Hillary Clinton rightly said at the recent Women in the World Conference that the full participation of women and girls in societies around the world is the great unfinished business of the 21st Century.
“I believe the advancement and the full participation of women and girls in every aspect of their societies is the great unfinished business of the 21st century,” Clinton added in her Thursday remarks. “And not just in far-away countries but right here in the United States.”
You can find complete coverage of the conference
here.
Hillary also said, referring to Africa:
“Yes, we have cut the maternal mortality rate in half, but far too women are still denied critical access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth,” Clinton told the Women in the World conference in New York.
“All the laws we passed don’t count for much if they are not enforced,” Clinton continued. “Rights have to exist in practice, not just on paper. Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will, and deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.”
However, in an email to supporters today, Jeb Bush said:
"This week Hillary Clinton said that people's deep-seated religious beliefs need to be changed in order to advance her own personal political agenda. Wow," he wrote. "America was founded on religious freedom, and that freedom is woven into the Bill of Rights as the first guarantee. And strengthening families is an important element to helping people rise up. This shouldn't be a partisan political issue, but unfortunately for Hillary Clinton it sounds like it is."
The problem, however, is that Mr. Bush is operating under a faulty premise that as women's rights advance, the opportunities must necessarily retreat.
However, that is simply not the case:
The cost of women not being engaged in paid work is huge: according to one report the economic cost of failing to educate girls to the same standard as boys in 65 low- and middle-income countries was estimated at $92bn a year. And according to the IMF, whole economies are losing out – if women and men had more equality at work, it would increase GDP in the US by 5%, in Japan by 9% and in Egypt by 34%.
So, if we were to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, everybody benefits, not just women. And while Ms. Clinton's remarks were referring to Africa, they are just as applicable here. Since Mr. Bush is talking about the need to defend "deep-seated religious beliefs," let's take a look at the gender balance between men and women in the church. Currently,
around 80% of ministers in the UK, as an example, are men. Numbers may vary by denomination, but these numbers are indicative of male dominance within the church.
In the US, the number is even higher, at 89%. So, given the rampant inequality in churches, it seems that long-held beliefs in male supremacy in churches do, in fact, need to be challenged.
Studies have been done showing the numerous benefits of diversity in the workplace. Here are a few of them:
1. A diverse workforce drives economic growth. Our nation’s human capital substantially grows as more women, racial and ethnic minorities, and gay and transgender individuals enter the workforce. A McKinsey & Company study, for example, found that the increase in women’s overall share of labor in the United States—women went from holding 37 percent of all jobs to 47 percent over the past 40 years—has accounted for about a quarter of current GDP.
2. A diverse workforce can capture a greater share of the consumer market. By bringing together individuals from different backgrounds and experiences, businesses can more effectively market to consumers from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, women, and consumers who are gay or transgender. It is no surprise, then, that studies show diversifying the workplace helps businesses increase their market share.
3. Recruiting from a diverse pool of candidates means a more qualified workforce. When companies recruit from a diverse set of potential employees, they are more likely to hire the best and the brightest in the labor market. In an increasingly competitive economy where talent is crucial to improving the bottom line, pooling from the largest and most diverse set of candidates is increasingly necessary to succeed in the market.
We know that the church has
grown more stagnant in recent decades. Given what we know about the importance of diversity in any organization and given what we know about the lack of diversity in churches, we can say that one of the factors driving this stagnation is lack of diversity. We need to challenge these deep-seated beliefs not, as Mr. Bush claims in his email, to advance Ms. Clinton's personal agenda. We need to challenge these beliefs because they are detrimental to the common good.
One of the panels at "Women in the World" focused on how such problematic images of women lead to trolling, hatred, and violence.
Sarkeesian has become one of the most prominent targets of Internet abuse, and she is also one of the most outspoken critics of misogynistic online harassment. In 2011, she launched a video series called Tropes vs. Women, which examined problematic depictions of women in sci-fi and, later, in video games. For pointing out sexism in popular games, Sarkeesian became the target of vicious and incessant online harassment by (largely male) gamers.
“It’s been going on for three years non-stop,” Sarkeesian said during the panel. “It’s everything from sexist and racist slurs all over social media accounts… There are bomb threats and death threats … You become hyper-vigilant. I don’t like to use the word ‘paranoid’ because there’s a sense of irrationality to that word. But there is nothing irrational about that fear.”
Anita Sarkeesian is the founder of
Feminist Frequency, which combats these stereotypes. Given what Ms. Sarkeesian says about the numerous hate posts that she regularly encounters, Hillary Clinton's goal of a world with full participation of women is a challenging and ambitious goal. But it is one that is well worth struggling for whether she wins or loses.
The fact that Ms. Clinton has adopted this as one of her goals shows that she has evolved as a candidate from her last run in 2008. Instead of the overly cautious campaign that she ran, which allowed Barack Obama to win with his "audacity of hope" message, she is taking positive stands on issues that are important for a lot of us. This is helping her stay ahead in the polls against all her major GOP rivals despite all the negative attacks that are coming fast and furious at her.