Girls and Women as the Solution

Finally, it's here - the long awaited Sunday magazine on women's rights and empowerment with an excerpt from Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's forthcoming book, Half the Sky!

Some interesting points:

• In many parts of the world, girls don't get equal access to health care as boys do. In addition, the infanticide rate of baby girls is disproportionately higher than that of boys. The number of victims of this routine “gendercide” far exceeds the number of people who were slaughtered in all the genocides of the 20th century.
  
• As argued in Kristof's past column, sweatshops in Asia actually empowered women. Low-wage manufacturing jobs, which are not as physically demanding as agricultural labor or construction, provide women an equal opportunity to participate in the labor force. The alternatives to sweatshops are even worse, says Kristof (see: http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/my-sweatshop-column)
• The poorest families in the world spend approximately 10 times as much (20 percent of their incomes on average) on a combination of alcohol, prostitution, candy, sugary drinks and lavish feasts as they do on educating their children (2 percent). Esther Duflo of MIT did an interesting study comparing the spending habits of men and women in the Ivory Coast.
  
• Despite many and recent criticism of western aid, aid can be effective especially when targeted at girls and women and focused on education, health, and microfinance in certain cases
  
• Greater female involvement in society and the economy appears to undermine extremism and terrorism. In other words, there's a link between countries that foster terrorist groups and that marginalize women. For example, Moroccan government liberalized its family code in 2004 substantially expanding women's rights after the 2003 Casablanca bombings.
  
• Recommends President Obama to commit $10 billion to educating girls around the world
  

The excerpt provides startling statistics and powerful anecdotes. Kristof and WuDunn recognize education as a critical tool for women's empowerment. Women's empowerment, in turn, is the solution (they argue) to eradicating poverty and combating extremism in many parts of the world.

I would be interested in reading more about the author's views on delivery of aid and also on what ways both local and international actors can push governments' to enforce and implement laws that protect women's rights.

In the magazine, there's also an informative, albeit brief, interview with Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia. We find out that she earns a modest $7,500/month. That's significantly less than President Kibaki of Kenya's salary, which amounts to $615,000/yr tax-free (Newsweek, 2008).

I also liked the article, "The Daughter Deficit," about how development hasn't necessarily improved the condition of women in India. Rather, it's had a reverse effect according to a study done by Das Gupta, the percentage of so-called missing girls was higher in India's wealthier states. While this article focuses on India, the article brings forth an important point that development doesn't necessary empower women; while women's access to resources have increased over the years, in many cases, the institutional structures in place have not simultaneously given them control over these resources (continuing to marginalize women to a certain extent).