Achieving a sustainable equilibrium between population, resources and development is vital to manage population effectively. To what extent does the empowerment of women affect this.

Homework

Achieving a sustainable equilibrium between population, resources and development is vital to manage population effectively. To what extent does the empowerment of women affect this. (20 Marks)

Despite many international agreements establishing women's human rights, girls and women are still much more likely than men to be poor, malnourished and illiterate, and to have less access than men to medical care, training and employment. They are far less likely than men to be politically active, for example, in columnist countries like China and Cuba, and far more likely to be victims of domestic violence.

Where women are poor, uneducated and have little participation in the wider society, family size tends to be large and the population growth rate high. Population and development programs are more effective when their aims are to improve the education, rights and status of women. This has been the case in Mauritius.

The Mauritius government endeavoured to make the education of women top priority and their policy is seen to be successful as there were huge benefits. Firstly the policy highlighted the need for birth control and making people aware was a big factor. There was more openness towards using contraceptives, which lowered fertility rates. Delayed marriage was a consequence of the policy and this allowed more women in the workforce, this reduced the desired family size as women were focusing more on their careers and as a consequence to this, it strengthened the position of women in society, expressing women being of value to the Mauritius economy.

It is clear that a form of managing population growth is by social development, e.g. promoting female education, family planning campaigns which reduced family sizes, therefore lowering fertility rates, and legal reform, e.g. establishing the rights of women. Mauritius has seen to be successful in their policy they are coping with their population growth, e.g. fertility rate declined from 6.2 to 3.2 children per women in a space of 10 years. It is moving closer and closer to sustaining a sustainable equilibrium between population, resources and development and achieved through gentle persuasion rather than brute force, for example, in ...

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There is another campaign occurring in the LEDC country of Zambia. This is a new project to boost empowerment of women. Women in Zambia's Northwestern province are being helped with the knowledge and services to prevent HIV/AIDS through a project aimed at empowering the hardest hit population group.

The programme will educate both men and women about women's rights and the options they have in preventing HIV/AIDS. It is said that men had often been left out of HIV/AIDS and women empowerment initiatives. The reason behind this is that issues such as HIV/AIDS will continue to be seen as a woman’s problem, however evidently not.

Gender-based violence will also be addressed in the project. The project will be introduced into health facilities, complemented by community-based drop-in centres. Local courts will also be sensitised to gender-based violence. So it is evident from this that LEDC’s are using social development, and legal reform to empower women in society and give them the right to speak out.

Since independence in India, the Government policy on women's development has undertaken various shifts of emphasis. The most significant changes occurred in the mid-1980s, which started a move towards equality and empowerment. New institutions were established, for example, the Department of Women and Child Development. In addition, Women's Development Corporations were set up in most states to implement the new strategy of economic development by facilitating access to training, entrepreneurship development, credit, and marketing facilities. A further shift towards empowerment of women was evident, emphasizing women as equal partners in the development process. The government's continued support for growth opportunities for women is increasingly being reflected in state government policies and plans. These have resulted in

An increased participation by women in local governments and decision-making processes;

An increasing focus of poverty alleviation programs for women;

a mandate to eliminate discrimination against girl children and adolescents in matters of food, health, education, and child labour;

Greater spread of community-based organizations, including women's groups;

Recognition of the need to sensitise all levels of bureaucracy, legislators, and law enforcement agencies to gender issues;

More recently, the promotion of income activities and thrift and credit Self Help Groups for women.

Many governments abide to the ‘Education Effect’. This is the education of women and is seen to be an important step for governments to take to improve health and the economy of the country. The flow chart below shows simply the effects on a country and individuals of educating women.

Educated Women Job Opportunities More Disposable Income

(High Standard of Living)

Higher Taxes – Improves Economy

Helps Development of Country

Rises the Carrying Capacity

In Morocco, the education of women has made the female population more economically productive thus can be supported by the figure of a 16% increase in women’s earnings all because of an extra year of education.

In Nepal, Nigeria and India have found an increase in that literate women receiving better treatment at clinics and hospitals thus allowing the women’s confidence to increase and literacy means careers and so educated women are prone to marry later in their lives. This can be supported by the ‘World Fertility Survey’, which found that women with over seven years of schooling married around four years later than uneducated women.

With the increase in educated women brings along family planning campaigns, as it is important to reduce the desired family size. For example, it is evident in Brazil that women have three times as many children as those who graduate from secondary school.

In a recent study of four Latin American countries, educated women have healthier children. In this study it discovered women were attending antenatal clinics, having their births supervised by a trained person and immunisation had increased, all of which increases the prolonging of the child’s life.

However it is important to consider that not empowering women has had dramatic effects on population. In India and South Korea, selective abortion due to the traditional attitudes towards females, where they are expensive for parents, especially in places like India, and not valuable as a labour force to earn an income for their respective families, this is why we have seen the increase in abortions and subsequently a huge effect on sex ratios where boys are the preferred sex. Women in LEDC’s, for example, Ghana where it is said girls as young as 9 years old were sold into slavery all due to not having the status and rights in their community.

Even though it is difficult to implement a national policy, especially in LEDC’s and to be successful to achieve a sustainable equilibrium between population, resources and development, both MEDC’s and LEDC’s around the world are not sitting back and letting the situation escalate, but are devising ways in which women can be as equal value to that of men all over the world, and with an educated female world population, this has to lead to a decrease in the gap between the control that men and women each have over their lives and those of their children.