Re: [Futurework] Workloads

[Ray Evans Harrell]

Ed,   Are you advocating "From each according to his/her abilities to each according to his/her needs?"   REH ----- Original Message ----- From: Ed Weick To: G. Stewart ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2003 4:11 PM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Workloads UNIFEM, the United Nation's Development Fund for Women lays out the road to progress in greater detail:     * Women's share of seats in legislative bodies should reach 50%     * The ratio between girls' and boys' school enrollment rates should be one to one     * Average female weekly earnings as percentage of male weekly earnings should equal 100%     * Women's share of paid employment in the non-agricultural sector should be expanded     * Men and women should spend an equal number of hours on unpaid housework Political power, education, type of work all these factors have an influence on women's economic power....   Gail, I don't like this.  It strikes me as the tryanny of absolute equality.  What if, as may be possible, all of the women were geniuses and all of the men morons?  Or, can you think of the difficulty and fallout of a husband and wife keeping tabs on each other to ensure that they did an equal amount of house work?  "No, no, dammit!  I cooked dinner yesterday!  It's your turn!"  What I would most like to see is equal access to education, to careers, to the income hierarchy, and everything else that people do outside the home.    When it comes to inside the home, partners have to work it out themselves.  He likes cooking; she doesn't.  Or she likes cooking; she doesn't.  Or however the household goes.  What would seem most important in the home is the kids.  Neither male nor female should feel they are restricted from becoming what they want to because of their sex.   Ed   ----- Original Message ----- From: G. Stewart To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2003 12:15 PM Subject: [Futurework] Workloads Speaking of work and and trade, here is an item posted this AM to another list.   I'd be interested in comments. Do you think these are reasonable objectives for the World Bank and UN? Do you see around you or in your own life evidence of their accomplishment?    The fourth objective of UNIFEM gives me some  trouble, at least until the third and fifth are advanced -- otherwise it seems to me that we get wage distortions that affect international trade, possibly reducing rather than enhancing the general welfare. Wage inequities produced by "discrimination per se" carry a continuing odour of slavery? Nor, I think, is the problem confined to women but is conspicuous there and links with other issues, e.g. caring for children, health, population, etc.   What think you? How is the issue developing in your own surroundings?   Gail     This Friday's NOW with Bill Moyers focused on how women are faring in the global economy, with Vandana Shiva explaining in a live interview how globalization increases women's workloads. For those who missed the show, the NOW site on pbs.org http://www.pbs.org/now/  is worth a visit. cheers, Penney Sample: Rich World, Poor Women: Women and Work There is an old saying that you can judge a society by the way it treats its women. In the last several decades many world organizations have signed on to that belief making improvements in the status of women among their highest priorities. The World Bank's Millennium Development Goals put it broadly: "Goal Number 3: Promote gender equality and empower women." UNIFEM, the United Nation's Development Fund for Women lays out the road to progress in greater detail:     * Women's share of seats in legislative bodies should reach 50%     * The ratio between girls' and boys' school enrollment rates should be one to one     * Average female weekly earnings as percentage of male weekly earnings should equal 100%     * Women's share of paid employment in the non-agricultural sector should be expanded     * Men and women should spend an equal number of hours on unpaid housework Political power, education, type of work all these factors have an influence on women's economic power....     Gail Stewart [EMAIL PROTECTED]