tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074813693815909301.post5538917587386375269..comments2023-10-17T01:18:10.100+01:00Comments on What I taught in Geography this week: International Womens DayAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10243338071659226030noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074813693815909301.post-9390472040646211452011-03-21T22:33:24.346+00:002011-03-21T22:33:24.346+00:00The question, is equality truly a necessity for de...The question, is equality truly a necessity for development, is an interesting one. When I first considered it, I believed that equality was a necessity for development because, for a country to reach the latter stages of the DTM a stable population is required where both the CBR and CDR are low. In the second Al Gore book (honestly it covers loads!) it mentions how experts in demography have concluded that two of the key factors that allow for this to occur (they have isolated four) are the widespread education of girls and the social and political empowerment of women to participate in the decisions of their families, communities and nations. However on further reflection, whilst referring back to the statistics you provided, how can it be a necessity for development if countries, like the USA who we consider to be very developed, possibly have less equality in their society than in countries like Rwanda? <br />I have been thinking about this for a while and it wasn’t until I replied to your comment on my blog, in relation to changing the globally perception of development, that I managed to start to come up with an initial response to this question. So, do I think that equality is a necessity for development – well the statistics you provided suggest that it is not necessarily a necessity but perhaps only at the currently accepted definition of development. Like I mentioned in my reply, the definitions of development and many of the measurements used to calculate it are based on the economy and you can have a developed economy without equality existing in a country. The global view of development seems to lack in how socially developed a country is and so how can equality, which is or should at least be a sign of social development, be a necessity for the perception we currently have of development? Although I don’t think equality is perhaps a necessity, I think it aids and accelerates development as equal opportunities for women in both education and careers lower the CBR, which is a key characteristic associated with development and so, perhaps, a certain level of equality is required.Vicki The Geography Studenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05891258937298993412noreply@blogger.com