As feminism reshaped western society through out the decades, the traditional patriarchal system that shaped our culture started to change. As access to education and careers became more balanced between the genders, women could at last look at real alternative to their traditional rolls of mother and wife.
This paradigm shift really kicked off in the late sixties as the pill became more available. For a women to take control of her own fertility meant that she could choose when she wanted to become a mother. By reducing the risk of unwanted pregnancy a women could continue to study beyond high school or focus on a longterm career.

The result of this revolution was to reshape forever the relationship between the sexes. In our progressive western society with its European concepts of democracy and human rights a women is free to choose how she will live her life. And increasingly many are choosing to remain single and in some cases childless. We are truly blessed to live in a tolerant loving society where women are equally valued. Because of the evolution of the gender divide in the west, the institution of marriage is changing as well. Up until the sixties a women may have looked at marriage as a form of financial security, the man would go out to work and she would stay at home and raise the children often she tolerate abuse or violence by her husband because she felt she had nowhere else to go. With the expansion of the welfare system in the seventies along with no fault divorce, a women no longer had to put up with violent husbands. With expanding education and career opportunities she no longer had to look at marriage in a material sense. She could forgo marriage and focus on her education or career, By doing so she could if wanted to, marry a man out of love, not just financial security. In this new kind of relation ship, her husband was not her subordinate, she was his equal.

The result is that for most women these days the premise of marriage is not solely focussed on what the man can provide. If the women entering into the relationship is already employed she will not be concerned with material wealth as she would be without employment. This kind of gender cohesion is a product of the enlightened western view of the role of the sexes.
In the backward misogynistic society that makes up most of the developing world such views are considered dangerous.

Marriage for many cultures in the developing world is a business transaction, a women is forced to bring her fertility to the table in exchange for an authoritative form welfare. In these circumstances marriages are normally forced by the families. With a women's sexuality regarded as currency in these cultures, there is a strong sense of materialism that permeates.
There is a perception by families that girls are a financial burden because they are non earners. The reason they are non earners is because their society restricts their role to that of mother and wife.

As the enlightened compassionate views of the West continue to infiltrate the backward cultures of the developing world, the message is getting heard. The problem is that is being interpreted in the wrong way. As more people in the West become disillusioned by our materialist society, people are turning to other forms of enlightenment, be it spiritual, or communal as in volunteering in a non profit capacity.
While our our generous welfare and education system has given most of us the luxury of being able to question our system objectively, the same can't be said for those in the developing world.

With welfare non existent and education a rarity, getting out of poverty is often the number one goal. For a women that often means marrying an abusive man. Regardless of gender most in the developing world look to the west with envy, while the men in particular will argue against gender equality they embrace the capitalistic rewards of the West. To do this they will often leave their families behind for a life of wealth in the west. Those who do make it to our shores will then pull out all stops to try and get that wealth, whether that means marrying a Western women or turning to a life of hustling and crime he will stop at nothing to get all the trappings of the western life, be it high end sneakers, gold chains, fast cars, the latest cell phones, laptops and other gadgets. While he immerses himself he discovers that after he is granted citizenship he can expect the government to provide for him as well.

While not all who come to our shores take on this materialistic fervour, its hard not to notice the differences in Western and non Western culture when it comes to the cravings for wealth. Why is that when they show the boxing day sales on the news, nearly all the customers are Chinese ? You know that they will by up the stock and resell it at inflated prices while the rest of us are content to relax at the beach or park.

Whats really hypocritical is the view they hold of the west, they want our wealth and they are bitter at the fact that our work ethic is not as strong as theirs. Its as if by choosing to focus on things other than chasing the mighty dollar, that we should hand over our money to them as well as well as our jobs. This is already happening as the 457 takes jobs away from us. While our government sells us out and pushes the line that wealth is the number one goal of democracy, the rest of us turn away in droves. We realise the government is just as bad.