Archive for category: Inequality

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Income Disparity Continues to Plague South Africa

Income Disparity in South Africa
The country of South Africa is divided among those with nothing and those with seemingly everything, making for extremely high rates of poverty for the country overall. The income disparity in South Africa has had an impact not only on the domestic economy and security, but also on the global economy.

Reports show that approximately four percent of households in the country of South Africa make up 32 percent of the country’s household incomes. At the same time, about 10 percent of the citizens live in what are considered extreme poverty conditions, meaning families are living on under $1.25 a day. This disparity has not only drawn attention to the state of the economy, but it has also put a significant strain on the social aspects of the country as a whole.

Though South Africa stands as the second largest economy in Africa, economic disparity amidst the population has created more social tensions and controversy than the numbers would anticipate. Research shows that rates of disparity between members of the 90th percentile and 50th percentile citizens, in terms of income and economic security, have been continuing to grow in recent years. This means that the likelihood of social mobility, say from working class to middle class, or any further for that means, are rather difficult, and nearly impossible.

Despite becoming a democracy, South Africa continues to suffer with inequality between its citizens. This has proven to be an issue regarding security, as the growing size of the lower class and number of impoverished people compares to that of the other four percent. Lack of education can be a great contributing factor to this, as the number of unskilled and uneducated workers heavily outweighs the number of skilled workers in the country. Lack of skill and education leads to less opportunity for the average South African worker. Thus, educating and teaching more skill sets to the people of South Africa may, in part, begin to decrease the growing gap that continues to drive the people of the country apart.

– Alexandrea Jacinto

Sources: CNBC Africa, World Policy
Photo: Daily Maverick

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Divided Healthcare in South Africa


For years South Africa had the reputation as a country of disparity. During most of the 20th century it remained divided along racial lines, until its 1994 election and the abolition of apartheid. With noticeable growth in its Black African middle class, the country has undoubtedly made progress in reducing its previous inequalities.

However, disparity still defines much of South African life. It has a highly disproportionate number of people living with HIV/AIDS. While South Africa contains only 0.7 percent of the global population, it is responsible for 17 percent of the world’s infections. In fact, it bears the highest HIV/AIDS rate of any country in the world, with close to 20 percent of its population infected.

Disparity also marks healthcare in South Africa, in which there is a massive gulf between private and public care. This stratified imbalance often reflects racial divisions and hinders an effective response to the national AIDS epidemic. For most South Africans, the quality of healthcare is woefully inadequate.

The data tells it all. Though 84 percent of South Africans, or 50 million people, rely on public healthcare, only 30 percent of the nation’s doctors work at public hospitals. By contrast, private coverage applies to only 8 million South Africans, yet this small minority receives 70 percent of the physicians. A majority of those reliant on public healthcare are black, while whites comprise most of those on private plans.

Per capita, expenditures on healthcare reveal the extent of this inequality. According to The New England Journal of Medicine, “Annual per capita expenditure on health ranges from $1,400 in the private sector to approximately $140 in the public sector, and disparities in the provision of health care continue to widen.”

The lack of funding has left public hospitals in decay all across the country. What funds these hospitals do receive are often mismanaged and squandered due to corruption and incompetency. It is not uncommon for these public facilities to endure medicine shortages, broken equipment and deteriorating buildings.

The inadequacy of public healthcare became widely apparent during the presidency of Thabo Mbeki, when the government systematically denied the threat of AIDS. Over 330,000 people died needlessly after the government failed to initiate an antiretroviral treatment program.

However, if one were to visit one of South Africa’s 200 private hospitals, conditions would appear satisfactory or even superior. The private health sector spends 13 times as much as the public sector on medicine and features the country’s best doctors.

It is this elite standard of care that is actually suffocating the countries healthcare system, as private spending on state of the art medicine increases drug manufacturers and hospitals are only raising prices. Some estimate the annual medical inflation rate is at 25 percent.

