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