I was pondering the question of worldwide literacy the other day and I ran across some United Nations reports about some of their efforts to increase literacy. This short report, filed on 09/11/2010, deals specifically with literacy among women and contains some interesting statistics. View the UN Article (It is not long).
For this writing, I will use the standard for literacy as persons older than fifteen (15) years old that can read and write without assistance. The most interesting bits of information we the disparity of literacy between men and women. The estimated worldwide figure is that more than sixteen percent (+16%) of people in the world are illiterate. However, when viewing the total of illiterate people, only thirty-three percent (33%) are men. That means that women comprise two-thirds (66%) of the total illiterate population.
This brought me back to my original question, which I will tell you now so that you may think about it as well. What factors significantly influence literacy in an area? For the purpose of research, I consider the areas based on national boundaries. I think that the most prevalent factors are in the following groups, religion, culture, and economy. But what factors within these groups matter most and how to they affect women’s literacy positively or negatively? To help illustrate the problem, I will list two countries.
Afghanistan – Religion – 99% Muslim, Culture – Mix of Pashtun, Tajik, and Persian culture under an Islamic republic government, Economy – agricultural market economy (mostly undeveloped and dependent on foreign aid)
Vietnam – Religion – ‘Three Teachings’ mix of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, Culture – Traditional Asian culture influenced by socialist government , Economy – agricultural market economy (developed)
The literacy rate in Afghanistan is twenty-six percent (26%). As for literacy by sex, only about twelve percent (12%) of women are literate while forty percent (40%) of men are literate. That means that between men and women, there are over three times as many literate men as there are literate women.
The literacy rate in Vietnam is ninety percent (90%). As for literacy by sex, only about eighty-seven percent (87%) of women are literate while ninety-four percent (94%) of men are literate. That means that between men and women, the division of literacy is less than ten percent (10%) in favor of men over women.
This is just a comparison to get us thinking about the issue of literacy and some possible solutions to reduce the disparity between illiterate men and women. Literacy is definitely a source of power in the world and as long as women are less literate than men, there will be a gap in the amount of power that women can have in relation to men. I think this is an important idea to think about when we read articles like the two (written by Fish and Jacoby) that represent both sides of the multiculturalism debate and books like Zonana’s Dream Homes. The women represented in these writings are experiencing the world from a point of view foreign to some of us. They may have had severe personal or cultural obstacles to overcome just to learn to read and write, let alone to rise to the positions they are in and accomplish what they have.
-Japheth
-Japheth
Thanks for this intriguing post. Hope someone else takes a gander! I noted this passage: "Every literate woman marks a victory over poverty, he noted, calling for increasing funding and sustained advocacy for quality literacy programmes that empower women and ensure that girls and boys at primary and secondary level do not become a new generation of young illiterates."
ReplyDeleteIt might be interesting to post a tidbit of this in Db (or perhaps just to refer to it) and see how people see it playing out in Alexie (maybe moreso in the novel than in the stories).