by UNICEF: Aims to reduce / remove cost barriers to basic education (especially crucial in poverty stricken countries)
Girl power movement - led by Nike: Notable for the use of new media and its target audience (youth)
Various micro-financing programs - Women’s Empowerment Program in Nepal, for example, conducted a study that showed an average of 89,000 out of 130,000 or 68 percent of women in its program experienced an increase in their decision-making roles in the areas of family planning, children’s marriage, buying and selling property, and sending their daughters to school (traditionally male dominated decisions)
Useful links (3 is the easiest read, 1 has the most examples)
http://www.unifem.org/attachments/products/UNDG_MDG3Paper_en.pdf
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/GenderEquity.pdf
http://www.girleffect.org/uploads/documents/1/Girl_Effect_Fact_Sheet.pdf
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/CSRI/publications/report_40_investing_in_girls.pdf
http://www.microcreditsummit.org/papers/empowerment.pdf
Certainly a lot more could be achieved in terms of women's issues and rights, as pointed out by Lan and Mark. Women and girls face gender inequality issues at home and work, and exercise limited power in government. Many people, like Hillary Clinton, envision a future where women are free from the fear of discrimination and are free to run for positions in the government without being called a maverick or be labelled as a woman first and a governor second.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting parallel is the issue of the rights of African-Americans in the US. The US has gone one step closer to equal rights for all races when Barack Obama became President. That is not to say that racial discrimination has stopped, as we can still see that some minority races still earn less than majority counterparts.
Applying this to women’s issues, I suppose we must not look only at women being in power but then also continue on to campaign for women’s rights in other areas. A Unifem report warns that increasing women’s share of seats in parliament is not a panacea, and can only level the playing-field on which women battle for equality. Countries can follow the lead of countries like Germany, Finland and Iceland (that has an openly lesbian Prime Minister), and then campaign for greater awareness of women’s rights and the discrimination that women face.
Stumbling blocks include cultures (and the media’s portrayal of women, as seen by some sexist comments made by TV commentators in the video by Women’s Media Center) that demean or degrade women, and religions that condone discrimination against women. Interestingly, Islamic customs have come under attack for their attitude against women (requiring veils and such), but it should be noted that many Muslim-majority countries have elected women as their leaders at one point or another: Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh, to name the three most populous Muslim-majority countries.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2995687.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_political_leaders_in_Islam_and_in_Muslim-majority_countries
Timothy Yap
Nai Zexin
ReplyDeleteFrom Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus, he realised the economical difference there was empowering women with microcredit and their ability to sustain the family through the support of a wife or mother. The Grameen Bank broke many cultural norms in the current state of Bangladesh not because they were focusing on women but instead, it was to lift the community out of poverty. Therefore, it shows how women need not always make big differences to a large community as the work done by those women who have small stalls that sell food or hand woven baskets by the street provided their children with adequate nutrition and schooling but it also broke the reliance they had on their husbands for financial support. The Grameen Bank also helped to break the reliance of women on men as they had their female staff walk into the villages alone after they got to know the villagers well. Thus, despite current taboos, it is possible to change the current inferior perspective on women and give them the necessary status as men gradually as a sudden change would not do any good to both men and women.
Some edits to my comment posted above. Read this comment instead:)
ReplyDeleteIn Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus, Yunus realised there was a difference when women were empowered with microcredit and their ability to sustain the family through the support of as a wife or mother. The Grameen Bank broke many cultural norms in the current state of Bangladesh not because they were focusing on women but instead, it was an effort to lift the community out of poverty. By lending small amounts of money to these women, the Grameen Bank broke many cultural norms throught their way of operation and also the services that they provided as they change the way the village in Bangladesh viewed thier women and also their finances. The Grameen Bank was able to empower many women with small loans and thus they were also to feed thier children and also send them to school. Therefore, change towards women's impact on society can start small and it does not always have to be impactful even though it is undeniable that a women politician is able to impact the lives of more people than one women who sell food by the street for a living. However, the impact that one person makes cannot be overlooked as it is crucial on the macro level. The women were able to raise their family and also break away from the reliance of their husbands as they were financially able. The staff working in the Grameen bank helped to further the abilities and knowledge of the women by educating them so as to reduce other social issues like abuse and also the lack of family planning. They also took a giant leap allowing the female staff to walk alone as it was previously a taboo. This made them more independent and also allowed a more efficient allocation of manpower for the bank.
In a society heavily embedded into traditions and also a caste system, women were able to gain more freedom and thus helped the economy and aso their family. It also brings light to the posibility that the perspective that women is inferior to men will change if we approach it gradually so that both genders will eventually be able to accept the evolution of equality between men and women.
"The empowerment of women and achieving gender equality permeates everything we do – our policies, programmes and investments" – Kemal Derviş, UNDP Administrator
ReplyDeleteStrange that this has not been previously discussed except by Zexin - their are great economical ramifications for societies that continue to repress gender equality, for it will be increasingly difficult for them to acheive development in a sustainable manner. In essence, having half the population excluded from meaningful employment decreases the size of workforce significantly, and the population is at risk of losing to international competition from societies that embrace the value of women.
Hence, promoting gender equality can be seen as prerequisite to greater economic prosperity. More often than not, such blanket repressions of groups of individuals hide talents that become hidden away subsequently. Is this not the case for many of the Arab nations just a few decades ago? Disempowerment is, undoubtedly, a great way to control large masses of people (the "hoi polloi") and a equally potent way to retard the economic growth of many an economy. Revisiting the case of the Arab nations, gender inequality is a critical limiting factor in preventing them from ascending to the top rungs in research, education, culture, commerce and technological infrastructure, though the situation has witnessed quite some amelioration in the recent decades. Gender equality will certainly be harbinger of change for the better irregardless of locale.
N.B. To supplement what Mark mentioned about the UN's goals, the UN has laid out plans for Gender Equality from 2008-2011. They can be accessed at:
http://www.undp.org/women/docs/Gender-Equality-Strategy-2008-2011.pdf