Sunday, September 26, 2010
Gender Bias leads to "Missing" Statitstics
For my DWA class, I recently read Amartya Sen's famous article More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing. Here, Sen publicly presents his thesis that due to gender-biased opportunities, like access to health care and jobs, men outnumber women when biologically there should an equal ratio. Basically, Sen notes that in some places of the world, the ratio of women to men is very low, and in those places, women are looked on by society as unequal or less desirable (like in China, where sons have long been preferred over daughters), which indirectly causes the population shift because it becomes harder for women to access the same opportunities. In relation to our class, Sen points the cause of statistically over 100 million unexplainable missing women to social construction. I found the article extremely relevant because it shows just how much an idea, a social notion, can impact the world. Sen estimates 6-11% of the expected population of females does not exist. Because of the way the world looks at the role of women, there are more men in the world than women because women are not given the same chances of simply living. Sen also proposes as a solution a strong emphasis on gender equality, aka social deconstruction. It is mind-blowing to me how ideas, good or bad, shape lives and opportunities.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is very interesting; but it seems too nice to say that these women and girls are "missing."
ReplyDeleteWhat has actually happened to these people?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThey are not missing in terms of being physically missing; but since biologically there should be an equal ratio of males to females, Sen looked into why there are more males than females. He found that female mortality rates are higher due to unequal gender opportunities and thus, the "missing" women are statistics that should be here but are not. The less polite way of putting it would be that due to gender roles, women are not given as fair a chance to live.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that women are seen as so inferior and undesirable to families. It makes me grateful that I was born in a westernized country that embraces baby girls just as much as baby boys (although, not so much embracing female workers as male workers).
ReplyDelete6-11% of the female population? That is a significantly large statistic. Were these women, girls, or babies? .. or all of the above? Not only do I find this upsetting but I can't help but wonder what other countries share similar statistics that they just choose not to broadcast.
ReplyDelete