User:Amraamir9/sandbox

Article Revision: Women in Mali

The article, Women in Mali, needs to be revised to call attention to the reality of Malian women’s lives. It is relevant as it provides insight into women's experiences in a Muslim-majority nation. In most cases, the representation of women in such countries is scarce. Therefore, information regarding their standing in society must be available to the public via resources like Wikipedia so future change-makers are equipped with the relevant information to help.

However, the article is underdeveloped. For example, prominent sections like education, marriage, and healthcare have a maximum of 7 sentences, most having 3 to 5. This trend is also visible in sections like Women’s Pressure Groups and Women in Politics and the subheading, Contemporary Slavery. Additionally, the talk page has one comment. The edit history shows there are no consistent editors. The majority of the article will need to be upscaled. This upscale will include improved formatting of the current outline, adding information to several sections, and revising references to include more recent information.

Planned revisions

1. Lead: This section will be expanded to include more details about the information presented in the article. At the moment, the lead does not inform the reader about the crucial details of the article: the gender disparities in Mali. Instead, there is a brief, one-sentence overview of the Malian women’s contemporary problems, which I believe discredits their experiences.
2. History: This section will include information about Malian women throughout history. It would contain political milestones like their activism after World War II, the election of their first female Prime Minister, and more women becoming involved in government.
3. Education: This section will include information about women’s access to education in addition to their literacy rates. It will also provide cultural and social context for gender disparities in education. I will also include information about the school curriculum that harms women’s opportunities to succeed in the classroom. I would also put information about how Malian education for women has progressed/if it has advanced in recent years.
   1. Poverty: This title will be a subheading under education. It will elaborate on how poverty impacts women and harms their access to education. For example, I would include information about how women are treated as objects to buy and sell in Mali and how nearly half of the female population is married off before their 18th birthday. They become wives, made to take care of children before they can complete their education if they have any.

1. Sexual harassment: This title will also be a subheading under education. It will include information from studies; for example, one that shows 94% of women in the school where they conducted their investigation were abused, 52.4% being cases of sexual violence. The goal is to display its prevalence so readers can see the reality of Malian women’s struggles to receive a proper education.
2. Employment: This section will highlight the gender disparities in career opportunities. It will also list the most common jobs for Malian women. Much of this section's information will overlap with the education section regarding obstacles to access and opportunity. It will also follow suit in showing the progression in women’s employment throughout history.
3. Health Care: This section will include statistics that highlight the gender disparities in health care, such as the data that displays the high mortality rate for mothers and infants in Mali. It will also showcase the causes, such as Mali's patriarchal system that prioritizes men over women.
4. Marriage: The marriage section will include the social and cultural expectations of married women in Mali, how they are married off very young and encouraged to participate in household work rather than seeking an education.
   1. Child Marriage: I want to move the information in the current first paragraph to a section and expand it. I would like to include more information about the effects of child marriage on women’s opportunities in Mali.

1. Family Law: I am not entirely sure what I will add to this section, but as I continue reading about Mali, I will revise it as I see fit.
2. Contemporary Slavery: I am not sure how to go about adding to this section, as there has been limited information (from my research so far) about the contemporary slavery of women in Mali. However, as I continue reading about Mali, I will revise this section as I see fit.
3. Women’s Pressure Groups: In this section, I would like to add more information about the different groups mentioned in the existing article. I also want to add dates corresponding with the noted groups so there will be a rough timeline of how their influence progressed. I will be taking the information from each group’s site.
4. Women in Politics: In my current research, I have yet to find more Malian political female figures to include in this section. However, as I find more women in politics, I will surely add them.

Annotated bibliography:

 Burrill, Emily. States of Marriage : Gender, Justice, and Rights in Colonial Mali / Emily S. Burrill. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2015. (This is concerned with the history of Mali)

 Bingen, R. James., David Robinson, and John M. Staatz. Democracy and Development in Mali / Editors, R. James Bingen, David Robinson, John M. Staatz. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2000. (This is concerned with the history of Mali)

Bleck, Jaimie. Education and Empowered Citizenship in Mali / Jaimie Bleck. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015. (This is concerned with education in Mali)

 Johnson, Cathryn Evangeline. “What Women Want: Livelihood Pursuits and the Prioritization of Health in Rural Mali and Burkina Faso.” Politics, groups & identities ahead-of-print, no. ahead-of-print (2022): 1–18. (This is concerned with education in Mali)

 Solati, Fariba. “Measuring Patriarchy: The Determinants of Patriarchy in the Middle East and North Africa.” In Women, Work, and Patriarchy in the Middle East and North Africa, 65–102. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG, 2017. (This is concerned with education in Mali)

Lamiaux, Mathieu., François. Rouzaud, and Wendy. Woods. Private Health Sector Assessment in Mali :  the Post-Bamako Reality / Mathieu Lamiaux, Francois Rouzaud, Wendy Woods. Washington, DC: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank, 2011. (This is concerned with health care in Mali)

Gray, Clive S. Primary Health Care in Africa : a Study of the Mali Rural Health Project / by Clive Gray ... [and Others]. Boulder, Colo: Westview Press, 1990. (This is concerned with health care in Mali)

Mali Women in Culture, Business, & Travel / World Trade Press. 2nd ed. Petaluma, Calif: World Trade Press, 2010. (This is concerned with marriage of women in Mali)

Engebretsen, Sarah, Mouhamadou Gueye, Andrea J. Melnikas, Sékou Fofana, Bourama Fané, and Sajeda Amin. “Adolescent Girls’ Migration and Its Impact on Early Marriage: Qualitative Findings in Mali.” PloS one 15, no. 3 (2020): e0230370–e0230370. (This is concerned with marriage of women in Mali)

Whitehouse, Bruce. Enduring Polygamy : Plural Marriage and Social Change in an African Metropolis / Bruce Whitehouse. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2023. (This is concerned with marriage of women in Mali)

 Johnson, Cathryn Evangeline. “Connecting Malian and Burkinabe Women’s Local Experiences of Livelihood Security to How They Participate in Politics.” World development 137 (2021): 105157–. (This is concerned with women's pressure groups in Mali)

“Mali.” Africa. Accessed October 1, 2023. https://africa.unwomen.org/en/where-we-are/west-and-central-africa/mali. (This is concerned with women's pressure groups in Mali)

 “Women Activists in Mali.” In Women’s Activism and Globalization, 176–190. Routledge, 2002. (This is concerned with women's pressure groups in Mali)