Put THIS in your van and drive.

UNLESS YOU LIVE in a cave, you've heard that our dependence on oil has serious implications for the environment, national security, and the economy. But now we can add one more big issue: gender equality. Backed up by four decades of data from around the world, a political scientist is making the case that the value of a country's oil production -- and, by extension, our own consumption of oil -- undermines progress for women, especially in developing countries. His theory goes like this: The value of a country's oil production boosts the value of a country's currency, which shifts the country's economy toward imports and local goods and services and away from low-wage export-oriented sectors that are more likely to draw women into the workforce. Without a lot of working women, it is more difficult for women to expand their role outside of the family and mobilize against patriarchal institutions. And, he argues, the effect of Islam is small compared with the effect of oil.

Ross, M., "Oil, Islam, and Women," American Political Science Review (February 2008).