In the 20th century, we marshalled technology to eliminate one of the major barriers to women's advancement and autonomy.

But one world region struggles to make that transition. Between 1950 and 2020, China reduced female teenage fertility rates from 84 to 12 births per 1000 females aged 15–19 annually and India from 144 to 17 per 1000.

But this same reduction has not been achieved in Sub-Saharan Africa.

I have updated my priors.

Take-home exams should end.

No academic can truly ascertain talent, and distinguish this from AI.

Thinking otherwise is either naive or misplaced hubris. Previously, I tried to set tough questions that outsmarted Generated AI.

In August 2024, I wrote this 👇

ggd.world/p/crafting-ai-…

US corporations going anti-woke really encapsulates cultural evolution.

Also applies to Mughals, Ottomans, & CCP.

1) Ruling group gains power & believes X

2) Other organisations seek prestige & patronage so adopt X

3) Advancement within those institutions now depends on X All major Wall Street Banks have quit industry groups that focus on climate.

Coupling and Fertility are Falling.

In Finland, Mexico, Peru, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey and the US, both are going down.

Superb column by @jburnmurdoch

A must-read for anyone interested in why fertility is falling, and how to respond.

🧵 From the 1960s, US fertility fell primarily due to fewer births AMONG COUPLES.

In that context, pro-natal bonuses might raise fertility.

But today, the major contributing factor is FEWER COUPLES.

Lovers share their hopes & dreams.

Living together, they share stories about their days, and learn about different perspectives.

If 50% of young Americans are single, this may have social implications - potentially less empathy between men & women.

Graph by @jburnmurdoch While some blame the apps, or other matching frictions,

I'm not so sure.

Pew Data suggests that half of singles are not looking for relationships.

“If we exclude the tech sector, EU productivity growth over the past 20 years would be broadly at par with the US” - Draghi

Fabulous article 🧵 “Failure to [boost competitiveness] could jeopardise our ability to generate the wealth needed to sustain our economic and social model” - Lagarde

Abused women around the world tell me that they are staying “for the sake of the children”.

I suspect that this has been a major driver of patriarchy,

The mother wants a loyal provider so endures violence. She is strong for her kids.

Exit, voice and loyalty - Hirschman.

https://twitter.com/economeager/status/1861656503264141336

Afaik, @gabydesch is the first to empirically quantify and test this major driver of patriarchy.

So I very much appreciate her contribution.

India’s female labour force participation has surged!

@TheEconomist has a new article on this phenomenon: is it dodgy data, economic distress, or is the government empowering women?

WAIT!!

We need to disaggregate this data, separately analysing RURAL + URBAN

BIG THREAD 🧶 (2) So the Economist considers whether this is just dodgy data (counting household work), economic distress, or government schemes to support female entrepreneurship.



It features the brilliant @amitbasole economist.com/asia/2024/11/2…

“What is noticeable about the prophetic literature even in its earliest surviving phase is the emphatic connection it makes between sexual misconduct, more often than not on the part of women, and infidelity to the God of Israel.“ “Women could not be considered in the likeness of God..

That was reflected in the architecture… The hierarchy of the six sacred spaces only allowed women access to the sixth and outermost ‘court of the women’.

Women from Eve onwards were catalysts for male faithlessness”

"Strong Democrats" have, in the past 10 years, swung away from the median voter on cultural issues

New analysis by @jburnmurdoch 🧵 "Democrat political elites" culturally diverge from the median voter

Research by Alexander Furnas (@zfurnas) and Timothy LaPira (@timlapira).

ft.com/content/73a183…

Americans, especially men, have fewer close friends 66% of US men wish they spent less time online

Fertility is plummeting globally.

Yet, the discourses around this big challenge are peculiar. Crudely:

1) Misogynist blame from conservatives
2) Speculations, sometimes ideological/ tenuous grasp of evidence
3) Silence & reluctance to engage from many progressives, due to (1) Personally, I would like to avoid both (1) & (2).

Birth rates are plummeting,

The UN and other forecasters keep missing the mark

Fertility in Latin America has dropped off a cliff.

Do we need to update our models?

Asks @jburnmurdoch Nose diving in South Korea & Colombia

Yet forecasts are rosy!

I'm a big fan of the FT, but..

This analysis of India's low female employment is speculation, not based on rigorous comparative analysis.

It blames

- laws against women's night-work
- care responsibilities
- cooking gas subsidies
- feeling unsafe

🧵🧵 ft.com/content/eb0345…
1) India's FLFP is below the global average because male honour depends on the seclusion of female kin

So, the poorest women work for barebones survival, but if families can afford it, women withdraw from the labour force.

Though FLFP does rise if the job is nice & respectable

In 1970s Peninsular Malaysia, female employment was pretty similar amongst Chinese and Indian diaspora.

This is interesting because today female employment is doubly high in China vs India.

[This is a terrible graph, so I added colours to illustrate]
cambridge.org/core/journals/…
But...

In both 1957 and 1970, Indian women were much less likely to be employed OUTSIDE agriculture.

That's actually similar to India's own labour market statistics

- where women may work on family farms (close to home), but have low participation in manufacturing & services

Marital love!

The composer Mihaly Mosonyi and his wife Paulina Weber

Painted by Henrik Weber, 1845 Agost Canzi, “Grape Harvest” 1859

(More love!) 💗

Huaulu women are excluded from positions of authority & priesthood, & denied a voice in judicial meetings.

The cited justification is polluting menstruation.

This is a great example of how societies institutionalised patriarchy by making up reasons for women’s inferiority This is a good example of why gender equality isn’t just driven by getting women into the workforce,

Or some kind of self help group, or income-generating activity,

But rather a process of secular-scientific thinking, rejecting patriarchal religion.

Did the West invent democracy, feminism and queerness?

No.

1) Small-scale societies were often heterarchical, with Reverse Dominance Coalitions (Boehm, Stasavage)

2) Women's orgs in the Gulf of Guinea (Achebe)

3) Queerness in SouthEast Asia & SSA (see Ong, Epprecht)

https://twitter.com/bijurao/status/1811846805811789859

That said, it is also true that many books have massively exaggerated liberal progressivism in many parts of the world.

Eg DoE.

Some feminist anthropologists accuse Westerners of failing to recognise women’s “hidden powers” & “spheres of influence”.

Eg 1970s Java:

When a young couple eloped, the boy’s father spoke at the formal event

But actually it was the mother who did all the prior investigation But here’s the plot twist

The mother did all the prior investigation, because she had less spiritual potency and less status, so is permitted to speak more freely and openly.

Whereas men guard their potency by exercising restraint.

What led to the global rise of Salafism?

1) Saudi oil wealth - funding mosques, madrasas, training

2) Arab prestige bias + technology -> people in peripheral countries could learn from the Islamic heartland

3) Under-development

🧵 Yuki Shiozaki has a fascinating article on how SouthEast Asian fatwas have changed over the past 150 years!!!

This is brilliant data.

In the 19th century, Muslims in SouthEast requested fatwas from muftis in the Shaft school in Mecca

Ahmad Al-Fathani was a Thai mufti, Shafi’i

Southeast Asia was described by some Western observers as exceptionally gender equal.

However here’s an important caution

Outsiders may not necessarily be able to identify status

Eg Buddhist women were economically active in markets, but this actually signified impurity Which figure is more powerful?

Cakil (left) or Arjuna (right)?