Gender and comparative politics
Gender issues are not on the front line of topics in most textbooks. But they are on the front line for most people in most countries.So, how do we include those issues? Usually we have to look at gender cleavages in political participation, social policy, and socio-economic conditions.
Elizabeth M. King, Research Manager for Public Services of the World Bank’s Development Research Group, and Bjørn Lomborg, adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, offer the following opinion piece. It offers some key policy issues that students could use as criteria for evaluating and comparing public policy in the countries they study.
Women and Development
"Although more attention is being given to gender issues, inequality persists in every culture, country, and continent. A new study for the Copenhagen Consensus project shows that eliminating this disparity is an investment with high payoffs.
"Despite global interest in education for all, many girls in poor countries continue to be denied basic education; right from the start, they are disadvantaged...
"An obvious solution is to build more schools in places where girls and boys must be educated separately...
"Elsewhere, supply constraints are not the problem. Instead, policymakers must find ways to strengthen the incentives for parents to send their daughters to school...
"The experiences of these few countries lead us to propose a system whereby mothers are paid if their school-age daughters attend school regularly from the 3rd to the 9th grade...
"Pregnancy is one of the most vulnerable times for poor women...
"Making reproductive services available to women who cannot afford to pay their way can help prevent these deaths. But such services must not shy away from promoting and providing modern contraceptive methods to avoid unwanted pregnancies...
"For adolescent girls, early marriage or an unwanted pregnancy typically curtails schooling. Delaying marriage and childbearing allows them to gain more education and perhaps more earning opportunities, as well as improved health, education, and labor market success for their future children – benefits worth ten times more than the cost of providing reproductive services.
"Other tools, aside from schooling, can help women improve their income-earning ability. Microfinance institutions, such as Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank...
"Though women have the right to vote in almost every country, gender inequalities in political representation remain large. Governments should consider gender quotas at the local level of politics. Greater female representation may not necessarily lead to more emphasis on “female” policy priorities, but in India, village councils with gender quotas for village chiefs have higher levels of safe drinking water, better immunization coverage and roads, and less bribery...
"Being a woman need not and should not be among the greatest challenges of life."
See also:
- John Stuart (and Harriet Taylor?) Mill on the "Subjection of Women"
- Harriet Taylor Mill on "The Enfranchisement of Women"
Labels: concepts, economics, policy, women
posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:59 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home