Women as Agents of Geopolitical Change

Quote: Global Trends 2025 - A Transformed World (pdf), report published on November 20, 2008 by the United States’ National Intelligence Council (NIC).

The international system — as constructed following the Second World War — will be almost unrecognizable by 2025 owing to the rise of emerging powers, a globalizing economy, an historic transfer of relative wealth and economic power from West to East, and the growing influence of nonstate actors.

By 2025, the international system will be a global multipolar one with gaps in national power continuing to narrow between developed and developing countries. Concurrent with the shift in power among nation-states, the relative power of various nonstate actors — including businesses, tribes, religious organizations, and criminal networks — is increasing.

The players are changing, but so too are the scope and breadth of transnational issues important for continued global prosperity. Aging populations in the developed world; growing energy, food, and water constraints; and worries about climate change will limit and diminish what will still be an historically unprecedented age of prosperity.

The influence of Women:

Economic and political empowerment of women could transform the global landscape over the next 20 years. This trend already is evident in the area of economics: The explosion in global economic productivity in recent years has been driven as much by fostering human resources — particularly through improvements in health, education, and employment opportunities for women and girls — as by technological advances. [...]

Women in much of Asia and Latin America are achieving higher levels of education than men, a trend that is particularly significant in a human capital-intensive global economy.[...]

Although data on women’s political involvement are less conclusive than those regarding economic participation, political empowerment of women appears to change governmental priorities. Examples as disparate as Sweden and Rwanda indicate that countries with relatively large numbers of politically active women place greater importance on societal issues such as healthcare, the environment, and economic development.[...]