In this episode of Body & State, Sarah sits down with political scientist and Texas A&M professor Valerie Hudson to discuss how the treatment of women in a society shapes the success of a nation. Hudson says a light bulb went on when she was having lunch with one of Afghanistan’s first female members of parliament. Hudson remarked how much progress women had made in Afghanistan. But the female minister responded that her husband could divorce her by simply saying, “I divorce you” three times. She would lose custody of her children and have nowhere to live. Hudson realized that the signs of women’s empowerment – like education and political participation – failed to capture the depths of sexual hierarchy. She has spent the last decade devising a theory to explain how it has persisted.

Watch our PBS NewsHour segment about the pronatalism movement and its ties to anti-abortion activism 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-look-inside-the-pronatalism-movement-encouraging-americans-to-have-more-children

Learn:

Women’s Stats Project: https://www.womanstats.org/

Read Valerie Hudson’s research and books: 

Sex and World Peace

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/sex-and-world-peace/9780231131827/

The Hillary Doctrine: Sex and American Foreign Policy

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-hillary-doctrine-sex-and-american-foreign-policy-patricia-leidl/31320ea405d3cc46?ean=9780231164924&next=t&next=t

The First Political Order: How Sex Shapes Governance and National Security Worldwide

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-first-political-order-how-sex-shapes-governance-and-national-security-worldwide-donna-lee-bowen/5350ad9efe073a1b?ean=9780231194662&next=t&next=t