Gender Equity

According to CBC News ,Oxfam has discovered that the Indian Ocean tsunami may have killed up to four times as many women as men:

Oxfam's report, due to be officially released Saturday, says up to 80 per cent of the people killed in some villages were women, primarily because men were either working inland or fishing far enough offshore to be safe when the series of waves hit.

It also says men were more likely to be able to swim, climb trees and hold on to poles and building beams when the powerful surge washed over them.

Anecdotal reports from the disaster have indicated that scores of women were swept away because they were holding on to children or lost their grip on trees and poles.

Lorenzo Berardinetti, call your office.