Yet even the top notch private sector cannot hold onto its best doctors; reports have estimated that 30 percent of South African doctors have left to countries like Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. What’s more, another 58 percent admitted that they would consider immigrating to Western countries for work.

This trajectory is common amongst doctors from sub-Saharan countries. In total, their exits represent 2 billion in lost investments. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, “South Africa incurs the highest costs for medical education and the greatest lost returns on investment for all doctors currently working in such destination countries.”

To remedy its national health crisis, South Africa has proposed a National Health Insurance program. It aims first and foremost to provide universal coverage and level healthcare disparity. It would also attempt to contain prices by negotiating with medicine and healthcare providers.

However, due to the overwhelming demand for healthcare as a result of the AIDS epidemic, a universal health care plan would be burdensome on the nation’s budget. Some have estimated that the cost for such a program would essentially equal the amount of money collected from personal income tax nationwide.

In the meantime, South Africa can aim on producing more physicians to deal with the AIDS crisis. The current demand for AIDS treatment exceeds the county’s entire healthcare workforce by three times. To better train this workforce, South Africa needs to invest more in its teaching facilities so that doctors can learn to treat patients more effectively.

As one of the world’s up and coming economies, South Africa should seek to fix its healthcare crisis. It is hard to have gravitas on the international stage when extensive issues in equity and quality of care get piled on top of an already staggering AIDS epidemic.

– Andrew Logan

Sources: Al Jazeera, New England Journal of Medicine, The Telegraph, The World Health Organization
Photo: Flickr

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The World’s Poorest Citizens and Climate Change

climate_change
Climate change, once considered an extremely controversial subject that provoked bipartisan deadlock within American politics, is now widely accepted as an unfortunate reality by many of the world’s most developed countries. Last week, for instance, President Obama introduced his “Clean Power Plan,” a government initiative aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from America’s coal-burning power plants.

However, while climate change has been (at least superficially) accepted as a fact in rich countries such as the United States, many of the world’s population has still never heard of the term “climate change,” let alone of its harrowing consequences.

A study conducted this year, which analyzed data collected from over 100 countries by the Gallup Poll in 2007 and 2008, discovered that over 40 percent of the world’s inhabitants have never heard of climate change. The study also found that a correlation exists between a country’s income level and the general public awareness about the issue. In developed, first-world countries such as the United States, Canada and Russia, for instance, over 90 percent of people are aware of climate change. In developing countries, such as India, Pakistan and Egypt, however, the number of people conscious of climate change is vastly lower, measuring around or less than 30 percent.

Interestingly, the study also discovered that while a smaller percentage of people in poorer countries were aware of the phenomenon, those who had heard of it regarded the issue with greater severity than those in rich countries. According to VICE Magazine, this phenomenon, in turn, reflects the fact that poorer countries are actually more vulnerable to climate change, especially since they are worse equipped to deal with its effects.

Researchers involved with the study told VICE that the results confirmed the impossibility of a one-size-fits-all approach to climate change communication. A multitude of factors affects how people come to know about and engage with the issue, even in first-world countries. In China, for example, a citizen’s concern with climate change tends to correlate with the quality of air pollution experienced in different regions.

Despite these other factors, however, researchers reflected that the biggest revelation brought about by the survey was the discovery that climate change awareness blatantly mirrors global income inequalities.

While this might seem daunting for the future of poor countries, researchers have argued that the discovery that knowledge of climate change and global poverty are more inextricably linked than previously thought actually offers a glimmer of hope for the future of our fragile Earth and its billions of poor inhabitants.

For instance, a study conducted in the past year by Frances Moore and Delavane Diaz of Stanford University found that future projections based on economic growth in third-world countries also projected parallel downward trends in global temperatures. Their research thus showed that targeting global poverty could have an inadvertent positive effect on climate change, by providing poor countries with the knowledge and tools with which to limit their negative environmental impact.

In light of this, the discovery of Gallup’s most recent poll offers valuable insight into one way in which the global community can help manage the calamitous effect of climate change: by first managing the calamitous effects of global poverty.

