Theodore Roosevelt the 26th president of the United States stated, “Do what you can with what you have where you are.” For many people especially in countries like the United States this is a given. Everyone is encouraged to use his or her talents and abilities. Everyone despite age, size, or gender. Sadly, this is not the case everywhere. In those places they have to learn to follow the children’s fable called “The Bundle of Sticks”. The story shows how alone people can break easily, but as a group they stay strong. The more and more people the stronger the bundle. This fact is not acknowledged everywhere though. Some people discourage a major part of society from using what they have and helping the bundle to become stronger. Some people believe women cannot contribute to society and the best job for them is called ‘housewife.’ Of course, it is an option and if a woman chooses to be a housewife no one can blame her. On the other hand, if people in general have abilities and talents that they can contribute to make our world stronger and more efficient they should not be hidden from society. Fighting against gender inequality can help achieve a more efficient and successful world.

The first action that can be taken is stopping female infanticide and feticide. Directly this may not seem to be connected to global achievement, but indeed it is because every year we lose millions of female brains that could be the next Marie Curie or Mother Teresa. The mere reason for their lives being taken away is their gender. Even though, female infanticide is well known throughout the world there is not much being done to stop it. If people used half the energy they use to stop global warming for stopping female infanticide we would have a group of bright women helping the world progress. Many Asian countries where sons are always preferred over daughters and in society males are valued more than females, infanticide is prominent. China and India are two countries where female infanticide and feticide has been in the millions. According to the U.N. and national census or population studies by Valerie Hudson, BYU: In 2000, China had 40,617,103 victims of female infanticide and feticide while just a year later India had a similar number of 39,284,065. Imagine if your mother, daughter, sister, or female friend died. You would expect many of their loved ones to attend a funeral and mourn. Maybe over a 100 people would miss your loved one. This means about 4,000,000,000 people should miss these victims. Sadly, that is not the case. These children are unloved because of their gender and if they had the chance to grow up a 100 would have missed them and loved them.

Another major problem arising out of female infanticide is the imbalance in the sex ratio of male to female. This imbalance has a great possibility of causing the resurrection of gender unequal ideas and traditions. According to “Growing Gender Inequality in India” by Cami Martin: in 1981 there were 962 girls for every 1,000 boys and in 2001 this number decreased to 927. This decrease in the population of women is more likely due to new technology that allows parents to easily find the gender of the child before birth and abort them instead of having the child and being unsure about murdering it. Feeling, abortion more humane prompts couples against the idea of female children to commit feticide. The most important factor of the change in sex ratio is not why it happens though, but the impact it will cause. Joseph Chamie, research director at the Center for Migration Studies and former director of the United Nations Population Division, writes in “The global abortion bind”, “By 2020, it’s estimated that the number of young “surplus males” unable to find brides could be more than 35 million in China and 35 million in India.” These great imbalances will cause men to buy brides and maybe even resort to child marriages. Trafficking of females will increase due to their demand. We will be going backwards in our road of progress. Child brides and kidnapped women do not have the ability to go out into the world to be educated and help development of society.

The simple raising of awareness can impact this problem. Join a facebook group against this atrocity or create one. Make your twitter status as ‘I hereby will help stop female infanticide’ and let your friends know that they can, too. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” Never think that your contribution has no worth because that one step you take is just a step closer to seeing the whole staircase. Even if your involvement can only save one life out of millions that only means that you have given life to a person that will be a loved one and family of many. Any role you play allows you to pat yourself on the back for you were someone that helped save the future of our society. You were one who helped the great minds of the future survive. You helped destroy gender inequality. Equal view of both genders will be the end to the majority of detrimental problems to society and the beginning to a successful future so play your part.

CITATIONS

Chamie, J. (n.d.). The global abortion bind - On Line Opinion - 13/6/2008. On Line Opinion - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate. Retrieved March 7, 2010, from http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7484&page=0

Martin, C. (n.d.). Growing Gender Inequality in India | Global Envision. Global Envision | The Confluence of Global Markets and Poverty Alleviation. Retrieved March 7, 2010, from http://www.globalenvision.org/node/1769

Where Have All the Girls Gone?. (n.d.). Free Website Hosting – Angelfire free website templates to make your own free website. Retrieved March 7, 2010, from http://www.angelfire.com/planet/femaleinfanticide/fanticide.html