![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.cipe.org\/cartoon\/2011\/images\/winners\/gender3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The World Bank this week issued its so-called flagship report, The World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development.<\/a><\/em> The report proclaims that \u201cgender equality is at the heart of development.\u201d It goes on to suggest that progress has been made, but it\u2019s spotty or mixed \u2026 or \u201csticky<\/a>\u201d. Sticky? In almost 400 pages, that word, \u201csticky\u201d, is the only surprise.<\/p>\n According to the report, for the past 25 years, women have been ascending \u2026 with some exceptions. Here are just some of the exceptions to the rule of women\u2019s improvements.<\/p>\n There are more schools and more students in schools, but the excluded, the ones who never get formal education or receive very little, are still overwhelmingly girls. Globally, more women have entered the formal labor market, but women still make up the vast majority of low-wage job holders. The pay gap between women and men continues, and in some cases widens.<\/p>\n According to the report, \u201cculture\u201d is still a hard nut to crack. Household culture, faith based culture, community culture, you name it. In rich countries and poor, women are still at risk of domestic violence, by commission and omission. Women are under attack, and the State too often refuses to do anything.<\/p>\n In fact, \u201cculture\u201d and \u201ceconomy\u201d have merged \u2026 to the detriment of women. In countries with \u201cshining\u201d economic growth, such as India and China, high maternal and child mortality rates continue, as they do in the United States. Rapid income growth has led to higher levels of sex selection. Women are dying in childbirth, and girls are going \u201cmissing<\/a>\u201d. It\u2019s the price of \u201cprogress\u201d.<\/p>\n The report calls these \u201cexceptions\u201d \u201csticky\u201d. They are either \u201c`sticky\u2019 domains\u201d or \u201c`sticky\u2019 problems.\u201d The quotation marks are the World Bank\u2019s, not mine. Sticky? What does that mean? As a term, \u201csticky\u201d is never defined, although it begs, screams, for some definition. Here\u2019s how \u201c`sticky\u2019 domain\u201d is defined: \u201cImprovements in some domains of gender equality\u2014such as those related to occupational differences or participation in policy making\u2014are bound by constraints that do not shift with economic growth and development. Gender disparities endure even in high-income economies despite the large gains in women\u2019s civil and economic rights in the past century. These outcomes are the result of slow-moving institutional dynamics and deep structural factors that growth alone cannot address.\u201d<\/p>\n