This post is dedicated to the distinguished Professor Lawrence Summers, a truly dashing personality. A noted economist, former Secretary of the Treasury and president of Harvard University. I’ll remember him particularly for his statements regarding the genetic differences in mathematical ability between men and women.
He basically seems to think women and numbers don’t click. Taking his wise words into account I have to express my admiration for him, especially because it so happens that this man and I share a love for numbers. So much so that I once wrote a poem about numbers.
It goes like this:
“The current world population counts about 6.6 billion people.
Amongst them, 51.3% are men, and 48.3% are women.
There are around 3.19 billion women in the world.
Women produce up to 80% of food in developing countries, but are more likely to be hungry than men.
70% of the 1.2 billion people living in poverty are women and children.
700,000,000 women are without adequate food, water, sanitation, health care or education (compared with 400,000,000 men)
750,000,000 women live on less than a dollar a day.
1% of the world’s titled land in the world is owned by women.
67% of all illiterate adults are women.
85m girls worldwide are unable to attend school, compared with 45m boys. In Chad, just 4% of girls go to school.
Up to 90% of workers in global supply chains are women.
62% of unpaid family workers are women.
21% of the world’s managers are women.
Fewer than one in six parliamentarians are women. While women’s representation in Rwanda is 49%, ten countries have no women in parliament.
In Africa, women now account for 75% of all young people living with HIV and AIDS.
In Ethiopia, seven out of ten women who have ever had a partner have suffered either physical or sexual violence at home.
99% of maternal deaths occur in developing countries, with women continuing to die of pregnancy-related causes at the rate of one a minute.
Data on key aspects of women’s empowerment, including school attendance, violence against women and wages is only available in around a quarter of countries.”
