The 2011 Global Women's Progress Report

Article #1 The 2011 Global Women's Progress Report

The first article that will be analyzed is the 2011 Global Women's Progress Report. The report takes a look at the many cultures that hold women in power and in constraints. From Thailand to Australia women hold high political positions while in Saudi Arabia to Pakistan women are more constraint on what it is that they can do. When taking a look at the economic potential women can provide, it shows, that with access to education and jobs the economy was more stimulated and highly benefited from the reinvestment women provide. Women, in whatever state a country may be, provide a huge benefit to the overall economy and politics in a country.

When we take a look at our Global Business Today book we see under Hofstede's power distance his dimension of masculinity versus femininity. (Hill & McKaig, 2009) In countries like Pakistan men are the high point in society, differentiation is highly put on gender. Men are men and women are women. These countries have a more masculinity view on the economy. It is countries like this that don't see the full potential that an economy could have because they hinder on what women can do. For example in Chad the per capita income is $164 a year. (N/A, 2011) Women need their husbands' permission to open there own bank accounts. This pushes the economy of Chad down because women require permission before they can spend, or in other words, put money back into the economy. If women had more freedom to spend their money the economy would go up as more is being reinvested. On average men reinvest about 40% back into the community while women reinvest 90% of their income. That is a staggering amount that is being put aside when restrictions are put on women. The economy can only benefit when women are given the right to spend their money in both developed and developing countries. In countries that consist of a democratic government and a GDP above $200 billion women are more equally viewed. These countries have a more feminine culture as there is little differentiation between the genders. Countries like the United States and Great Britain are high on the list. Even in these countries there still is some discrimination against the genders but there are laws that prohibited it and equality rights are in the constitution. Just from looking at the cultures from what people say, we know that women benefit the society. If we were to imagine Edmonton as a place where women were not allowed to spend their money we would right away see the downsize in the economy, as probably 90% of the people at the mall are women.

Though Canada is ranked 3rd in equality of the genders, they ranked 26th in women in power, this is below both Cuba and Burundi. Canada has only ever had one women in power, Kim Campbell. This is similar in many countries, in Costa Rica Laura Chincilla in 2010 won and was the first female president in Costa Rica. Even though this is the first presidency of a female in Costa Rica, women still hold 40% of the seats in the Legislative Assembly, while in Canada, only 22% of Parliaments seats are held by women, this statistics is based on a 2008 study. As Identified in the chart "Level if Activity in Different Policy Areas?" in the report Equality in Politics, women are more likely to bring up policies concerning women's issues, gender equality matters and social and community matters. (Union, 2008) While men are more likely to bring up policies about foreign affairs, economic and trade matters, and education. For example in Brazil the women in parliament pushed the policy of Maria da Penha Law, which increased the punishment for those who committed violence against women. (Policies, 2006) Thanks to those women in parliament the policy was past and is now enforced. It is hard to say that women bring great benefit to politics as there are not enough cases to compare. But men alone do not bring up all the factors that affect our countries.

Women are very important to our economy and politics, restricting them is only restricting us from our full potential. Like Anne-Marie Goetz, peace and security advisor for the United Nations Women, once said "Excluding women from post-conflict recovery would be like trying to tie your show with one hand." Though this talks about post-conflict recovery, I think it applies to both economic and politics as without women the whole of society is not being used, therefore it is lacking in its full capacity.

Bibliography

Hill, C. W., & McKaig, T. (2009). Global Buiness Today Second Canadian Edition. Canada: Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication.

Huffman, A. (2007). How do informal and formal restrictions on women affect economic performance? Washington: Department of Economics, Washington University.

N/A. (2011). The 2011 Global Women's Progress Report. N/A: Newsweek.

Policies, S. S. (2006). Maria Da Penha Law. Brazil: Law.

Union, I.-P. (2008). Equality in Politics: A Survey of Women and Men in Parliaments. New York.

Article #2: Canada's Trade surplus Doubles in December

February 10th, 2012

This article is all about the incline in exports and imports that Canada has been having since July last year. Leading exports were machinery and equipment which consisted of aircraft engines and parts, and industrial goods like precious metals and alloys. This being a great accomplishment has its concerns. The United States is one of Canada's major trade partners and if their economy hits a sore spot Canada would suffer. Canada's surplus has it's benefits and restrictions that can change in an instance, as it is our trade partners' trade policies and economies that determine what kind of trade surplus or deficit we have.

With Canada's recent surplus they seem to have adapted the mercantilism international trade theory. Mercantilism is defined as "an economic philosophy advocating that countries should simultaneously encourage export and discourage imports." (Hill & McKaig, 2009) Basically saying import less, export more. Last year exports grew 4.5 percent while imports only grew 0.8 per cent in Canada giving them a huge surplus. In mercantilism doctrine it highly suggest that the government heavily intervene so to put in place policies that would encourage exporting over importing. In Canada the exports that are controlled consist of military goods,