Last Sunday, The New York Times magazine was devoted to women’s rights. The leading article, by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, was called “Why Women’s Rights Are the Cause of Our Time.” A heading on the cover said: “In many parts of the world, women are routinely beaten, raped or sold into prostitution. They are denied access to medical care, education and economic and political power.”
Kristof & DuWunn quoted a statement from a 1990 article by Amartya Sen, the economist: “more than 100 million women are missing.” According to the article, in places where girls have an unequal status, they “vanish.” That is, girls do not get the same health care and food as boys, girls are less likely to get vaccinated than boys, and they are taken to the hospital only when they are sicker. In addition, pregnant women in such countries are more likely to abort female fetuses. The writers report that in India, for example, girls from 1-5 years of age are 50% more likely to die than boys their age.
Kristof & WuDunn stated: “It appears that more girls and women are now missing from the planet, precisely because they are female, than men were killed on the battlefield in all the wars of the 20th century.”
So where is the outrage, where is the anger, where is the shock that more than 100 million women are missing? Why isn’t the media all over this? I think that Kristof & WuDunn are incorrect, women’s rights are not the cause of our time. They are not even the cause of one day.
