Girl Power

I just read an article in The Economist, entitled A Guide to Womenomics, and the tagline reads as follows: The future of the world economy lies increasingly in female hands. Yea! Didn't I recently hype Hillary's run for the presidency? Didn't I? (Answer: Yes.) You should know that in all of my rantings to Darren about the patriarchal society in which we unfortunatly live I've made some of the very claims being confirmed by studies cited in this article. Of course, until my rantings were confirmed by folks at The Economist, they were held as little more than mere rantings by my oh-so-lovely husband.

Here are a few of the items I found most interesting. I encourage everyone to read the entire article, plus the complementary piece The Importance of Sex to achieve a full understanding of how completely incredible women are. So incredible we are worthy of happy diamond gifts. Sparkly diamonds in the form of jewelry we can wear around our necks, on our fingers, or attached to our perfectly formed earlobes. (That diamond bit was for Darr. Our anniversary is coming up.)

"Not only will educated women be more productive, but they will also bring up better educated and healthier children. More women in government could also boost economic growth: studies show that women are more likely to spend money on improving health, education, infrastructure and poverty and less likely to waste it on tanks and bombs." (Uh, yeah!)

"In rich countries, girls now do better at school than boys, more women are getting university degrees than men are and females are filling most new jobs. Arguably, women are now the most powerful engine of global growth." (Viva la women!)

"...most working women are still responsible for the bulk of chores in their homes. In developed economies, women produce just under 40% of official GDP. But if the worth of housework is added...then women probably produce slightly more than half of the total output." (Sociologists call the phenomenon of women that continue to perform the bulk of the household chores after working at a full-time job the Second Shift.)

"Studies have also suggested that women are often better than men at building teams and communicating." (No surprise there.)

"To make full use of their national pools of female talent, governments need to remove obstacles that make it hard for women to combine work with having children. This may mean offering parental leave and child care, allowing more flexible working hours, and reforming tax and social-security systems that create disincentives for women to work."

And perhaps my favorite...

"However, if women are to get out and power the global economy, it is surely only fair that men should at last do more of the housework." (No dishwashing -- dare to dream, ladies, dare to dream.)