Poverty is sexist...but not just in gender

So I read this article in The Guardian that was about poverty being sexist. Thirty-five high-profile women, such as Beyoncé, Meryl Streep, Sheryl Sandberg or Lady Gaga, wrote an open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the chair of the African Union, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, right on time of the G7 and the African Union meetings, where both women will be present.

The aim of this letter is to bring to the political leaders’ attention the matter of gender inequality, stating that usually poverty strikes women more than men in every country. It also mentions how development differences among countries stress even more this phenomenon.

To goround its statements, ONE (the organization founded to address these issues and promote change) provided a study reporting that “a woman in Sierra Leone is 183 times more likely to die in childbirth than a woman in Switzerland, that in the least developed countries working women are three times more likely to be in vulnerable employment than women elsewhere, and that literacy levels are a third lower for women than men”.

I consider this movement a very noble one and am aware of the fact that it is not meant to be an attack at men but a cry for help to all the unprivileged women around the world. However, taking under the consideration the power and influence of these women, I would have hoped to see deeper insight of the subject. As a woman myself, I would evidently like to see true and full justice to women’s rights during my lifetime. But, when tackling the issue of poverty, the gravest situation is the “sexism” among countries, in the sense of prejudice and discrimination of the richest and most developed against the poorer and in need of cooperation.

This is what I thought it was about when I read the title and not the actual article. And if the letter was sent to Merkel, my expectations were highly driven towards what Germany has been doing during in the European Union these latest years to countries like Portugal, Spain and Greece. As a Portuguese citizen, I gravely feel that my country has no weight in the European meetings and negotiations. But if we are part of the Union, which would fundamentally mean cooperation, instead of a patronizing country ruling over the ones reportedly presenting bad behavior. We are not ill behaved. We just move at a different speed.

This also makes the case for the discrepancies between Sierra Leone and Switzerland, and dozens more situations alike. The letter was a wonderful and partly wasted opportunity to bring the world’s attention to an even bigger scourge.