how the other half live

Since we’re now in day three of the 364 men’s days in any given year, I thought I’d indulge myself with a Big Question: democracy or dictatorship - which is better for women, in reference to the world’s two largest examples of each?

Women's participation in the labour force in China is now 70 per cent, far higher than the 35 per cent in South Asia and the global average of 53 per cent. Life expectancy has risen to 75 years, while female literacy rates are more than double India's.

“China stands out in its achievements and efforts to ensure gender equality, and China is ahead of most East Asian countries,” says Abhimanyu Singh, chair of the U.N. Theme Group on Gender in China, and UNESCO's representative in Beijing.

On the other hand:

Another concern is a growing imbalance in sex ratios. Male-female sex ratios in China are among the highest in Asia, with a strong traditional preference for sons leading to sex-selective abortions and infanticide — a trend exacerbated by the one-child policy. There are 122.9 boys to every 100 girls at birth in rural China, far higher than the global average.

There’s another explanation for the more general rural imbalance:

"It looks as if high sex ratio areas, particularly in central China, are likely to get worse," she said. "Because of migration, we are hearing again and again that women are going to urban areas and staying. In rural areas that will exacerbate the sex ratio very markedly.

"In the past, migrants have tended to go back home to permanently settle. But women [now] are finding partners in urban areas and not going back. Men are unable to do that. Urban women will not marry a migrant man; men can't marry up."

Women stand a smaller chance of actually getting born in both India and China. But that obstacle negotiated, as of right now women in China stand a better chance of becoming both richer and more free – of having more personal power and autonomy - than women in India. Since India and China are the countries where the democracy versus dictatorship debate as it relates to general human welfare is actually being played out right now, this matters.

The only measure where India beats China, incidentally, is women in politics.

Comments

[ejh]

Since we're now in day three of the 364 men's days in any given year

Day sixty-nine, surely?

[Pat]

All the slaves that are or ever have been participate in the workforce. That 70% of Chinese women participate in the work force only tells you that they do a lot of work- whether it is work they like, whether it is work they choose, whether it is well paid are questions that need to be answered before we know whether it is a good thing.
In a culture that values baby girls so little as to let them die I know where I place my bets- for now.
Of course, for the future, there's nothing like a shortage of anything to make that thing valued.

[SF Reader]

ejh,

If International Womens' Day is Day One, then . . . I believe that was what was meant.

[ajay]

In a culture that values baby girls so little as to let them die I know where I place my bets- for now.

Pat, you realise that description is just as valid for India as for China, right?