What I learned: The world has 4% more women than men. EXCEPT in North Africa and Korea... what is happening to those women? These "missing women" in Sub-Saharan Africa are living in the poorest parts of the world. The reason that this region is the only region with more men then woman is because of childbirth. These regions are so poor, that childbirth is a humongous cause of death for women. Even leading to less women than men. So... what's the answer? More development? That isn't always plausible. These ratios of infant mortality and dying mothers is increasing, therefore, it continues to get worse as time goes on. "Stopping rules" are discussed, which would be what China's one child policy is. The question is, how would these ever be implemented in Sub-Saharan Africa? Though family sizes are much too large, the social aspects and "benefits" of childbirth tell these individuals that they need to have more children. China was developed enough that this plan was somewhat successful in slowing down their population overload. Another contributing factor to the "less women" phenomenon is the assumption that women (since they are typically smaller than men) need less to eat, so you feed them less. This isn't supposedly an attempt to kill them off, rather a tradition.
How it relates: This relates to the paper I developed about government and hunger in Sudan slightly, but not as much as others. Mothers not surviving though child birth is an issue in Sudan, absolutely. However, when I was conducting my primary research for my paper, it was not one of the main factors that seemed like a significant concern at the time. This could be because I was primarily researching food security and government, but, I don't recall deaths during childbirth ever coming up as a significant issue throughout my research. I'm sure it is an issue within the rural communities, however, and once again if the small scale governments I suggested began to become increasingly successful, assistance with mothers surviving child birth could be something else that could be included.
Interesting. What are you own thoughts about this section? Not how it relates to Sudan but what you thought about these findings?
ReplyDeleteAs eye opening and saddening as it is, it makes sense. Giving birth is an increasingly dangerous feat. and of course in countries that lack the proper infrastructure to birth these children, and that attempt to have SO many children, it sadly makes sense that this would occur. I had no idea that if occurs on such a large scale, however.
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