Reading Comprehension: Exercise-4

Overview:

Directions (1-10): Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions. Certain words/phrases are given in bold to help you locate them while answering some of the questions.

Most of the declarations of the Fourth World Conference on women in Beijing in 1995 have faded from memory. But the linkage made there between women's rights and poverty and the assumption that discrimination actually impedes progress has survived. Since then the promotion of equal rights has become a central economic priority for international aid agencies. The World Bank has declared the enfranchisement of women the single most important issue for effective development. A sweeping statement, perhaps, but since 1995 the bank has lent billions of dollars on programmes that encourage girls education. better maternal health and on micro-credit initiatives that funnel money directly into the hands of women. This is a substantial sum dedicated to women. If not, most developing countries, women produce more food than men and bear primary responsibility for feeding, sheltering and educating the young. But lack of education coupled with social customs which treat women as second-class citizens restrict their participation in the economy. The figures are starling. Globally those women who do work are concentrated at the bottom end of the labour market and receive far less pay. A significant proportion of the world's illiterate are women and women account for half of all refugees.
Anything that helps women catch up with men should be welcome on grounds of equity alone. But fairer treatment of women is also one of the most effective ways to improve an economy's efficiency as well. It is widely recognised educating more women in developing countries and specifically making education available to men and women equally is likely to raise the productive potential of an economy significantly. As education levels rise, so do household incomes. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, 70% of young children whose mothers have secondary information receive their vaccinations, as opposed to just 30% of those whose mothers have no formal schooling at all. A cross-country analysis concluded that gains in women's education made the single largest contribution to declines in malnutrition in 13 countries between 1970 and 1995. Some researchers reckon that, if female farmers in places like Cameron or Kenya were afforded the same schooling and other opportunities as male farmers, crop yields would rise quite hefty.
One economic analysis estimates that if countries in South-Asia, Africa and the Middle East had closed the gender gap in schooling at the same rate as East Asia after 1960. Income per head could have grown substantially over the actual growth rates achieved. But one country's gender bias is another's an ancient tradition, entrenched in laws and institutions. Some South American countries, like Bolivia and Guatemala, restrict wives employment-outside the home in South African nations Botswana, women have no independent right to manage of own land but now girls are offered stipends for secondary education, a long-standing programme now holstered by multilateral aid. Elsewhere in Africa in Ghana, peripatetic bankers act as lenders and financial advisors, often helping women as particular to set up small businesses. Part of the rationale for micro-finance (small icons) that caters to women is that some studies have shown women tend to spend money more prudently on vital goods and services that benefit families, men often squander it. This finding may seem implausible to many men. Not many women would be surprised.