Tom Barnett flags this WaPo article (from August) about the ways in which women’s emergence in the workforce is challenging traditional gender roles and family structures. As Barnett puts it:
Another area where the hidden costs of “The Rise of the Rest” have yet to be calculated into the emerging redistribution of global power and influence. I’ve already discussed the ways in which America has a head start on the kind of multicultural society globalization will ultimately select for. China, for instance, has got tons of hard and soft power expenditures in store regarding Tibet and the Uighur self-determination movement in Xinjiang.
But the turbulence that the emancipation of women is likely to create will generate enormous amounts of friction in the development process of the emerging powers. I’d argue that inasmuch as Islamic terrorism is a response to Westernization, a good part of it has to do with the role of women in a modern society.
Obviously we’ve still got a lot of ground to cover on both of these scores ourselves, but like I said, we’ve got a head start.