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First lady Jill Biden makes remarks before U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order to expand and improve research on women's health.
Biden targets gender inequality in medical research
This initiative is long overdue. For most of history, scientific study has been based almost entirely on men – the government didn’t even require women to be included in medical research until the 1990s.
This has led to knowledge gaps on diseases disproportionately affecting women, like multiple sclerosis or endometriosis, and minimal understanding of conditions that affect women differently from men, like post-menopausal rheumatoid arthritis.
Just in time for the election. Biden knows he needs women to come out and vote if he is going to beat former President Donald Trump. He currently leads Trump by 6 points when it comes to suburban women and by 10 points among women overall.
Abortion and reproductive rights have proven to be mobilizing issues for Democrats, helping them win special elections, outperform in the 2022 midterms, and keep control of the US Senate. This initiative gives the Biden campaign another talking point as he tries to woo women to the polls in November.
Graphic Truth: From baby boom to baby gloom
Women are having fewer children in the US and Canada, where birth rates have been falling since the 1960s. In 2020, Canada’s fertility rate hit an all-time low of 1.4 children per woman. In the US, the national birth rate has fallen by 20% since 2007.
The baby bust is not unique to Canada and the US; the decline is unfolding across the OECD, as women gain increased access to contraception, higher education, and careers, all of which tend to lead to delayed family planning.
High inflation in recent years isn’t helping matters. After all, kids are expensive – from housing to education to health care – which may be enough to deter some couples.
But there is one OECD country where this isn’t the case: Israel. Israeli women have an average of 3.1 children, making Israel the only OECD country where the birth rate is above the replacement level. Experts attribute this to the influence of religion and tradition in the country, as well as social and economic policies that encourage work-family balance.Brazil will need to relocate citizens in areas that have been hit repeatedly by storms and other disasters supercharged by climate change, the country's Environment Minister Marina Silva said in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this month.
Hard Numbers: Grim warnings on climate change, Rich get richer, Gender healthcare gap, AI dominates the conversation
14.5 million: Davos offered grim warnings regarding climate change. A report released at the forum warned there could be an additional 14.5 million deaths from climate change by 2050 and $12.5 trillion in economic losses worldwide. To help mitigate these potential consequences, the global health system will necessitate a “comprehensive” transformation, the report said.
$869 billion: The combined fortunes of the world’s richest five men stand at $869 billion, according to a report released by Oxfam amid the World Economic Forum, up from $405 billion in 2020. The charity said the richest 1% now own 43% of global financial assets and called for curbs on CEO pay.
1 trillion: Women spend 25% more of their lives in poor health than men, according to a report released at Davos from the World Economic Forum and the McKinsey Health Institute. It found that closing the gender gap in healthcare could potentially add $1 trillion to the global economy by 2040.
30: Artificial intelligence was living rent-free in the minds of Davos attendees. There were 30 separate sessions touching on AI at this year’s forum. During one event on the topic, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman downplayed the notion that AI would dismantle society as we know it, saying, “It will change the world much less than we all think and it will change jobs much less than we all think.”
Texas Supreme Court stands firm on limiting abortion access
This reversal in the Lone Star State, renowned for its stringent abortion laws, came just mere hours after Cox's legal team revealed her decision to journey beyond Texas borders to undergo the procedure. The court asserted that the lower court erred in deeming Cox, more than 20 weeks pregnant, eligible for a medical exemption, contending that her doctor couldn't substantiate the pregnancy seriously threatened her health. Texas' abortion prohibitions allow the procedure solely in instances where a woman's health or life is jeopardized.
This ruling, specific to Cox's current pregnancy, signals the court's broader reluctance to approve abortions beyond the most serious medical cases. Cox was the first adult pregnant woman to seek a court-permitted termination of her pregnancy since Roe v. Wade passed in 1973. As a test case, Texas’ precedent could influence the rulings in various other states with abortion bans, where legal challenges have surfaced as physicians argue that the bans impede abortions even in cases of severe pregnancy complications, sparking a complex and contentious legal landscape.
BJP Mahila Morcha workers celebrate the introduction of Women's Reservation Bill in the Special Session of the Parliament in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
A political breakthrough for India’s women
On Monday, India opened its first special session of parliament since 2017, and expectations rose that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a plan to use the short session to make an unusual – maybe historic -- announcement.
There’s precedent for that assumption. Six years ago, Modi used a special session to roll out a nationwide goods and services tax to help centralize India’s economy. Many analysts now credit that move with sharply boosting internal trade across India, strengthening the country’s overall economic performance.
On Wednesday, in a nearly unanimous vote, India’s lower house of parliament passed the so-called Women’s Reservation Bill that will reserve one-third of its seats for women, who currently hold just 15%. They will also hold at least one-third of seats in state legislative assemblies.
The bill will move to the upper house for approval this week. It will then require approval from at least half of India’s 28 states.
If nothing else, the women who make up nearly half of India’s 950 million registered voters can have confidence their influence will play a much larger role in the direction of the world’s largest democracy.
GZERO celebrates International Women's Day
On International Women's Day, we’re proud to showcase just a few of the exceptional women we’ve interviewed on “GZERO World with Ian Bremmer,” our weekly program on US public television. The accomplishments of these remarkable women have made them role models globally. Click to watch our interviews with:
- Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and women's rights activist, known for her campaign against the Iranian government
- Jennifer Granholm, the former Governor of Michigan and current US Secretary of Energy
- Alina Polyakova, a political scientist and foreign policy expert
- Nikole Hannah-Jones, a journalist and author who led the 1619 Project
- Jean Lee, a journalist who extensively covered North Korea and currently serves as the director of the Korea Program at the Wilson Center
- Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a Belarusian politician and human rights activist who challenged the authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election.
- Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka, a South African politician and women's rights advocate and former Executive Director of UN Women
- Nancy Mace, the first woman to graduate from The Citadel military college and a Republican congresswoman from South Carolina
- Christine Lagarde, a French lawyer and politician who is currently serving as the President of the European Central Bank
- Maria Ressa, a Filipino-American journalist and CEO of the news website Rappler, known for her coverage of press freedom and the Philippine government's war on drugs
- Kaja Kallas, Estonia's popular centre-right prime minister, who won a sweeping election victory, receiving more personal votes than any politician in the country's history
Will Nepal cash out?
Like much of the world, Nepal saw digital payments soar during the pandemic.
Tulsi Rauniyar, a young Nepalese documentary photographer, experienced the transition firsthand. With COVID making human touch a big concern, e-commerce and cashless transactions became more commonplace — so much so that Rauniyar herself rarely uses cash anymore. This technological globalization is increasingly helping female entrepreneurs and businesswomen succeed in Nepal. But it still needs to reach rural areas — where many hard-working women are unaware of these transformative technologies.
Watch our recent livestream discussion on remittances and other tools for economic empowerment.
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