Are Women The New "Deserving Poor"? by Anna N. (jezebel.com)

A refutation (? well, counterpoint) to a New York Times Magazine article in which "Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn make the provocative claim that ending discrimination against women and girls may end poverty and even terrorism."

Indeed, all the programs the authors support — from improving girls' education to reducing sex trafficking to repairing obstetric fistulas — are good ones. But their central thesis — that we should help women because it will reduce poverty and violence — is flawed. It relies on the notion that women are deserving of economic and social power because they are good citizens, not simply because they are human. What happens if women decide to spend their newly earned money on alcohol instead of their children's education? What if they spend it on weapons? And what if, even though they spend it on all the "right" things, their countries still fail to develop economically? Treating women as agents of social change risks leaving them out in the cold if they don't effect the change we want.

Good read. Link to the original article and subsequent other readings are also in there somewhere.