Who Run the World? - The stronger the women, the stronger the society.

The Tickner article You Just Don't Understand reminded me a lot of an article I wrote for my high school magazine a couple of months before graduation, based on a discussion I had in my IR II class. Thought I'd post it, just for fun!

          “Who run the world, girls. Who run the world girls. Who run the world girls.” Let’s be serious though, girls don’t truly run the world. According to the UN, education is still unattainable for girls in various regions of the world, including those in extreme poverty. Women are subject to lower level jobs, with a lack of benefits, and often times, a salary. And the few women who are rising politically can often attribute their success to quotas.

            This gender inequality is not only evident in countries of extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, but can even be found in the US, where the debt ceiling crisis was left to the boys. Despite the influential, intelligent and usually powerful women in US politics, testosterone reigned while female politicians such as Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton were benched.

            The effects of gender inequality around the world is reason enough for the UN to dedicate one of its eight Millennium Development Goals to fixing it, amongst child health; ending poverty and hunger; and environmental sustainability. Being MDG #3, gender inequality can be considered one of the most important goals that the UN and the world should achieve by 2015.

            In my International Relations II course during my senior year of high school, my teacher posed the following question, “To what extent do you agree that the education of women is a disproportionately strong indicator of the overall health of a society?” It came to me as a shock how few of my classmates, male and female alike, did not see gender equality as a pressing issue, or a strong indicator of a healthy society. MDG’s such as environmental sustainability and end poverty and hunger ranked higher, while gender equality was pushed to the lower ranks.

            And this is what brings us back to Beyonce. While her ‘girl power’ anthem may seem like feminist mumbo jumbo to most, I can’t help but applaud her. Sure, her facts aren’t completely straight, but she is providing women everywhere with the confidence that they need to overcome gender inequality, in a world where the women who are given the opportunity to shine are doing just that, and more.

            While the men of US soccer are anything far from a joke, it is the women who had Americans all over the world screaming, cheering and, after the heart breaking loss to Japan, crying over a sport often shadowed by basketball and football. Even the victorious Japanese women were able to bring hope and triumph to their country at the time it needed it most, after being ravished by a horrible tsunami in March.

            More women are now going to college then men, earning degrees and joining the traditional male predominant fields. At AU alone, women are not only joining AU student government, but have been class presidents and held summa cum laude positions.

            One can always argue that US society isn’t perfect, however, as a nation, it is one of the most powerful and influential in the world, serving as an example for weaker, less developed countries. This positive growth and power is only reflected by the opportunities our women gain. Other countries like Brazil and Argentina are catching on, and even surpassing the US in female power, electing female presidents; and not only growing as potential powers, but opponents to the US. Brazil is not only hosting the upcoming World Cup and Olympic games, but their economy was untouched by the crisis that is slowly destroying the United States, and has discovered more oil in the past year.

So sure, call us feminists, tell us we’re bad at sports, that a woman could never be president and that we should be in the kitchen. And then watch us prove you wrong. Girls may not run the world, but they sure are catching up.