Here's a program to
educate women in Darfur, a region living under dictatorship, suffering from resource shortages, torn by cultural conflict and war. What became of the graduates of this program ten years later?
Does their knowledge of nutrition give them better-nourished families? Are their families healthier as a result? Does the resulting spare money and time give them more time to think about ways to improve their efficiency,
observe those who are doing well and duplicate those solutions? Do the extra funds allow them to exploit economies of scale? Do they move to take advantage of better economic opportunities? Does that takes them closer to centers of political and economic power? Do they fight for democracy? For an end to military conflict back home? For political reform? Do some die for that cause?
Did they embrace feminism as a cause? Organize around women's issues? Mount a collective defense? Did they use nonviolent direct action? Did they take up arms? Did they fight for cultural/religious change from within? Did they denounce cultural or religious systems they were raised in? Did they lead their communities? To what ends? How does that impact the perception and enforcement of gender roles in those communities?
If education is a
nonrival good with positive economic impacts, how much value is produced when a substantial proportion of the population is no longer being denied education? How does that value manifest? Are more goods produced, more services provided? More art, more leisure, more knowledge? Faster entry into the "information economy"? How does the world economy change as a result?
What is the future of feminism, and how is that shaped by the developing world?
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