Where women transform the world

Questions and thoughts from the introduction: is the major challenge of the 21st century gender equality?

Kristof and WuDunn (K&W from now on) say in their introduction that:

"In the 19th century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the 20th century, it was the battle against totalitarianism. We believe that in this century the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender eqaulity in the developing world." p. xvii

Do you think this is true?
What do you think this will look like?
What do you think has to change for this to happen?

They also say that:
"In the wealthy countries of the West, discrimination is usually a matter of unequal pay or underfunded sports teams or unwanted touching from a boss. In contrast, in much of the world discrimination is lethal." p. xv

What do you think about this assertion?
Do you think this is true, based on your own experience?

What other questions do you have?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Eryka Peskin on January 11, 2010 at 3:39pm

I would agree that women have a tough time in developing nations--lack of access to basic resources like clean water, health care, food, even wood for heating. Not to mention lack of access to education (whether it's due to not having a school nearby or the fact that educating girls simply isn't a priority). Trafficking can be lethal, as can poor health, poor nutrition, early childbearing, and all that. So yeah, it can be grim for poor women in developing countries. (If you have money, you can live very well in developing countries, whether you're a tourist or not.) For the record, I do not live in a developing country, although I've traveled to a number of them.

I would never say that it's just as bad in the US or in a developed country as it is in a developing country--even the poorest people in the US have a better quality of life and access to services and resources a desperately poor person in, say, India or Togo might have. But...I strongly, strongly, STRONGLY disagree that discrimination here (in the US) is only a matter of pay or sports teams or sexual harassment. Maternal mortality in some parts of NYC and in the Southern US are almost as bad as in parts of Africa (seriously). Women are raped and abused and murdered by partners here just like anywhere else, and hello, there is trafficking and vicious exploitation of women here too.

I don't know what WuDunn and Kristoff are trying to accomplish with that sentence ("In the wealthy countries of the West, discrimination is usually a matter of unequal pay or underfunded sports teams or unwanted touching from a boss. In contrast, in much of the world discrimination is lethal." p. xv)--maybe they're just trying to get attention or emphasize their point. But to me, it willfully ignores the fact that there's oppressing women is lethal here too.

But I am glad that someone is finally paying attention, in this supposedly "post-feminist era", that women's oppression still exists and that it's a major issue. I just wish they acknowledged that it's an issue GLOBALLY, not just in poor, developing countries.

Thoughts?