The truth about our lives

Abstract

According to United Nations statistics, women make up half of the world’s population, do two-thirds of the world’s work, earn one-tenth of the world’s wages and own one-hundreth of the world’s wealth. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise to us. It doesn’t take official statistics to convince us about what we already know. Women work extremely hard and have very few resources to show for it compared to men. If men are poor, women are poorer. If women are rich it is either because they are among the few who, in the attempt to prove that equal opportunities exist, are allowed to work side-by-side with men and earn men’s wages. Or their wealth is conditional upon the men who provide it. Women who are economically dependent on middle-class men may well enjoy a good deal of comfort and a high standard of living. Their affluence gives them choices and opportunities which are not so readily available to working-class and black women. But material well-being does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with emotional well-being, and is usually dependent upon good — that is dutiful — behaviour.