In order to achieve this, however, it is first necessary to eradicate the correlation that currently exists between wealth and knowledge of climate change. In a world where all, and not just 60 percent, of humanity will be affected by climate change, all, and not just 60 percent, must first be made aware of the issue and of its potentially and universally catastrophic consequences.

– Ana Powell

Sources: CNN, The Guardian, VICE
Photo: The Guardian

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UN Study Says Global Education Has Declined

Global_Education
The number of children and young adolescents receiving education has worsened in a time when primary and secondary education goals have been put in place, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).

In a study released this month, the UIS data for the school year in 2013 shows that 124 million children and young adolescents have either dropped out of school or never started school. This number rose by 2 million since 2011. The number of primary school aged children not in school increased by 2.4 million between 2010 and 2013. Of these 59 million children, 9 percent are denied the right to education. In addition, there are almost 65 million young adolescents not receiving an education.

The UIS study offers two causes to explain the rise in children and young adolescents out of school.

First, areas in Sub-Saharan Africa have struggled to provide schooling to communities with populations of people aged mostly 6 to 15 years. These developing areas have not yet created stable economies to create proper schools and education systems for the majority of their citizens.

The second reason that the UIS focuses on is the grand procedures that were taken by many countries to create greater access to education. These measures launched global education at the start of the century but did little to institute strategies for continual improvement.

To fix this problem, Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s Director General, agrees with the report that new methods and “serious commitments” must be implemented to reach communities with the least amount of children and young adolescents in school.

“Targeted interventions are needed to reach the most marginalized children and youth who are out of school today, including those with disabilities; from ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities; and children affected by armed conflict,” the UIS study said.

The study also said that the large attempts to end gender discrimination in education have not been successful. In South and West Asia, less than half of the children and young adolescents receiving education are girls.

“While the gap is considerably smaller than in the early 2000s, UIS data show little improvement in recent years, despite the many campaigns and initiative designed to break the barriers that keep girls out of school,” UIS said.

With hopes of changing these numbers, a summit in September will host world leaders in hopes of creating new Sustainable Development Goals to address education.

Although this is a great step for bettering global education, improving education will be more difficult than ever. The World Education Forum in Korea in May 2015 said that in order to achieve education goals, 12 years of funding must be given. Additionally, the Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report team has projected that a sum of at least US$39 billion will be needed to fund universal satisfactory secondary education by 2030.

Aaron Benavot, Director of the EFA GMR, also said that funding needs to be drastically increased: “Aid needs to be shooting upwards, not creeping up by a few percentage points.”

Benavot said that The Oslo Summit on Education for Development and the Third Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa in August will show whether or not donors are willing. In agreement with Benavot, the UIS suggests that improvement from the levels reached in 2010 does not look promising, and donors must move education to the top of their list to really make a difference. A large change in funding must be made in order to start a worldwide effort for access to education. This year will show if our world is truly ready to fight for education.

– Fallon Lineberger

Sources: UNESCO 1, UNESCO 2, United Nations
Photo: Saturno

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Equal Education in Senegal

Equal Education in SenegalOnce known around the world as the finish line of the famous Paris-Dakar Rally, the small West African country of Senegal stands out in from its neighbors. Unlike many of other West African countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, Senegal has never experienced any notable conflicts or civil war in the last century.

This distinction has helped to garner the country a deserved reputation for high political stability in an often war-torn continent. However, Senegal also lacks the natural resources of many of its African peers and consequentially ranks as one of the poorest nations on earth. According to UNICEF, 22 percent of its population lives on less than a dollar per day.

For the youth of Senegal and for girls in particular, this has hindered the effectiveness of Senegal’s education system. However, the country has experienced a significant improvement in recent years. In 2009, 92.5 percent of Senegalese children attended primary school. This represents a dramatic improvement from 82 percent in 2005 and only 54 percent in 1994.

Yet, this overall progress belies a residual and significant flaw in education in Senegal; in the long run, girls are far more likely than boys to drop out and to receive less education. At a casual glance, however, it might not seem this way. In 2012, primary school enrollment was actually higher for girls than it was for boys at 74 percent and 72 percent respectively.

