Gender voice and correlations with peace.

• Author: Dworkin, Terry Morehead
• Position: Relationship between societal violence and opportunities for women

ABSTRACT

The statistics regarding violence in today's society are staggering. A newly released study published by the World Health Organization, making headlines in the Wall Street Journal (Oct. 3, 2002), reports that "Violence Took 1.6 Million Lives in 2000." This statistic includes only the data obtained from the 70 countries that report such statistics to the World Health Organization, it does not include reports from many other countries where violence is also high, such as Burundi, Rwanda, Iraq, Liberia and Afghanistan.

This Article seeks to address some of these issues of violence by considering issues of gender. The Authors pose the question whether there may be some correlation between violence and the lack of meaningful involvement of women in the economy. If the countries that appear to be more violent are also countries where women are systematically excluded from business opportunities, perhaps one way to curb some of the societal violence would be to improve the opportunities for women in the economy. Multinational corporations can play an important role in increasing these opportunities.

TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION II. DATA III. IMPLEMENTATION A. Laws B. What Can Business Add? 1. Nondiscrimination a. Harassment b. Equal Pay/Comparable Worth c. Pregnancy d. Childcare 2. Training 3. Mentoring IV. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION

In developing countries, involving women in the economy as wage earners (1) can "lead to output gains and a reduction in poverty in general. (2) As argued elsewhere, a reduction in poverty promotes stability and leads to a more peaceful society. (3) As the locus of production shifts away from the home, an initial decline in employment opportunities may occur. (4) When women transition into the workforce, violence may increase. (5) However, when women have attained status through economic empowerment, the violence (6) and lack of employment opportunities disappear, and everyone benefits. (7)

A significant factor affecting the participation rate of women in the economy is the nation's dominant religion. Approximately one-third of the variation in participation rates between countries can be explained by religion. (8) Such statistics have led to a call for secularization of the law in countries such as India because traditional interpretations marginalize the perspective of women. (9) Secularization is justified as a matter of social utility, logic, and modern values. (10) Additionally, the traditional interpretation is only one possible interpretation, and the "common understanding" is sometimes not the best interpretation. (11) For example, depending on which interpretation of Islamic Law governs, girls in Islamic cultures may or may not have a right to education on a par with boys in their family; may or may not have a right to work and earn wages before and after marriage. (12) This dichotomy can be seen in societies in Turkey and Afghanistan in 2000. (13)

The statistics regarding violence in today's society are staggering. A newly released study published by the World Health Organization making headlines in the Wall Street Journal found that "Violence Took 1.6 Million Lives in 2000." (14) Notably, this report considers only the data obtained from the 70 countries that report such statistics to the World Health Organization. It does not include reports from many other countries where violence is high, such as Burundi, Rwanda, Iraq, Liberia, and Afghanistan. (15)

There are other studies of violence throughout the world. The Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research, for example, studies conflicts and compiles data comparing how various types of conflicts are resolved. (16) The data identifies four types of conflict: (1) latent conflicts; (2) crisis conflicts that are mostly nonviolent; (3) severe crisis conflicts where there is some use of force; and (4) war. (17) Previous research has compared the Heidelberg Institute's data of how conflicts are resolved with an index prepared by Transparency International. (18) Transparency International ranks countries throughout the world based on the perception of corruption in business. (19) This research showed a direct correlation between corruption and violence. (20) That is, countries that the Heidelberg Institute reported to have addressed conflict in peaceful, or mostly nonviolent means, were the same countries that were perceived as least corrupt according to the index prepared by Transparency International. (21) Conversely, those countries that the Heidelberg Institute reported as mostly violent in their conflict resolution were also found by Transparency International to be perceived as the most corrupt. (22)

This Article seeks to address questions of violence by considering issues of gender. We pose the question whether there may be some correlation between violence and the lack meaningful involvement of women in the economy. If countries that appear more violent are also countries where women are systematically excluded from business opportunities, perhaps one way to curb some of the societal violence would be to improve the opportunities for women in the economy.

To address this question, this Article is organized as follows. Part II examines data compiled by the United Nations and the Heidelberg Institute, and finds that many violent nations do not rate positively on gender-related indices. Conversely, the more peaceful nations tend to have more positive gender-related scores. Pushing the results in Part II a step further, Part III considers how some of these gender imbalances might be corrected. In this Section, the Article notes that laws are only partially successful and suggests that business might play a role by granting social rights and by adopting policies on nondiscrimination, providing mentoring and training programs, and implementing child care and other "family friendly" policies. Part IV follows with our concluding remarks.

2. DATA

   Previous research has compared the Heidelberg Institute's work on conflicts throughout the world with Transparency International's data on the perception of corruption, finding an interesting correlation between violence and corruption. (23) This Article utilized the same data from the Heidelberg Institute and compared it to the Gender Development Index (GDI) published by the United Nations. (24) Here, too, there were significant correlations between countries that resolve disputes by peaceful, or mostly nonviolent means, and more positive rankings on the GDI. Similarly, countries that ranked in the violent or mostly violent tiers of the Heidelberg Index had poorer rankings in gender development.

   In undertaking this analysis, 144 countries for which the United Nations collects data on gender development were ranked. Each year, the United Nations publishes a human development index (HDI) as a composite measure of human development. (25) The HDI measures a nation's achievements in three basic dimensions of human development: longevity, knowledge, and a decent standard of living. (26) These categories are measured using life expectancy; adult literacy and combined primary, secondary, and tertiary enrollment; and adjusted income per capita in purchasing power parity in U.S. dollars. (27) Because the HDI assesses only average achievements, it disguises gender differences in human development. To reveal these differences, the United Nations extrapolates data from the HDI to compile the GDI. (28) This Article uses the latter measure, the GDI, in its statistical comparison. The GDI uses the same components as the HDI, but "captures inequalities in achievement between women and men." (29) If a state had achieved gender equality in human development, its GDI and HDI would be the same. (30) The U.N. study indicated, however, that for all countries studied, the GDI was lower than the HDI, indicating the presence of gender inequality everywhere. (31) Therefore, as the report describes, the GDI is "simply the HDI adjusted downward for gender inequality." (32)

   Analysis began with each country's GDI ranking. For the 2001 study, the GDI was estimated for 144 countries, measuring: (1) the female and male life expectancy at birth; (2) the female and male adult literacy rates and the female and male combined primary, secondary, and tertiary enrollment rates; and (3) the estimated female and male earned income. (33) The last category reflects each gender's command over resources. (34) Australia, Norway, Belgium, and Canada ranked at the top of the U.N. GDI index, indicating the lowest levels of gender inequality. (35) At the other end of the spectrum, Burkina Faso, Burundi, and Niger ranked the lowest, indicating the highest levels of gender inequality. (36)

   Next, each country's GDI ranking was compared to its ranking on the Heidelberg Institute's violence index, to the extent data were available. (37) The data used are detailed in Table 1 below. The Heidelberg Institute's violence index, commonly known as the "Kosimo database," uses a variety of sources and 28 variables (38) to define the types of conflict involved and the methods used by parties to those conflicts to resolve them. (39) The index defines "conflict" as:

   [t]he clashing of overlapping interests (political differences) around national values and issues (independence, self-determination, borders and territory, access to or distribution of domestic or international power); the conflict has to be of some duration and magnitude of at least two parties (states, groups of states, organizations or organized groups) that are determined to pursue their interests and win their case. At least one party is the organized state. Possible instruments used in the course of a conflict are negotiations, authoritative decisions, threat, pressure, passive or active withdrawals, or the use of physical violence and war. (40) The database was used to rank the countries according to the number of conflicts resolved violently and...