Equality for Women = Prosperity for All: The Disastrous Global Crisis of Gender Inequality

by Augusto López-Claros, Bahíyyih Nakhjavání

A groundbreaking book about the direct relationship between a woman's rights and freedoms and the economic prosperity of her country. "The authors speak to hearts as well as minds." —Maud de Boer Buquicchio, UN Special Rapporteur“Not only timely but profoundly important—a must-read." Jackie Jones, Professor of Feminist Legal studiesGender discrimination is often seen from a human rights perspective; it is a violation of women’s basic human rights, as embedded in the Universal Declaration, the UN Charter and other such founding documents. Moreover, there is overwhelming evidence that restrictions and various forms of discrimination against women are also bad economics. They undermine the talent pool available to the private sector, they distort power relationships within the family and lead to inefficiencies in the use of resources. They contribute to create an environment in which women, de facto, are second class citizens, with fewer options than men, lower quality jobs, lower pay, often the victims of various forms of violence, literally from the cradle to the grave. They are also not fully politically empowered and have scant presence in the corridors of power, whether as finance ministers, central bank governors, prime ministers or on the boards of leading corporations. Why is gender inequality so pervasive? Where does it come from? Does it have cultural and religious roots? And what are the sorts of policies and values that will deliver a world in which being born a boy or a girl is no longer a measure of the likelihood of developing one’s human potential?

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Gender, Economics

311 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 30, 2018

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so encompassing and international, but the one thing that really jumped out to me at first was the statement that the invention of the "Plough" was a critical element in inequality and continues to drive the inequality since its invention. Solely based on the requirement for more upper body strength to control the plough and horse.

It is hard to separate the issues raised in this book compared to the issues in “Invisible Women”. I’d say that this book shows the battle women have waged just to achieve equity (they are not seeking domination as retribution against men, which would be justifiable). It is also enlightening to learn of the economic cost of inequality and the importance education plays. However, it does talk about women moving up from low paying jobs to improve their lives. It begs the question, why should anybody be expected to accept low paying jobs, or the drudgery and toll it takes on one’s body, along with the crazy hour and schedule that goes along with those jobs. Is the answer that robots will perform these jobs (probably not), or that it is men’s turn to do them (seems fair enough – taking turns). At this time, it is a question unanswered

Christ told us that the poor will always be among us. No matter what we raise the minimum wage to the folks on the bottom will always be classified as poor. Do we ask the question of any person in that circumstances do they feel poor, are they comfortable with their situation. If they had more money how much more would be enough. What would they be willing to sacrifice to achieve that higher level of income? Some people are willing to sacrifice, but not everyone. Then again, we are talking about equal opportunity and removing roadblock for those that have a desire and willingness to sacrifice, allowing them to exercise their agency to choose.

Here some of the basic concepts of Affirmative Action come into play and seem more appropriate. Would quotas be permanent or temporary? Also, how diverse do we need to be? Primarily because, as the author points out, critical perspectives are under-represented or are not even being considered.

It seems that women are becoming more equal in certain areas, however, perhaps not fast enough. But the areas that are too slow are in national politics and large corporations. Whereas in the professions, I feel that women are running their own businesses (lawyers, accountants, and doctor’s offices) here they can dictate their own hours and set their own billing fees (in small firms and offices). Including the public general acceptance of women’s capabilities in these areas.

When it comes to unpaid labor, my first reaction was to have the husband pay the wife, but does that improve the family’s overall income, no. But I do see that even that change would allow the wife to spend money on different items than the husband, when they do not have common financial goals. We need to acknowledge that when women stay home to tend children, they are raising the future taxpayers and employees (which includes service providers for the elderly). This raises the question, if you pay women to stay home with children, who should be paying for their effort, business or government?

In marriage, I’ve always said that each partner brings to the marriage experiences from the families that they grew up in. Normally those are not necessarily compatible. Consequently, everything is negotiable. For this to work; first, both parties need to have entered the marriage by their own agency, second, that they are willing to talk about responsibilities or separation of duties, third, that both try to ensure that they are not intentionally taking advantage of the other, fourth, they are always open to renegotiation. It is also a fact them many tasks are performed by default without negotiations (or one person does not trust the other to do a good job).

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is largely a reiteration of Dr. Hudson's work, Sex and World Peace, but it's still an excellent primer on feminism.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking.

[Mengzhen Markland · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great exploration of feminism and economics and how the two intersect and impact each other. The research was compelling and I thought it was a great primer on feminism.

[Claire Binkley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh. Although Augusto López-Claros and Bahiyyuh Nakhjabani brought to mind some lovely concepts (who wouldn't like a book that starts with calling Sphinx imagery to mind? And people just did something pretty awesome in Egyptology like a month or five ago, I don't remember too clearly, but it was something so cool like they reunited some of King Tut's coffin or sarcophagus or something like that... Oh, archaeologists REMOVED his coffin presumably so that the remains wouldn't be harmed by gawkers), but regarding this book: it's still dreadful to stare global inequity down.

This book's copyright data is: First Edition October 2018, so it's not even as though this is a 50-year old book I dug out from my crypts hacking and sneezing. It's barely two years old.

ANYHOW, their argument is if everyone gave each other fair treatment, no matter what gender or sex, we'd all do better.

[Rachel Wrubel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really ambitious work: an attempt to calculate the economic costs of inequality on a global scale. This is important work! My only complaint is there was an almost romanticized view of what the authors seem to think are inherently “female” characteristics, but those slips were minor. Most assertions were backed up with compelling research.