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Religion, Gender, and Development

Religion, Gender, and Development . November 24, 2004. Religion, Gender and Development. Does gender inequality retard development? Is religion responsible for gender inequality?. Development as Freedom: Amartya Sen. The goal of development is the enhancement of human freedom

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Religion, Gender, and Development

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  1. Religion, Gender, and Development November 24, 2004

  2. Religion, Gender and Development • Does gender inequality retard development? • Is religion responsible for gender inequality?

  3. Development as Freedom: Amartya Sen • The goal of development is the enhancement of human freedom • The enhancement of human freedom is the chief instrument of development

  4. Gender Inequality: 100 Million Missing Women • Gender-based poverty • Infanticide • Perinatal mortality • Health Inequalities • Violence

  5. What Does Religion Have To Do With Gender Inequality?

  6. Male/Female Sex Ratios • 22 of 32 countries with sex ratios exceeding 102/100 are Muslim • India has a sex ratio of 106/100 • China has a sex ratio of 117/100

  7. Male/Female Literacy Gap • Muslim countries: 18.7 • Catholic countries: 4.3 • India: 26 • China: 19

  8. Variation Between Muslim Countries • Turkey • Indonesia

  9. “The central values separating Islam and the West revolve far more centrally around Eros than Demos.” - Pippa Norris and Ron Inglehart, Sacred and Secular(2004)

  10. How Does Gender Equity Promote Development? • Increases GDP • Reduce illiteracy gap, raise GDP 1% • Reduces fertility • Raise education level 3 years, reduce birth rate by 1 child • Reduces inequality • 1% increase in labor force with secondary education increases income to poorest 40 percent by 6-15%

  11. The China-India-Kerala Comparison: • China: compulsory one-child policy 1979-92 reduces birth rate to 2.0 • India: non-compulsory family planning reduces birth rate to 3.7 • Kerala: female literacy, health care program reduces birth rate to 1.8

  12. Increase Female Employment • Raises marriage age • Increases birth spacing • Increases household income • Improves child survival rates • Improves child weight-height measures • Reduces spousal abuse

  13. Progress in Empowering Women

  14. Improve Female Political Participation • Makes government less authoritarian? • Improves welfare and health expenditure?

  15. Women’s Empowerment: How to Get There • Electoral quotas for representation • Targeted investment in female education • Microfinance loans to women

  16. Case Study: Grameen Bank, Bangla Desh • Female poverty and credit • Credit and purdah • Credit and gender discrimination • Microcredit and Islam

  17. Personal Status Law • Liberalize and equalize divorce law • Equalize women’s rights in sharia law • Enforce property rights for females: inheritance, divorce, succession

  18. Opposition • Authoritarian political leaders • Patriarchal family heads • Religious authorities • Women

  19. Women’s Opposition • The value of religious freedom • The value of women’s autonomy

  20. How to Bring Them Along: • Frame this as a development program, not as a women’s issue • Frame this as a local strategy, not a Western one • Work with men, not against them • Work within local institutions, not against them • Secure women’s consent: do not take it for granted

  21. Is Religion Responsible for Gender Inequality? • Religion as a language of social justice • Religion as a language of patriarchal authority • Religion as a language of individual improvement • Religion as a site of political struggle

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