Double posting and thread necromancy are totally fine here with new things to contribute.
I'm also frustrated about that. The "Atlas of Women" book covers a lot of ground in showing just how worse women have it outside Western Europe, Australia, the US & Canada, and much of that relates to conditions like clean drinking water or contraceptive availability. Much more relates to economic exploitation in the name of free trade, and noble ideas about free market development that fail to materialize as MNEs move in and social programs are cut as part of government budget restructuring. I've realized that there are tons of implicit justifications for this. "The West invented the modern world, so it's been on top longer," or outright racism, or cultural superiority, etc. enable a disconnect in properly acknowledging and humanizing other people. I do argue that a lot of culture around the world (and in the US) is counter-productive, like certain ignorant traditions. But the correct action isn't to exploit the culture's adherents and justify it with apparent superiority (like exploiting a clearly unethical tax loophole because "that makes the government fix it, eventually"). The correct action is to educate, develop, and assist.
Feminists have to buck economic systems, religions, cultures, and social traditions, and feminists are increasingly working towards international identification and cooperation. Learning about this and observing it is giving me an even clearer idea of how divided humanity is, and how these divisions are rationalized for all kinds of questionable actions. It's no surprise that feminists are appealing to nascent international law and treaties (like the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women).
Anyway, yeah, Penguin publishes other Atlas books like that, including one called the "State of the World". I imagine they also have fantastic graphs and data on literacy, access to water, crime, etc. internationally, and perhaps they should be required reading at certain levels of education. (Carefully taught, of course, so that students don't assume, "we have it better because we're superior"; even though that may be true in some historical meritorious regards, it's a slippery slope).
It really is distressing how imperialism has been so badly misused. For the record, I'd really love for a civilization based on merit like the US to be able to export its ideas of individual freedoms abroad, and use them to assist other developing peoples. Unfortunately, that's just not what happens, especially today. It's a tragedy that America's potential for being a city on a hill—a place of merit and open discussion on humanity—is so tarnished by politics of fear, the wrong kind of elitism (yes, there is a right kind of elitism), and prejudices from many sources. When America's best citizens celebrate its ideals, and when America's worst subsequently twist, distort, and co-opt them for damnable ends, movements like Islamic fundamentalists find it that much easier to criticize the US and mobilize traditionalists.
