The Complete Equality Of Women
Almost miraculously the global average human fertility rate has dropped. Plummeted. From a global average of 5 children per woman in 1950 to nearly 2.5 in 2015. Precisely what has caused it to halve in these last seventy or so years is unknown. Likely, it is due to a complex of biological and cultural variables. Without question, however, the single most powerful direct factor is the rising empowerment of women. In every setting where women have had more say in their personal lives and more say in the functioning of the society in general, the better circumstances become—not only for women, but for everyone involved. Worldwide, when women’s education levels rise, fertility drops.[i] Worldwide, when women are empowered— meaning that they have more decision-making power in family matters and with their bodies (by, for example, having the freedom to use contraceptives)—both fertility and child mortality drops.[ii] Worldwide, when poor women are the recipients of microloans, more of the money goes into the family needs, business ventures, and paying back the loans, and less into tobacco, gambling, and alcohol than when the loans go to men.[iii] Sexual equality is good for Civilization and good for the Earth.
Inequality, sexual and otherwise, is so indefensible philosophically, I will assume an audience that needs no persuasion. However, a very brief history does serve our purposes. Hunter-gatherer societies were far more equitable in most every way than is Civilization. This is particularly true with respect to women.[iv] Equality in mobile hunter-gatherer societies was adaptive. In the journal Science, for instance, anthropologists found that equality of the sexes among hunter-gatherers explained the important role of cooperation and concord that is characteristic of bands made of unrelated and potentially competitive families.[v]
With large-scale agriculture everything changed. Large irrigation projects, as one example, required a concentration of enormous resources and effort and therefore organization, which precipitated the rise of permanent leaders. The crops harvested could now feed not only the farmers, but also others not directly involved in farming. In time, these non-farming five to ten percent became the rulers, warriors, priests, craftsmen, organizers, and tradesmen—society’s elite and affluent. Status and hierarchy were codified and etched into the social fabric. Religion legitimized the inequality, especially that of women, an inequality that persists today, most obviously among the clergy. Although there are female saints and venerated religious figures and mystics, there have been, as of yet, no female popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, and Dalai Lamas, some very few Imams, and just recently some very few Brahman priests, and some small percentage of rabbis and pastors. Indeed, in all the spheres of influence—political, military, religious, business, and media—women still represent a small minority of the leaders.
Given the completely subordinate role played by women for most of Civilization’s six thousand year history, the past century’s trend of women’s increasing power and influence in the affairs of society bodes well for us. Although men and women are of equal value, we are not the same. Testosterone and estrogen levels, if nothing else, guarantee that. For six thousand years, or for as long as women have been subordinated, Civilization has proceeded without the full compliment of the human potential. And so, like an aircraft flying with only one wing, Civilization is hurtling to its demise. To adequately and wisely meet the unprecedented challenges of the human predicament and of dieback, to veer our ship back towards a sustainable future, we will need our specie’s full breadth and depth. We will need women walking not behind men but shoulder to shoulder. And perhaps even often ahead, leading the way, if we are to overcome the ramifications of millennia of unfettered patriarchy.
[i] Martin, T.C. and Juarez, F. (2005) The Impact of Women’s Education on Fertility in Latin America: Searching for Explanations. International Family Planning Perspectives, v. 21(2), pp. 52-57, 80.
[ii] For example, Eswaran (2002), Upadhyay et al. (2014).
Eswaran, M. (2002) The Empowerment of Women, Fertility, and Child Mortality: Towards a Theoretical Analysis. Journal of Population Economics, v. 15, pp. 433-454.
Upadhyay, U.D., Gipson, J.D., Withers, M., Lewis, S., Ciardaldi, E.J., Fraser, A., Huchko, M.J., Prata, N. (2014) Women’s Empowerment and Fertility: A Review of the Literature. Social Science & Medicine, v. 115, pp. 111-120.
[iii] Amendáriz, B. and Roome, N. (2008) Empowering Women Via Microfinance in Fragile States. CEB Working Paper no. 08/001, Centre Emile Bernheim.
[iv] For example, Endicott, K.L. (1981) The Conditions of Egalitarian Male-Female Relationships in Foraging Societies. Canberra Anthropology, v. 4 (2), 10 pp.
[v] Dyble, M;, Salali, G.D., Chaudhary, N., Page, A., Smith, D., Thompson, J., Vinicius, L., Mace, R., Migliano, A.B. (2015) Sex Equality Can Explain the Unique Social Structure of Hunter-Gatherer Bands. Science, v. 348, pp. 796-798.
