Development Leads to Inequality Whcih Leads to War

Global Development January 2013

1. 3 ways women may be disadvantaged in process of development today:

* Traditional family roles still dominate society. In many developing nations traditional roles of the mother staying at home and looking after the children and doing housework are still the norm which restricts them from being involved in politics and business.

* In many under-developed countries, they are politically excluded. They do not have equal rights to men (such as to vote) and are excluded from the political system therefore do not have their say in society.

* Aid given to these countries are given to men to invest. They lack access to capital and therefore are disadvantaged when it comes to business.

2. Assess the view that global population growth is becoming ‘out of control’:

The view that global population growth is ‘out of control’ is a key debate for many sociologists. Some may argue, such as Malthusians, that this growing population is a huge problem for the world and will lead to strain on resources such as food and land. However, others may argue that actually, humans as a race have the ability to solve problems such as these. Furthermore, they may point to the demographic transition model to support this view and suggest that in fact we should look to solving under-development so as to slow population growth.

In 1798, Thomas Malthus brought about the argument that our population is growing out of control and posing a serious threat to us as a race. He believed that the human population would grow at an exponential rate whilst crops at an arithmetic rate. Humans were beginning to overcome many ‘Malthusian checks’ such as famine and disease that were keeping out population down due to improved medical technologies. He argues that this growing population will lead to conflicts such as in Palestine and the Congo. However, it could be argued that incidents like those mentioned are isolated incidents and that...