The Gender Gap

The World Economic Forum has issued its latest report on gender equity in various world countries, “Women’s Empowerment: Measuring the Global Gender Gap.” The report ranks countries according to how women have achieved full equality with men in five categories:

*economic participation
*economic opportunity
*political empowerment
*educational attainment
*health and well-being

As you might expect, other countries far outstrip the United States in many of these categories. Overall, we rank 17th out of the 58 countries studied. Our strength is in educational attainment, where we rank 8th; we lag in economic opportunity (46) and health and well-being (42). Economic opportunity in America is hindered by a lower level of upward mobility for women, and because of the paucity of paid leave programs for parents in the U.S. Apparently, there are many variables that affect health and well-being; but it is still surprising that our infant mortality rate is higher than many western European countries.

My interest is in the political empowerment category. I have written elsewhere on the issue of women in government, and my belief that we would be better served by a more balanced gender ratio in government. The United States ranks 19th in this category. According to one report, only 15.6% of the combined parliamentary bodies in the world are women. As the report states:

The absence of women from structures of governance
inevitably means that national, regional and local
priorities—i.e. how resources are allocated—are
typically defined without meaningful input from women,
whose life experience gives them a different awareness
of the community’s needs, concerns and interests from
that of men.

I couldn’t have put it better. For more, you can review the report here.

Economic Politics in the Park

During any campaign season, political signs sprout on a small local park in the village. The signs can be seen from three converging village streets and a major two-lane road with a traffic light. Our school budget vote is on Tuesday, and there are two contested seats on the Board of Education. So naturally, the park has the usual array of campaign signs.

Buried among these signs is a small white sign, about two feet high, with one simple utterance in clear block letters: “Employers are Greedy Misers.”

Not sure how that person wants us all to vote on Tuesday.

Graduation Day, Lycoming College

Warm blue sky. Green walkway to the dais. Blue seats. Pale blue diploma covers. Green lawn. Pale green buds on some trees, fully green leaves on others. A cherry tree in white blossoms. An occasional bluster of wind.

Young 20s in black robes; yellow, blue and black wide stripes on their graduation hoods. Smattering of yellow, red, blue ropes on some necks, along with yellow pins and mixed medals. Black morterboards and tassles.

Red brick buildings surround the quad. Plenty of color in the audience dress. Silence, cheering, clapping. The band plays for procession through the gates, onto the quad green. Throngs stand, cameras click and blink. Quiet greetings from those in the fringe rows.

Silent prayer. A spiritual from the choir. The Star Spangled Banner (!). Greetings, retirement announcements, doctoral awards, a speech from an archeologist and educator. A graduating senior from Elmira, who read a poem she wrote four years ago for high school graduation.

I spent time away, while sitting in my folding chair: staring at the blue sky, framed by swaying green branches. The chapel bell chimed at the hour and half-hour, sending warm tones into the sun-soaked sky – enhancing, rather than interrupting, the words at the dais.

I am one of three people who stand on the dais and shake each grad's hand: the Presidents of the College, Trustees, and Alumni Board. Even while shaking 320 hands, I was still rapt by the colors, the warmth, the aura of spring in full dress. We were three men with white hair, shaking the hands of 20-year-olds. Quite the sight, I’m sure.

Four parents got to hand diplomas to their graduating children. One father walked off with the diploma, after he and his daughter got mixed up trying to rescue her morterboard in the wind.

Marco did the benediction, and we were lining up to recess back through the crowd and their folding chairs. We all disperse from there, scattered among the tents with their lemonade, iced tea and cookies. I chatted with professors Larson, Roskin, Williamson, Piper…Still nice to be part of the institution.

Better, still a wonderful place to spend a spring afternoon, gazing at the sunswept blue sky.