Normally I use my blog space to talk about my passion for photography. But every once in a while I read something or something happens that causes me to write about something else. Today is one of those days. A couple of things happened today which caused me to think. #1. Elizabeth Smart’s abductor and tormentor Brian David Mitchell was found guilty on all counts for his role in the abduction, rape and torture of Elizabeth Smart. The prosecuting attorney’s the witnesses at trial, the police officials and the jurors all stated what a remarkable women Elizabeth Smart was. How she had been able to handle herself and testify in such detail and in such a calm and succinct manner about what she had been through was a key to the proper justice being delivered in the verdict that was announced today.

Then I read an article  in the New York Times entitled “The Women’s Crusade”. written by By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF and SHERYL WuDUNN which was originally published back on August 17, 2009. It made me think about how much better off we would be as a nation and as a world if more was done to empower women. Elizabeth Smart was exploited by an evil man. Many, many women are tortured, abused, mistreated, exploited and pushed down every day by evil men. Yet many women rise above this cesspool of repression and do so with character, humility and strength.

Just to be clear, I am not “man bashing” or “man hating” as I am man myself.  The oldest of eleven children. I have six sisters and four  brothers younger than me and I have a wife and three daughters, so you could say that I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by women my whole life.

So here is the opening couple of paragraphs of The New York Times article which made me deviate from my normal talk of photography.

IN THE 19TH CENTURY, the paramount moral challenge was slavery. In the 20th century, it was totalitarianism. In this century, it is the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the globe: sex trafficking, acid attacks, bride burnings and mass rape.

Yet if the injustices that women in poor countries suffer are of paramount importance, in an economic and geopolitical sense the opportunity they represent is even greater. “Women hold up half the sky,” in the words of a Chinese saying, yet that’s mostly an aspiration: in a large slice of the world, girls are uneducated and women marginalized, and it’s not an accident that those same countries are disproportionately mired in poverty and riven by fundamentalism and chaos. There’s a growing recognition among everyone from theWorld Bank to the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff to aid organizations like CARE that focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism.

Did you get that. Focusing on women and girls is the MOST effective way to fight global poverty and extremism. I want to carry this a bit further. In my belief. In any government, country, religion, theology, corporation, or home that marginalizes women, that doesn’t give them an equal voice and equal power then just plain bad decision making happens.  Just for thought, let’s think about all the recent chaos and bad decision making that took place on Wall Street that plunged our economy into the worst recession since the great depression. I wonder how many of these decisions were made by women in executive positions? How much input did women get in economic decision making by the Federal Reserve, Banks, Insurance companies and other corporations? What about other areas in our government? How many women set on committees or chair committees  at national or local levels? How many women get a chance to run for political office as Senators or for Congress?  Only 17 of the 100 Senators in the U.S. are women, yet 50.8% of the U.S. population is women. In Congress we have 76 women and 359 men.

And what about the heads of corporations, banks, or military commanders? And religion? How many women are given a voice or a role in the leadership of major religions around the world. Would certain religions be as prone to extremism or  the problems as divisive if women played a more prominent role?

As a father of three daughters at the same time as I worry about their future I am also encouraged by those who have recognized the importance of equality of power for women. I have always encouraged my daughters to take advantage of educational opportunities and to empower themselves with knowledge. My hope is that the world will continue to evolve and that it will be a place where all women, including my daughters will be given an equal voice in politics, economics and in their own homes.