3.9: gender equality and economic development (includes case study)

global “Paramount Moral Challenges” over time

not that this is a heavily simplified model and not all issues are included

• first colonization-1800’s: slavery
• 1900’s: totalitarianism
• 2000’s: women’s issues
  • eg. [mass] rape, sex trafficking, acid attacks, bridge burning, female genital mutilation

poverty and gender inequality

• gender inequality is heavily correlated with poverty and periods of economic/political instability
  • educating women and girls can help combat this
• “women and girls aren’t the problem, but the solution”

case study: The Women’s Crusade

• Saima had to live with an unemployed, abusive husband
  • little food, inadequate shelter, debt, regular physical abuse based on gender (husband’s abuse of wife and daughters)
  • her husband began to search for another wife, so Saima signed with the Kashf Foundation to begin her own small business
• Kashf is a microfinance institution that groups 25 women to repay debts
  • generally, women can’t leave the house without approval from their husbands, but many husbands are fine with it if their wives bring home money
• Saima used her $65 grant to start an embroidery business, making her the sole breadwinner of her household
• she met increasing demand by employing 30+ neighbors as well as her husband; she was able to:
  • pay off her husband’s debt
  • keep her daughters in school
  • renovate her house and install running water
  • buy a television
  • buy jewelry
• now, Saima’s husband does what she asks of him and accepts that all three of his children are daughters
• Saima plans to educate all three through high school and possible college, and can now fund tuition expenses
• neither she nor her husband/mother-in-law would dream of having her husband take another wife now
• women’s rights has largely been considered a tertiary or low-priority issue, but this goes to show how impactful and beneficial empowering women can be

other figures and events regarding gender inequality

• a bride burning occurs every two hours in India but does not receive news coverage
• 100,000 girls have been kidnapped and trafficked recently (as of 2020), no news coverage
• 100 million women are currently mission and there’s a 107:100 male:female gender ratio in China, 108:100 in India, no news coverage
• girls often “vanish” because
  • less access to healthcare than men (less likely to be vaccinated, ailments dismissed and not taken to the hospital for treatment)
  • 1-5 year old girls are 50% more likely to die than 1-5 year old boys in India
  • girls face much higher rates of abuse than do boys
• there are currently more women missing due to gender-based crimes and suspicion than men who died in wars in the 1900s (including both World Wars)
• many women are forced into sexual slavery and prostitution
• educating women can be more economically beneficial than any export or factor of production
  • education for women → employment → larger workforce → higher production of goods and services → better economy

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