ARE - Mr. Duffy

Assertion: Women should be empowered politically and economically as a way to drive nations out of our global recession.

Reasoning: Economically empowered women do more to help their nations improve long term than men.

Evidence: Female economic power also enhances the "wealth and well-being of nations." Women who control their own income tend to have fewer children, and fertility rates have shown to be inversely related to national income growth. Women are also more able - and generally more willing than male counterparts - to send daughters as well as sons to school, even when they earn less than men. In turn, a woman's level of education affects her decision-making process when it comes to questions about contraception, age of marriage, fertility, child mortality, modern sector employment and earnings.

The real tragedy is that women are often better economic stewards of capital than men. Research has shown that women are more likely to reinvest profits back into human capital than are men. When women have economic power - defined as control of income and capital (land, livestock, etc.)-they gain more equality and control over their own lives, while contributing directly to their children's development (nutrition, health and education) and thereby indirectly to their nation's income growth.

Find more evidence at the link below:

http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/global_ethics/economic-empowerment.html