Boundaries

Boundaries:
People Controlling Places

Boundaries may exist as lines on a map which delineate areas having some characteristics in common, areas which geographers term regions. These regions are identified in terms of their human and physical characteristics, such as language or climate. Deliberately drawn political boundaries are often the most important of boundaries as they define places under the control of a governmental unit. Often political boundaries cross environmental boundaries so that countries (or states, or counties/provinces, or cities) share access to and control of natural resources. Other boundaries are more difficult to draw on a map: social boundaries. These types of boundaries restrict equal access to resources and participation and thus affect sustainable development, in its broadest definition.

RELATED READINGS

The Status of Women, in World Population: Fundamentals of Growth
Geography for Life: National Geography Standards, Chapter 4, pp. 90-91.

THE WORLD'S WOMEN
What are the demographic patterns of women in the world?
How have social boundaries acted to restrict equity for women?
In what ways can the role and status of women be improved in particular places?
1. Role and status of women reflected in the Cairo Plan.
  1. Abandons decades of policies that promoted population control based on quotas.
  2. Focuses on policies giving women greater control over their lives.
  3. Recognizes that limited population growth depends on increasing the educational and economic prospects and political rights of women.
2. Women are integral to any plans of sustainable development.
GENDER VARIATIONS IN DEMOGRAPHIC PROCESSES
1. Gender relationships and role assignments vary among societies, so that the status of women is a cultural spatial variable.
2. Gender variations in demographic processes exist at all scales of inquiry.
3. It has been estimated that 100-million women are missing from the world population.
  1. Some countries have a traditional preference for boys.
  2. If treated equally in nutrition and health care, there are about 105-106 females for every 100 males.
  (FIGURE 13) Sex differences in infant mortality, 1994
4. Women and population growth.
  1. Maternal mortality rate (the number of deaths per 100,000 live births) is the greatest disparity between women in developed and developing countries.
  2. Infant mortality is affected by the health and education of the mother.
  3. Fertility rates are affected by women's education and contraception use.
EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH EDUCATION
1. Throughout the world, women are less educated than men.
  1. Two-thirds of the worldźs estimated 960 million illiterate adults are women.
  2. 70% of 130 million children not enrolled in primary schools are girls.
  (FIGURE 14) Percent of females enrolled in secondary school
2. Education is the primary way to elevate women's status and reduce the number of children a woman has in her lifetime.
  1. Education per se does not directly lower fertility.
  2. Influences age of marriage, employment, and the timing and number of births.
  3. Studies show a correlation between improved status and education for women and better economic development for the community.
ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES
1. In most societies, women's working lives are different from those of men.
  1. Half the world's women, compared to nine-tenths of men, are economically active in national labor statistics.
  2. Much of women's work is invisible (caring for family, work in informal sector, etc.)
  3. Women are less likely than men to have a paying job.
  4. When employed, women typically earn less than men.
2. Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, September 1995.
  1. Called on all governments to assure women full rights to equality and development.
  2. Focused on efforts to insure equal access to economic resources, including land, credit, and market as a means to further advancement of women.
POLITICAL EQUALITY
1. World-wide, women occupy a small fraction of positions of leadership.
2. Policy makers are now likely to consider gender roles, women's status, and opportunities for women as basic to legislative action.
(FIGURE 15) Women's share of national legislatures, 1992 (%)
SUSTAINABILITY
1. Women play major roles in all areas of sustainability.
  1. Women are primary manager of the family and influence human issues of population growth, health, nutrition, and education.
  2. Women play a major economic role, although they are not always credited.
  3. Women are important resource managers with a keen knowledge of the environment.
2. Two important points:
  1. A country cannot main its economic goals without also achieving social and environmental goals.
    1. universal education and employments opportunities
    2. universal health and reproductive care
    3. stable population
    4. equitable access to resources
    5. a sustained natural resource base
  2. Sustainable development requires participation - of all.
    
    "Ideally, in a sustainable society, careful management of natural resources is combined with equitable opportunities for education, health care, food, shelter, and employment." (World Resources Institute, Women, Equity and Sustainable Development, page 1).

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