While the data for primary school enrollment suggests gender parity, this is not actually the case. As the children progress through their schooling, girls experience noticeably lower rates of attendance. This first becomes apparent upon the transition to secondary school. In contrast to 62 percent of their male peers, 57 percent of girls begin secondary school.

The disparity only widens as their education continues. Secondary school enrollment for boys was 34 percent for boys and 27 percent for girls. Ultimately, one can see the results of gender inequality in Senegal’s adult literacy rate; 62 percent of males and only 39 percent of females were literate. For every 10 literate men in Senegal, only 6 women have attained literacy.

These severe and disparate dropout rates reflect the economic challenges that affect poorer families in Senegal. Children frequently must quit their schooling in order to provide more money for their families by working.

This burden falls harder on girls. Often families will marry off daughters at a young age to lessen their economic burden or they will employ them around the house conducting domestic duties. Many will expect to do domestic work for the rest of their lives. This career choice puts girls and women at greater risk of sexual abuse and financial exploitation.

For families of higher economic standing, education in Senegal is less of an issue and more of an expectation. Girls from wealthier households have twice the attendance rate in primary school.

In the city of Dakar, one of the economic pillars of the Senegalese economy, private schools are becoming even more common. In fact, most schools in Dakar are private rather than public. This has created an even greater educational disparity for those without the money to pay for education.
The wealth and gender inequality in secondary education also carries over to higher education.

UNESCO reported that an increasing amount of private institutions has hindered accessibility for many college students. Additionally, more men were enrolled than women as college students. According to the World Bank, for every 10 male college students, there were only 6 female students.
With the help of foreign aid from USAID and The World Bank, Senegal is attempting to develop and expand its education system. Already, funds from USAID have greatly improved education in the nation.

In total, it has allowed for 500,000 children to enroll in school of which 300,000 were girls. USAID has also helped to expand the educational infrastructure of Senegal through the construction of over 100 middle schools. It has donated more than 3 million textbooks and provided 20,000 schoolchildren with internet access.

The World Bank initiated an ongoing project called “Tertiary Education Governance and Financing for Results Project for Senegal” which is aimed at “[enhancing] the efficiency and quality of the higher education system” in Senegal. While the project is not expected to end until 2016, it has already posted impressive results. It found that 88 percent of academic programs fit quality standards in June 2015 with the target set at 90 percent in September 2016.

To lessen gender inequality, UNESCO and the Senegalese government have teamed up to initiate the “Girls and Women’s Literacy in Senegal” program. It aims to provide 40,000 women and girls with high-quality education and more professional opportunities.

More still needs to be done, and with only 750,000 dollars of funding, this initiative cannot single-handedly solve the issue of inequality in Senegal’s education system. With the help of more foreign aid, Senegal can expect further progress.

– Andrew Logan

Sources: The Guardian, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UNESCO 1, UNICEF, UNESCO 2, USAID, The World Bank

Photo: Open Equal Free

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Why Inequality is Bad for Business

Inequality-Is-Bad-For-Business
What do poverty, inequality and economic flexibility have to do with each other? Well, according to a recent report co-authored by consulting firm KPMG and economic think-tank Oxford Economics, these three things are intimately intertwined. The report, called the Change Readiness Index (CRI), ranks 127 countries in order of their ability to resist economic shocks, natural disasters and social unrest. The report measures several indicators such as macroeconomic stability, ease of doing business and rule of law, which reveal the effects that inequality tends to have on each country’s society.

Inequality has traditionally been seen as a by-product of developmental challenges which would disappear with increased growth and poverty reduction efforts. However, inequality is increasingly seen as a problem unto itself which needs to be the focus of international initiatives as the Millennium Development Goals expire. This is because increased economic growth isn’t necessarily evenly dispersed, leaving those at the bottom of the economic ladder behind. Thus, poverty reduction needs to be combined with a more equitable distribution of resources to be effective.

