Sexism stunts economic growth

Empirically female poverty rates have always surpassed male poverty rates in every single society. Even today in our “civilized” world the majority of people in absolute poverty are female.

Worldwide females make slighter more than 50% of what males make. Why do women have a much higher probability to fall below the poverty line? Why do women have substantially lower income than males? There are many factors and sub factors. Mostly it has to with internalized values, ascribed gender roles, and lack of opportunity. In most societies females are expected to perform domestic jobs i.e. child rearing, housekeeping, and baby popping. These types of “acceptable” jobs leave little room for higher paying jobs. Many families do not prioritize extensive education for females because they do not expect them to work in skilled and professional jobs which could supply a woman with the opportunity to have economic success. Another factor is single parents. About 85% of single parent families are headed by the female. (Who wears the pants in the family now?) This puts the entire burden of the family on the mother. She must take of the children, find someone to look after them, and must work to support her and her children’s needs.

Many societies such as China and India practice infanticide of female babies. They are considered a burden and a liability in their cultures. Many societies must pay expensive dowries, like India, to the husband’s family. Usually the wife will move in with the husband creating another dislike against females because it proves they will not be able to provide a shelter and home for their elders. With these cultures biases and discriminations against females it creates a gap of opportunity. Females are considered inferior and a burden that could not yield economic prosperity from. They are often overlooked when applying for jobs and are unlikely to receive as much pay as their male counterpart does.

The solution is to defuse these values and gender roles. Roles should shift from dependency of others to independence. Stress should be place on education rather than immediate childrearing. Today international programs are implementing these solutions in countries like Bangladesh, Brazil, Paraguay, Morocco, India, and China and have seen change. With these replacements perhaps we can close the gap and end sexism.