The Sequence of Success: Helping Women & Girls Achieve Their Aspirations – A Proven Formula

A pro-family panel met to discuss the Sequence of Success, a life plan that has statistically proven to all-but guarantee that those women who follow it will not experience a lifetime of poverty.  Other similar issues were addressed as well, including the mutual influence of fathers and daughters on each other and the inequality of the gender ratio of births due to sex-based abortions and resulting in a world community that is predominantly male.

Sponsored by United Families International and The Leadership Foundation, the session The Sequence of Success: Helping Women & Girls Achieve Their Aspirations – A Proven Formula, focused on the three progressive stages (education, marriage, children) through which women should plan their lives. 

The first two speakers, Laura Bunker, President of United Families International Marcia Barlow, Vice-President for International Programs for United Families International provided both statistical and anecdotal evidence to demonstrate that female youth should be taught to first get an education, then get married, and finally have a baby.  It was argued that teaching girls to follow this path would result in lower rates of teenage pregnancy than sex education, contraceptive use, and abortion.  Bunker introduced and outlined the Sequence of Success while Barlow supported it with statistical evidence from the past decades.

Candice Merrill a student from Brigham Young University spoke on the need to provide equal opportunities for all girls, including from the time of conception.  As a result of increased technological capacity through ultrasounds and abortions, female infanticide has increased from 5% to its current range of 35-45%, resulting in the abortion of 160 females, which is equivalent of getting rid of all the women in the United States.  Merrill also discussed the phenomenon of “bare branches,” which results of a gender imbalance between adult men than available women.  Men who have no opportunities to create a family suffer negative repercussions, including low socio-economic status, lack of connection to their community, more violent tendencies, and the creation of a bachelor subculture.  Merrill also highlighted the link between abortions and breast cancer.  Full term pregnancies and breast-feeding substantially lowers women’s risk for breast cancer.  Merrill closed her presentation by stating that feminism should also support the belief in unborn sisters having a chance at life.

Tim Rarick, a Brigham Young University professor in Marriage and Family Studies and Child Development, presented during the last portion of the panel.  Focusing on the impact of fathers on daughters, Rarick referenced researchers, his own experiences as a father, and pop culture icons from Emma Watson to Katy Perry to Barack Obama.  Using both anecdotal and empirical evidence, Rarick argued that children in homes with their biological father have greater success in virtually every aspect of their lives, from school to future relationships.  The inverse is also true, in that children who grow up without their biological father, or any positive male role model, have greater chances of experiencing poverty, violence, drug or alcohol abuse, or crime.  Rarick concluded his presentation by citing David Popenoe, who argues to re-establish marriage as a priority in the policies of employers, social work, education, and government.