There are certainly ethical and social reasons to favor a more economically equal development model. Societies that have lesser income disparities tend to be more socially and politically stable, and have much lower rates of poverty. However, there are also significant economic reasons why inequality reduction is a pathway to poverty reduction. Simply put, economic inequality and poverty are bad for business.

The big-picture macroeconomics of inequality warrants an explanation.

Plainly put, extreme income inequality, such as the kind found in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, cause economic inefficiency. The relatively wealthy tend to save a much higher proportion of their income than the poor. In order to grow economically, a society must have robust rates of consumption. However, if most of the wealth of a country is owned by a very small percentage of its population, that wealth is saved, not spent. These savings are then invested by individuals and financial institutions.

In recent history, excess savings have fueled speculative investments, exacerbating asset price collapses like real estate bubbles, such as the ones that occurred in Spain, Ireland and the U.S. during the 2008 economic crisis. Furthermore, if consumption rates are low due to excess savings, the central bank of a country may lower interest rates to increase the availability of credit, which can further fuel speculative investment. Inequality peaked just prior to the Great Depression of the 1930s and the 2008 financial crisis, contributing to the underlying economic instability which caused those events.

Instead, if the wealth is more evenly distributed among the lower income earners of a society, who spend much more of their income, consumption goes way up. Thus, the poorest individuals, if they are empowered through greater income equality, may drive consumption, opening up new markets and creating increased economic growth.

So, how would income equality be implemented as a pathway to poverty reduction? According to ActionAid, a U.K.-based poverty-reduction organization, one way would be to empower women in the developing world. Up to 60 percent of the world’s poor are women, and only about half of them participate actively in the labor force. If developing societies became more inclusive of women in the labor market, they would represent a huge capacity to work, earn and spend, driving economic growth. This economic growth would act as a positive feedback mechanism, further increasing economic opportunity and pulling people out of poverty.

Something that the Change Readiness Index reveals is that the countries which have the highest levels of inequality also tend to have more persistent levels of poverty despite growth, and tend to have far less spending on public goods like healthcare and education, which are instrumental in reducing poverty. One example is Nigeria, where incredible oil wealth has reached only a tiny portion of the population, and social, political and economic instability abounds. Oil revenues tend to elude taxation, which limits funds available for public spending. Furthermore, Nigeria ranked 90 out of 127 on the CRI and 79 out of 86 countries in the OECD Social Institutions and Gender Index, which measures gender inequality, revealing the link between disparities in income and the participation of women in economic and political life.

As the Millennium Development Goals expire this year, policy makers are increasingly sensitive to the importance of reducing inequality as a pathway to reducing poverty. In 2013, the U.N. published a comprehensive report on global inequality acknowledging it as the greatest barrier to poverty reduction, emphasizing solutions such as the economic and political inclusion of marginalized groups such as women.

Furthermore, 90 economists, academics and development experts recently submitted a letter to Dr. Homi Kharas, leader of the panel on the post-2015 development agenda for the United Nations. The letter urged increased emphasis on reducing inequality as a set of Sustainable Development Goals are being crafted to replace the Millennium Development Goals.

Prominent economist Joseph Stiglitz suggests a Sustainable Development Goal on inequality which follows the style and spirit of the original eight Millennium Development Goals. The goal consists of two targets; by 2030, reducing “extreme income inequalities in all countries such that the post-tax income of the top 10 percent is no more than the post-transfer income of the bottom 40 percent.” And by 2020, establishing a commission in each country which will track and report the effects of inequality.

It’s clear that inequality needs to be a top priority to achieve effective poverty reduction in the next 30 years. Not only could income equality pull millions out of poverty, it could also open up new markets and be the new driver of global economic growth.

– Derek Marion

Sources: The Guardian 1, KPMG, The Guardian 2, ActionAid, Ethics and International Affairs, Save the Children, UN
Photo: Arts.Mic

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One Direction Launches Anti-Poverty Campaign

One-Direction-Anti-Poverty-CampaignOne Direction is coming to Seattle. The world-renowned teen heartthrob band One Direction has recently made an important addition to their laundry list of achievements. The band members have collectively launched an impressive anti-poverty campaign that also seeks to tackle inequality and slow down climate change.

