Nobel Laureate, Amartya Sen in his “More than 100 Million Missing Women” has advocated the implementation of rights of women and recognition of women’s status through the estimation of statistics about high female mortality rates in the world. In this research work, firstly the differences in the ratio of women to men in different parts of the world has been shown explicitly and then the social, economic and cultural reasons behind this have been unveiled. In the paragraph 5 of part 1, the writer is claiming that the numbers obtained by calculating the ratio of women to men in Asia and Africa demonstrate the ignorance and discrimination faced by women and consequently enhance their mortality rate. In my view, this claim is not only a brief summary of this paragraph, but also works as a thesis for the whole essay.
The claim made in paragraph 5 of part 1 is well-supported by credible statistical evidence. It is mentioning that if men and women are equivalent in number in China and South-West Asia, then the missing number of women can be obtained by calculating the additional number of women. But that “would indicate a 6 percent deficit of women” (Sen 02). Again, if it is compared with the West, where the ratio of women to men is more, “real shortfall will be about 11 percent” (Sen 02). This, as a whole, encompasses the idea that more than 100 million women are needed to balance the proportion of men and women in the world. These data prove the validity of Sen’s claim that women are suffering due to excessive mortality rate.
Besides analyzing the numerical figures about the inequalities between survival rates of men and women, Sen is also providing explanations regarding the social, cultural and economic aspects for raising the status of women. The East- West divide and cultural contrasts, and the variation in stages of economic development are two plain reasons for high female mortality rate. This rate also has close connection with the lack of gainful employment, crisis in health resources and social reforms and low literacy rates for women. All of these factors directly or indirectly synthesize the claim made in paragraph 5 of part 1 about the “a terrible story of inequality and neglect leading to the excess mortality of women” (Sen 02). As the writer mentions,
“A combined cultural and economic analysis would seem to be necessary, and I will argue, it would have to take note of many other social conditions in addition to the features in simple aggregative theses”(Sen 03).
So, the low status of women being governed by multi-faceted cultural and economic features center the high mortality rates, in other words, the missing number of women in the world.
Works Cited
Sen, Amartya. “More than 100 Missing Women.” Nybooks Archives. Dec 20, 1990. Mar 31,
2013.
AUW's Interpreting Texts, Spring 2013 
Hi, thank you for your writing about the fifth paragraph because this is a paragraph which I am cofusing. What do you mean when you mention the sentence “But that would indicate a 6 percent deficit of women”. I will understand it if you give more details to explain this sentence. Thank you.
Maisha, wonderful effort!
But one confusion I am having in your claim. You said that “…the numbers obtained by calculating the ratio of women to men in Asia and Africa demonstrate the ignorance and discrimination faced by women and consequently enhance their mortality rate. In my view, this claim is not only a brief summary of this paragraph, but also works as a thesis for the whole essay.” I think this claim is too specific. Because in this article he does not only talk about “the ignorance and discrimination faced by women and consequently enhance their mortality rate”, but also the high literacy rate and economic rights of women as a sollution for the ‘missing women’ problem. So if you talk about a thesis for the whole artcle, all these mentioned issues should be included in that thesis, isn’t it?