The Article ' Fixing Women Or Fixing The World? ' Smart Economics ', Efficiency Approaches, And

In regards to employment, women today can do paid work, but their work is usually menial, badly paid and lacking in status (Krieken et al, 2000). Kate Millet (1970) saw women as a reserve labour force who are made use of when they are needed (for example in war time) but are discarded when not required (Krieken et al,

Poverty vs. wealth plays a huge factor in the role of women. According to the US Agency for International Development, the participation of women in the labor market in Honduras had a significant increase in the 90’s from 30% to 45%. There happened to be a huge increase in demand for agricultural equipment, and women were able to find jobs outside of the home. Unfortunately, the pay rate was not at all

The status of women and children is an important factor in determining the standards of living in a country. Women have enormous potential as both thinkers and hands-on workers. They can contribute in different ways to help better their countries. But yet, many countries take on patriarchy stance and suppress the women, effectively cutting the country’s workforce in half. Children are another big difference

These women, although they lived in a third world country, have the skill and gumption to go into business for themselves, and “be their own boss”. In the United States, more women have the ability

The book “Global Woman” edited by Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild focuses on the lives of women that leave their third world country to work in homes as nannies or servants and others even sex work. These women take on that labor without knowing what results will come from their desperate action. The authors explain and recount the stories of many of the women whom have had to sacrifice their lives. These women sacrifice it all to provide for themselves and their families and give them a better life, this is told through different chapters.

The United States exhibits the trend of the “feminization of poverty”, a powerful phrase coined by Diana Pierce to exhibit the increasing number of women and children in poverty. Among the causes of this problem is a “dual labor market that actively discriminates against female workers” (Leventman 1988: 197). The average American woman is only paid 77 cents to every working man’s dollar (Alter 2014). Men today make more than women, despite women having the same amount of educational achievement. In fact, in 2011, men with only a bachelor’s degree made more than women with graduate degrees (Alter 2014). In 2013, full-time working men made $50,033 compared to just $39,157 for full-time working women (Cook 2014). In America today, the problem of poverty in the lives of women and children is attributed to different aspects of gender stratification as well as gender inequality. Poverty will continue until women are equal to men in terms of power, wealth, and other

Through these stories, Kristof and WuDunn help us see that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women’s potential. They make clear how so many people have helped to do just that, and how we can each do our part. Throughout much of the world, the greatest unexploited economic resource is the female half of the population. Countries such as China have prospered precisely because they emancipated women and brought them into the formal economy. Unleashing that process globally is not only the right thing to do; it’s also the best strategy for fighting poverty.

Women are more prone to live in low income circumstances than men, hence introducing the social problem of gender discrimination. Women have been discriminated in the workplace over time in that they are paid less than men in specific jobs and are not seen to be ‘suited’ to particular jobs, especially in the manufacturing and trade industries. Marxist feminist Margaret Benston believed that women were oppressed by capitalism in that they were treated almost as a back-up, or secondary option of cheap labour that enabled profits to be kept up. ‘In 1994, 6.41 million women were in low-paid jobs and on average women’s full-time gross weekly pay was 72 percent of that of men’(Kane, 2003:115).

    Women in developing countries take out loans to start businesses and make money. Women struggling to make money take out these loans start a business to make money and pay off the debt from taking the loan. They are able to further support their family along with themselves as the debt is paid off and the business makes more money. Individuals living in poverty filled communities rely on informal employment to make money. Micro-credits have been directed more towards women because they invest money in goods and services. They do not need to depend on their husband for money when they have their own business to make money. When women take out loans to start their businesses they get stronger and get independence from their husband. When women invest in good and give services they help their family and themselves in an effective way. This could benefit women in poverty towards coming out of poverty.

Throughout history, women have been victims of oppression. Even though there have been attempts to shed light on the issue that women face worldwide, it seems as if humanity still does not understand its importance. Society has tried to mold everyone to believe that white heterosexual men are superior to those who do not fit the hegemonic norm. However, there have been women and men who dedicated their lives to fight this worldwide issue. Amongst those people are Nicholas Kristoff and Cheryl WuDunn, who are authors of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide and who are also featured in the movie documentary. Ishrad Manji defines Gendercide in his article “Changing Lives” that was published in The New York Times as “the daily slaughter of girls in the developing world” and it “steals more lives in any given decade than all the genocides of the 20th century.” Sex trafficking, forced prostitution, maternal mortality, and gender-based violence are subjects that are especially exposed. Therefore, the Half the Sky Movement has proposed microfinance and education as ways to overcome these problems.

Throughout history, countless groups of people have unfortunately been victims of subjugation, disenfranchisement and persecution. But perhaps one group of people that have continued to be subjugated the most are the same group of people that makeup the majority of people on earth; women. Despite of all the progress made in recent decades, there are still tens of millions of women a year who are repeatedly victims of infanticide and the deprivation of healthcare. Now although there are no universal panaceas for female inequality, the consensus among academics and researchers is that educating women, investing in female businesses and fostering female participation in the work force are ways to shrink the gap. Finally, it is legitimate for the United States and other countries to export feminism regardless of cultural differences because the lives of millions of women are at stake if they fail to do so.

Women and men have had certain roles in society that were understood amongst them to be specified for their particular gender. Males were known to have the leading role as head of the house hold and the bread winner while the woman’s duty was to stay at home and take care of the house and children. While many people years ago deemed this way of life and practice to be the right and ethical thing to do, times have changed and so this kind of treatment towards a woman’s equality must be questioned. Even though times have changed, this mindset of a woman’s ability to be as good as a man has not completely gone away. In today’s society a woman contributes to the economy and her family as equally as that of a man. Therefore, women should share equal rights and opportunities as their gender counterparts.

In many developing countries globalization has brought masses of wealth to the elite at the expense of the poor. Consequently, many women of the poorer classes leave their homeland in search of opportunities for employment. These women are disproportionately affected by

The modern world has resulted in earnings, wages and salaries for the women similar to that of men, but the women are continuously facing inequalities in the work force (Andal 2002). This can be attributed to the pre-established notion that women shall not be given access to finance or communication with the world outside of the home which is highly unethical and unfair (Eisenhower, 2002). In the past, they were considered as the underprivileged ones which were not thought of having equal rights but this fact has changed now. For instance, the status of women can be explicitly defined as the equality and the freedom of the women.

Baserup (1970) suggested that women needed to reduce the work loads they had so that they take part in education, projects which will also extend their power in the economy. In addition, Baserup pointed out that women have to receive credit facilities for greater economic projects. For example, Baserup echoed the mechanization of “female farming’ in African women farmers and revolutionarize traditional forms of agriculture for productive efficiency extracted from Schech and Haggis (2000). Rogers (1980) also suggested for a complete overhand of male attitudes against women. Rogers explicitly challenged this in her survey of the FAO institutional arrangement. She concluded that no women were found in field officers in technical division. Rogers (1980) therefore, concluded that women were not only excluded from planning and decision making but were being ignored and overlooked. Furthermore, households were assumed to be male headed which also generalized women as housewives (Rogers 1980:66 in Schech and Haggis, 2000). This shows that women’s work was regarded as non- work due to male bias. However, the WID approach agitated for equity, empowerment, efficiency and equal participation of women in existing structures.