They have named the initiative the Action/1D manifesto, and have asked their millions and millions of fans across the globe to contribute. Fans are encouraged to share powerful, creative pieces that will help raise awareness of our world’s most pressing issues.

The band’s initiative is part of the wider action/2015 campaign. This larger campaign is a global citizens movement founded on the idea that 2015 can be the pivotal year when the world finally sets out to tackle persisting global issues like poverty.

The boys stress that their initiative—and the campaign as a whole—will not see success unless World Leaders are successfully swayed. Change can only happen if the harnessed power of everyday people compels leaders to make long-term commitments.

Although they are speaking out to a primarily younger fan base, they still wholeheartedly believe in the power of everyday citizens. The band released a statement explaining, “Young people really do have the power to help end poverty, tackle inequality and to stop the dangerous climate change.”

In fact, the band believes that now is the time for members of the younger generation to take action, and create a united voice that is loud enough to reach the ears of leaders worldwide.

The band has released a collaborative video asking fans to get involved by posting videos and pictures depicting how they would “celebrate” the campaign’s victory. Another option for fans is to answer the question, “What would your ideal future look like?”

The plan is for fan-sourced content to be delivered in a single video depicting one strong, unified, socially driven message. Each band member will also release his own individual video in the months to come. Louis will reportedly be the first to do this, with plans to release his personalized video on July 13.

One Direction is the most recent high-profile group to join many other famous personalities in supporting the 2015 campaign. Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Malala Yousafzai, Sir Richard Branson, Shakira, Ben Affleck, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Bono have already issued their campaign support.

When people in the global limelight choose to utilize their power to harness support for important issues like poverty, significant changes can be made. According to Declan Fahy, an associate professor at American University’s School of Communication, celebrities have the ability to “personify ideas and social issues.”

By showing the world how important issues like poverty, inequality, and climate change are to them, One Direction is encouraging their fans to adopt similar perspectives. By putting a face on these complex issues, famous people can make their audience feel more connected to the problem, and even mobilize them to take action.

As one of the biggest bands in the world, One Direction has the power to bring the most important global issues to the forefront. Especially by encouraging a younger generation to care about these issues, the band could help make huge strides in the worldwide fight against poverty.

– Sarah Bernard

Sources: Daily Star (UK), Think Progress
Photo: Cambio

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Bernie Sanders: A Champion for American Poverty

American_PovertyWith the 2016 Presidential election approaching rapidly, candidates are beginning to differentiate themselves from the competition by advocating for unique platforms. While some candidates have built a large portion of their campaign around illegal immigration, one candidate has made it clear that he will focus on an issue here at home. Bernie Sanders has emerged as the champion for reducing poverty here in the United States.

Sanders uses the increasing disparity between the wealth classes in America to illustrate his point on the problem of American poverty. Continuing to hammer his point home, Sanders then puts the blame on Wall Street’s influence over economic poverty, unfairly favoring those with more income. Sanders is directly quoted as saying, “There are a lot of great public servants out there, great economists who for years have been standing up for the middle class and the working families of this country, who know that it is an international embarrassment that we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on Earth.” Sanders makes a bold claim with this statement, but one that is shockingly valid.

Sanders’ campaign website lists some alarming figures about overall U.S. poverty as well as child poverty on an international scale. According to the site, 46.5 million Americans live below the poverty line making that figure the largest in U.S. history. In addition to this number, Sanders’ website cites a 21.8 percent child poverty rate, the “highest of any major country on earth.” It is important to distinguish here that by “major country,” he is referring to all countries part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED).

In March of 2014 Sanders organized a subcommittee to examine in depth the differences in life expectancy across the United Sates as a direct result of varying poverty levels. Some of the findings reported that almost as many people die from poverty as from lung cancer. Life expectancy was also shown to have decreased over the past 20 years in 313 U.S. counties, and the United States has 6 million more people in poverty today than it did in 2004.

