Missing Women

Working so deeply in low-income communities over the past couple of years, I’ve been really lucky (probably not the best word choice) to witness and learn about development and social issues outside the realm of pure education and teaching. This exposure has led to a lot of revelations, and I think one of the most important is the crucial importance that women play in low-income communities.

It seems plausible that if not for women, there would have been almost no progress in development over the past several centuries. Surely the emancipation of women has led to more stable, less-testesterone-driven politics and governance.Michael Lewis mentioned in this interview a major cause of the Icelandic financial and economic crisis was male overconfidence. If nothing else, we’ve had this amazing woman achieve a great deal (and hopefully in 4.5 years, even more) and give us awesome quotes and websites.

In my previous school, out of my 37 student, more than 20 had out-of-work fathers, and the remaining often had unstable jobs or worked as day labourers. The mothers not only took care of all of the household chores (generally while their boozy partners drank and slept and played cards all day), but they generated the household income, primarily through sewing piecework.  They provided the only stability to the house, and were the ones mostly responsible for ensuring that their kids made it to school every day.

Nowhere more do you feel the importance of women in the community and in these households, is when they are not there. Nidhi is one of my current students. Incredibly precocious, she comes from a really difficult home. Her mother passed away and she lives with her father and elderly grandmother. I have yet to meet her father without him reeking of alcohol. A few days ago, he picked her up, proceeded to walk UP the stairs to the third floor to go outside, before coming down and falling down. Nidhi had to go home with another child’s parent.

I am not a child psychologist, so I can’t really say that Nidhi’s troubles in class are a direct result of her alcoholic father and the lack of a good influence, which her mother, as most mothers in the community are, could have been. But while she is incredibly bright, she is also pretty unstable. She is more violent than almost any other child, often reacts to the slightest infractions and accidents, by hitting the responsible (although often not) parties.

When I think about her, I often just think about what a difference her mother may have made in her life. And what a difference mothers make in these communities. It’s not anything new. The proliferation of microcredit probably would not have happened if women were not the ones receiving the loans. It’s pretty well known that women are more responsible financially with family income than men are.

I guess the big reflection I have is that economic progress and evolution in developing countries will have to coincide and happen in tandem with women’s empowerment. I am certain that as we see progress, it will come on the shoulders of the mothers and daughters who are making it happen in their own homes and communities.