6 ways to overcome prejudice against women
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1. Contraception is key to overcome poverty
In the last 50 years, not a single country came out of poverty without granting access to contraception. Contraception allows women to decide if and when to have children. It’s a magic pill (pardon the pun) that gives women the time to study, work and become financially independent. In turn, they can put a roof over their children’s head, feed them properly and send them to school. So as we allow women to control their pregnancies, we diminish poverty.
2. Educated women keep their children safer
Mothers who go to school learn to debunk the rules that try to keep them down. So it’s only natural that they are more than twice as likely to send their own children to school. When a woman can read and write, she’s also better equipped to articulate her family’s health condition and seek treatment when it’s needed.
3. Unpaid work is the biggest industry
By unpaid work, I mean looking after one’s family, cooking, cleaning and caregiving. The sort of work often declared as a woman’s tasks and rarely accounted for as real work. On average, women do seven more years of unpaid work than men. If the work was accounted for, it’d be the biggest industry of the global economy.
4. Women farmers could reduce the number of undernourished people by 100 to 150 million
43% of farmers in developing countries are women. And yet, we do not recognise their distinctive needs as we develop new technology and implement training. If women had a stronger voice in agriculture, we could reduce the number of undernourished people in the world by 100 to 150 million.
5. 1/3 women have suffered abuse, rape or violence
I don’t know about you but I frequently hear rape doesn’t happen that much. According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 3 women around the world has suffered a form of abuse, rape or violence. Also, 38% of murders of women are committed by a male intimate partner, globally. So the next time someone tries to diminish the issue in front of you, just remember this number. 1 in 3 women.
6. The younger the girl, the less her family pays in dowry
For girls between 15 and 19 years old, the leading cause of death around the world is childbirth. From my very Western perspective, I can only condemn child marriage. But I realised there is more to know about it than I thought. The younger a girl is, the less her family will pay in dowry. Which is why both parents and children may think they are doing the right thing for the family when accepting child marriage.
Find out more
Books
- The moment of lift, Melinda Gates
- I am Malala, Malala Yusafsai
- The last girl, Nadia Murad
Documentaries
- City of joy, Madeleine Gavin
- Eve’s apple, Jose Manuel Colon
- Period. End of sentence, Rayka Zehtabchi
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