Poverty is as crucial an issue as any from presidential hopefuls this elections. Senator Bernie Sanders has made it one of his top campaign priorities to reduce this number drastically if elected, by working vigorously to improve the system of the American economy and reduce the vast gap between wealth classes in America.

– Diego Catala

Sources: PolitiFact, Senate
Photo: Bernie Sanders

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Effects of Gender Relations in Textbooks

Gender-Relations

The effort to educate the world’s poor is making strides with the United Nation’s new commitment to education, as well as the resourcefulness of people who see a need for their communities. The U.N. proposes that 90% of children have been reached. However, the majority of students are boys and many children who do not attend school are girls.

Getting to school is not the only challenge for girls. Part of the problem are the curricula’s textbooks that depict gender inequality. This is evident in countries like Thailand, Pakistan, Bengal and Kenya.

The stories, images or examples either do not include women or describe them in submissive, traditional roles like cleaning, cooking and serving men. The men are depicted as the ones who hold positions as political leaders, drivers, teachers or doctors. Often, history books leave out influential women in history or do not accurately portray the lives of women. For example, a Thai book shows only a man receiving a land title, when in reality a large portion of the women hold their own land titles. While these biases are subtle, studies have shown that they still reinforce negative stereotypes of women.

Rae Blumberg, who has done extensive research on gender relations in textbooks, insists that “When girls don’t see themselves in textbooks, they’re less likely to envision themselves doing great things.” There are already low percentages of women working in government and leadership positions in these poor nations. The textbooks only “reinforce, legitimate and reproduce patriarchal gender systems” that keep women out of these positions.

The lack of accurate portrayals of women in these positions can discourage young girls from getting an education or trying hard in class. However, educating women and young girls is the key to raising communities out of poverty. For instance, by keeping young girls in school, child marriage can be reduced. There are links between education and lower birth rates and birth mortality. Education can also protect children from diseases and malnutrition through the provision of health information, such as prevention techniques. With an education, girls can make a living and be positive contributors to their community, the economy and their family.

It is important to keep young girls in school. While changing cultural norms that prevent girls from attending school will take time, addressing bias in textbooks is a reasonable start. By replacing the textbooks or having conversations about the bias, more girls can succeed in getting an education that will hopefully eliminate gender biases.

– Katherine Hewitt

Sources: The Guardian, Manushi-India.org NPR, UNESCO Reuters Blogs
Photo: Fabius Maximus

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Green Space Lessens Gap Between Rich and Poor

Green_Space
Having access to healthy green recreational areas has, for years, been known to improve mental health and well-being in communities. Contact with nature is said to be therapeutic for those who are stressed or fatigued. A new study, published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, suggests that this same access could conceivably reduce socioeconomic inequalities.

“Researchers looked at data that covered more than 21,000 urban residents from 34 nations recorded in the 2012 European Quality of Life Survey.” This research accounted for general demographic information among other data, and the results showed that those with reliable access to green space had a 40 percent lower socioeconomic gap than those that did not.

According to a similar study performed by the University of Glasgow, “green places are not only good for our health and well-being, but could also play an equalizing role in our cities.” This makes sense because green spaces do require a kind of maintenance, which opens up many jobs and volunteer opportunities in their communities.

“The research does not prove the strength of the relationship between individual neighborhood services and well-being, but does show that well-being gaps are smaller where services are better.” However, the research does show that green space has the largest bearing on the reduction of those gaps.

One example of a green space that is highly beneficial to its community is Lexington, Kentucky’s Gratz Park. This park borders Transylvania University, is used as a venue for local artists and performers during events, and is an accessible area for college students. Those who work to maintain Gratz Park are well-respected, and students that network there during events have been known to be much more at ease. Inhabitants also take great pride in the park’s historical significance as it was established in 1781.

– Anna Brailow

Sources: Fast Coexist, Optimist World, National Park Service
Photo: The Conservancy