How to Make the Matriarchy by Maureen Devine-Ahl
Author:Maureen Devine-Ahl [Devine-Ahl, Maureen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Feminism & Feminist Theory
ISBN: 9781636766072
Google: 9JANzgEACAAJ
Amazon: B08S3H4VKS
Barnesnoble: B08S3H4VKS
Goodreads: 56810133
Publisher: New Degree Press
Published: 2020-12-07T02:52:18+00:00
Something for Everyone, I Promise
Melinda Gates holds her Catholic upbringing and continued faith central to who she is. And she talks openly in her book, The Moment of Lift, of her struggle to reconcile the teachings of her church on family planning with the realities of what she has witnessed around the world, both in data and first-person storytelling.
She cites a study from the 1970s that tracked outcomes for families across Bangladesh over the course of twenty years. In the study, half of the women in participating villages were given access to contraceptives, while the other half were not. At the end of the study, women who were given contraceptives were healthier, their children were better nourished, their families had more wealth, the women earned higher wages, and children had more schooling.161
She shares the story of Meena, a woman she met in Mozambique. Gates was visiting Meena, who had recently delivered her infant son in a new clinic, to ask her about her experience and how it compared to giving birth to her first son, then two, at home. She was prepared for a conversation about how having access to the clinic was a dramatic improvement for the health and well-being of mom and baby, which Meena confirmed. She wasnât prepared for Meenaâs response when she asked if she wanted to have more children.
Meena shared that they were very poor. Her husband worked hard, but she still worried about her ability to provide for the two children she had, let alone more. Gates describes âreelingâ when Meena said, âThe only hope I have for this childâs future is if youâll take him home with you.â162 It was in this moment Gates realized âthe pain of giving her babies away was less than the pain of keeping them.â163
It was Meenaâs story, and many more like hers, that drove Gates to take a stance very different from the teachings of her Catholic faith on family planning. She realized âwhen women can decide whether and when to have children, it saves lives, promotes health, expands education, and creates prosperityâno matter what country in the world youâre talking about.â164 The Gates Foundation, in its quest to end poverty, end starvation, lower maternal and infant mortality, and in general reduce suffering around the world, realized it needed to prioritize empowering women to manage their health and reproductive journey to be successful.
âThe reasons are simple,â Gates writes. âWhen the women were able to time and space their pregnancies, they were more likely to advance their education, earn an income, raise healthy children, and have the time and money to give each child the food, care, and education needed to thrive.â
I share Gatesâ story to invite you to set aside any existing biases you may have when it comes to overlapping womenâs health with politics or personal beliefs. Women are responsible for the proliferation of the human race, and as I dug deeper on data and stories, it became clear to see the best outcomes for society (and frankly, the world) are born out of empowering women in their health decisions.
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