By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog

Starfoxy finishes her contract as BCC’s hired gun for the Holidays.

Sadly I had nothing meaningful to add about the Christmas season that hasn’t already been said by others. So, instead I read through UNICEF’s The State of the World’s Children 2007 (PDF Available here) and wanted to share my thoughts, and see what others may have to add. This year’s report is titled “Women and Children: The double dividend of gender equality.” The section of the report I found most interesting, (section two, “Equality in the Household) described how households that include women in the decision making process are demonstrably better for children. Some excerpts from the summary:

A growing body of evidence indicates that household decisions are often made through a bargaining process that is more likely to favour men than women. Factors underlying women’s influence in decision-making processes include control of income and assets, age at marriage and level of education.The consequences of women’s exclusion from household decisions can be as dire for children as they are for women themselves. According to a study conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute, if men and women had equal influence in decision-making, the incidence of underweight children under three years old in South Asia would fall by up to 13 percentage points, resulting in 13.4 million fewer undernourished children in the region; in sub-Saharan Africa, an additional 1.7 million children would be adequately nourished.

A woman’s empowerment within the household increases the likelihood that her children, particularly girls, will attend school. A UNICEF survey of selected countries across the developing world found that, on average, children with uneducated mothers are at least twice as likely to be out of school than children whose mothers attended primary school. (pg. 16)

Here are a few thoughts I had while reading through this report:

~Regardless of the sometimes schizophrenic language used to describe the equality of fathers and mothers (cough cough preside cough), one thing that has never been said is that fathers should make decisions unilaterally, or that fathers have the ‘last word’ in disagreements. It is much more common to hear leaders pleading with fathers to include their wives in all the decisions that effect the family.

~The Guide to Family Finance teaches, “Management of family finances should be mutual between husband and wife in an attitude of openness and trust. Control of the money by one spouse as a source of power and authority causes inequality in the marriage and is inappropriate. Conversely, if a marriage partner voluntarily removes himself or herself entirely from family financial management, that is an abdication of necessary responsibility.“

~Our church is unique in its stance on educating women. While not encouraging women to work outside of their homes, leaders have repeatedly encouraged women to get all the education they can. It seems that most other socially conservative groups feel in varying degrees that higher education for women is either an optional luxury or even wasted on the woman (3rd to last paragraph) who will ultimately not pursue a career.

~The Proclamation on the family takes on a much different tone when ‘Preside’ and ‘Nurture’ are viewed as competing principles, rather than co-existent principles. It is most often read with the idea that a father presiding over the family has no impact on the ability of the mother to nurture. Some of the data from this report indicate that when a father really does preside (with the traditional definition of the word) that a mother is frequently unable to nurture the children, to the detriment of everyone involved. Perhaps the converse is also true, and the commandment given to women to nurture is a check on the power of a presiding husband.

Thanks to all the BCC permabloggers and commenters that have made my guest posting here a joy!