Is tackling poverty the key to gender equality?

Question

"From its very inception, the women's movement in Bangladesh has been geared not towards suffrage, but towards development. Both movements – the campaign to tackle poverty and the campaign for women's equality – have recognised the need for one another. Poverty inflicts particular violence on women's lives. If a family goes hungry, it is the women and girl children who starve; if there is little money for education, it is the girls who will be left out. As adults, women perform acts of heroism both mundane and dramatic – tricks to make the food last longer, skipping meals so that their children can eat. When Cyclone Sidr hit the coast of Bangladesh last November, more women died than men: many were out looking for their children when the storm hit".

Whole article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/09/gender.development?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews

Answer 1

Very interesting quote. It would have been more interesting if you had actually written something yourself, however, but I'm sure you're too busy.

Poverty is an interesting concept.  Tribal people are kinda poor, and often they are run by women...so your quote doesn't really work, does it?   One often has nothing to do with the other.

I'm sure an equal number of quotes could be found to match virtually any side you wish to take about poverty and gender issues.  Quotes are fun: For example, many mexicans died in New Orleans in Hurricane Katrina because rescurers thought they were fixing broken roofs, when in fact they were clinging to them until they drowned.  Does that make mexicans more likely to die in a flood?

I suspect you want some kind of slanted playing field for one gender or the other, so you found a quote that matches what you already want.  Very interesting and a great biased way to advance your side of it.  Well done!

Answer 2

Tackling poverty will help any country in all respects... not just gender equality. It may seem unfair about the food, but if the jobs there are backbreaking labor, it is an absolute must that the man eats... otherwise, if he is too weak to work, then no money is made and no one will eat at all. Most countries(europe, ...) were like that at some point and many children died, but everyone did the best they could(that is why they made a lot of babies because at least one would usually die of something).

I certaintly do not believe they should target women for money, as that would be entirely sexist. However, if they help people who are in need, man and woman, then obviously women will get the most help if they are truly more in need.

Strengthening the economy itself is the only real cure.

Answer 3

No.  When I read, "it is the women and girl children who starve" and "it is the girls who will be left out", I am reading about societal choices against females.  I would not expect this inequality to change in the event of prosperity.

Answer 4

Yes. That's why NGO organizations find better outcomes when they make microloans to women to start businesses. It's generally their finding that when they give aid money to men, they buy guns and expensive cars. When they give aid money to women, they feed their children. The trick is keeping the aid money in the hands of women.

Answer 5

It would certainly help, to be sure, but of course there's more to it than that. Every "ism" you can think of is a factor in resolving inequalities.

Answer 6

I agree with the quote.  As long is there is a lack of jobs, there will be a battle for the jobs, and men will want women to stay out of the competition and use coercion, threats and violence.  Poverty happens in the extremes of joblessness, so it is on the far end of the spectrum of my analysis.  During times of stress violence goes up.  

If enough women are raped, they will become afraid and stay in the house and need a man to protect them.  In this way the rapists helps the cause of male dominance.  That is the only reason I can see for the unexplainable identifying with the rapist that some men exhibit.  As a crime against women, it is punished less severely that when it is seen as a crime against the men who "own" the woman, like the father or the husband.  When rape was seen as a crime against men in the US, it received the death penalty.  When it was seen as a crime against women, it began to receive as a punishment probation, or at most 10 years.

Answer 7

I think it's the key to ending overt gender inequality but not the subtle kind.  As an example of what I mean,  a former manager of mine told two of his female employees that by bringing forth children into the world who looked like their fathers they were doing their job.  As the linked question below this exemplifies we still have double standards and expectations placed on people based on s*x even though we've made strides in economic equality among the two sexes in the western part of the world.  The two ladies I'm making reference too make just as much money as I do, but they are still not free from sexism.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 8

yes, and increasing the global consciousness and level of enlightenment and morality. Freedom from false institution, religion, culture etc....a return to the true nature of things.

Answer 9

If you assume that the impoverished and undereducated will treat each other badly, doesn't that make you elitist?

Answer 10

It's been noted by many before that poverty is a women's issue worldwide. Women are frequently abandoned with children while husbands go on to impregnate more women...

So yes, I believe poverty is the key. That's why I contribute to Kiva, that's why after I finish my studies in the neurosciences I want to study obstetrics and gynecology and tackle a residency THERE, so I can spend some time in misogynist countries assisting women.

Answer 11

I think tackling poverty is the key to resolving poverty.  Poverty and hunger oppress just as severely as discrimination and gender inequity.  As such, I think it does a great disservice to those problems, to treat them as leg up to resolving a bigger issue.  

I think we all need to look at our planet, and ALL the problems we face - and recognize that oppression is oppression - all equaly destructive to our society.  Lets not put one above another, or use one to resolve another.

Answer 12

Explain what you mean by gender equality.

Is this equal rights and opportunites i.e. equitable treatment or actual equal outcomes for the sake of equal outcomes i.e. equality in its true sense.