Nathan Rowley, Chapter 13, Question 5

There are many moral and political arguments one can make for giving women equal rights, and just as many against it. I was surprised to learn that there is an argument with implications that are a bit more concrete. On page 311, Charles Wheelan talks about the Arab Human Development Report and its conclusions, one of which was that "women's status" was a key factor slowing economic growth. The idea makes intuitive sense; the farming analogy that Wheelan makes demonstrates it quite nicely. But for the Arab region, which has so few, if any, rights for women, the idea becomes revolutionary. Finally, we can make an argument that isn't based on a normative judgement: if you want your lives to improve at any appreciable rate, give women equal rights.

I was not surprised to read that the women used money more sensibly than the men did.