“Why?” Credit: Ksayer1

September 17, 2019; The Hill

Well, before we lay into one of our favorite targets, are there any of you who really did not know that gender inequality makes it harder for the women among us? Or that “for hundreds of millions of people around the world, hardship is all but guaranteed.”

I suppose that the most recent study by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation may be of use to someone, but we find it less than revelatory, even stating as it does that “no matter where you are born, your life will be harder if you are born a girl. If you are born in a poor country or district, it will be even harder.”

We knew that. Add “poor,” add “of color,” and add “from a ‘region with inadequate infrastructure’” to “woman” and, yes, the barriers become massive. (Extracting too much personal wealth from the world will, by the way, add to that picture. Just a thought.)

But, in case you don’t understand the unillustrated version of the report, here is a handy-dandy (read, “appalling”) visual included in the writeup, showing how few obstacles Bill and Melinda had in comparison to the “girl born in the Sahel.”

From “Examining Inequality: How Geography and Gender Stack the Deck for (or Against) You.”

By the way, on the scale of the difference? Not even close.

This reminds us a bit of the clueless virtual tour Mark Zuckerberg took in Puerto Rico right after the hurricane. Our plutocrats, folks.—Ruth McCambridge