Alright ladies, It’s all about you today.
Equality for women is still an uphill battle. In many parts of the world, women do 60-80% of all work associated with growing food, gathering and hauling wood, and hauling water. Globally, women account for two-thirds of all hours worked but receive only 10% of the world’s income, and they own less than 2% of the world’s land.
Beyond these facts, there is a larger, more ubiquitous problem at hand. That problem is overpopulation.
At the start of the industrial revolution, the human race was all of a sudden able to expand to almost all of the earth’s climate zones. Then, the emergence of modern agriculture allowed us to grow more food, and feed more people. Alongside these advancements were the improvements in sanitation, healthcare, and the development of antibiotics and vaccines. Fast forward 200 years, and the human population has increased from 1 billion to 7 billion people.
There is such a thing as too many people, and our generation is the first to face this reality. More people in turn means more cars, more fuel, more wood, more food, more waste, and more air pollution. We’re taking up most of the land and resources in the world, and leaving very little for nature. 80% of the original Florida Everglades is completely gone, and is being used for agriculture. Since you started reading this article, over 55,000 trees have been destroyed. I’m serious. The earth has something called a carrying capacity, and we are rapidly approaching it.
All of these problems stem from overpopulation. Now on to the solution: women. Studies have shown that if women are empowered and educated, they will have fewer children. Women who cannot read often have an average of five to seven children, compared to two or less for women who can read. Overpopulation is most severe in developing countries such as India or Brazil, which is explained by their lack of women’s rights.
Obviously, we must empower women to the fullest extent. From a woman’s equal pay in the U.S. to a woman’s right to leave her house in Afghanistan, it is all essential to the future of humanity. Women need to be able to read, write, work, drive, all of it. Women need access to programs such as family planning, which has leveled out the populations of countless countries. If women are to feel empowered, they can’t make up 70% of the world’s poor, and they can’t make up 64% of all illiterate adults.
Furthermore, there is another side to those statistics. Men have most of the world’s wealth, power, and high social status, which means men are in a position to help. It takes both genders, people. It’s not just about gender equality anymore. To the 600 million people in India suffering from starvation, they aren’t worried about their gender. If we want to prevent overpopulation from causing irreversible damage to our planet, women must be educated, confident, free, and empowered. Simple as that.
