Millennium Project
Global Challenges Facing Humanity


11. Status of Women
How can the changing status of women help improve the human condition?

The ILO reports that the share of legislative, senior official, or managerial positions held by women has grown slowly from 25.6% in 1995 to 28.3% today. Although condemnation of any form of discrimination against women is almost universal today, progress is mixed. Some 56.6% of women are employed in the cash economy. UNESCO reports that 94 girls are in primary school for every 100 boys, up from 92 in 1999. About two-thirds of the 181 countries with available data have achieved gender parity in primary education, but in secondary education, only one-third of the 177 countries with data available have achieved parity.

WHO reports that after diseases and hunger, violence against women is the greatest cause of death among women; one in five women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. Elementary and secondary school systems should stress martial arts and other forms of self-defense in physical education programs for girls. According to Plan International, childhood malnutrition has stunted development of an estimated 450 million women; 62 million primary school-aged girls are not in school; 96 million females from 15 to 24 are illiterate (almost double the number for males); unsafe abortions and birth complications are the leading causes of death for girls 15 to 19; and over 100 million girls, some as young as 12, are expected to marry over the next decade even though international treaties outlaw early marriages. About 80% of the 600,000–800,000 individuals trafficked each year are female, in the “largest slave trade in history.” Progress has been accomplished in girls’ access to education, women’s membership in parliaments, their participation in the cash economy, the use of condoms, and women’s access to medical facilities. As of May 2007, women accounted for 17.1% of parliamentary membership, compared with 16.6% in 2006. Girls’ secondary school enrollments are now about 90% of boys’ enrollments. Women earn on average two-thirds to three-fourths as much as men for the same work.

Improving the political, economic, and educational status of women is one of the most cost-effective ways to address the 14 other Global Challenges in this chapter. Since there are more women than men in universities in many countries that limit women’s professional work, the “female brain drain” could become an issue in countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia and Japan. Women can cut through cultural hierarchies via Internet access to S&T and financial information denied them in the past. Although research is lacking, diplomatic and peace-builders in the field agree that women find common ground for peaceful resolutions more easily than men.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women should be implemented, as should UN Security Council Resolution 1325, by creating national action plans as well as a UN system-wide implementation. Establishing truth and reconciliation commissions on violence against women in armed conflict would help end impunity. It should be a requirement that 30% of the board of companies with state participation consist of at least 30% of each sex.

Gender-based Gini coefficient and other gender parity indexes should be encouraged, as should women’s education for political responsibilities, fostering solidarity instead of competition, guaranteeing the legal rights of women (such as access to credit, land, technology, training, health care, and child care), and establishing women’s political and economic networking organizations. This is of particular importance to rural, migrant, refugee, internally displaced, and disabled women. Such an effort includes educating men to fully respect women and directly working with the media, which too often perpetuate harmful gender stereotypes.

Challenge 11 will be addressed seriously when there is gender parity in school enrollment, literacy, and access to capital, when discriminatory laws are gone, and when there are essentially equal numbers of men and women in parliaments and cabinets.

Regional Considerations

Africa: The percent of women in sub-Saharan African parliaments is 17.5%, above the world average. Rwanda continues to have the world’s largest percent of women in parliament (49%). In sub-Saharan Africa, one in six women is likely to die as a consequence of pregnancy, compared with 1 in 2,800 in industrial countries. The dropout rate for adolescent girls in Africa is very high. Uganda eliminated school fees to help close the educational gender gap.

Asia and Oceania: In Asia, 16.4% of national legislators are women. Intimate partner violence in Thailand is the leading cause of death for women and girls between the ages of 15 and 24. At least 60 million girls are “missing” in Asia due to the abortion of female fetuses, female infanticide, and deliberate neglect and starvation of baby girls. China funds pension plans for parents with daughters to counter male-only child preferences. Some 40% of Internet users in China are women. Arab women are the majority of students in many universities in the Middle East but only account for 8.9% of the parliaments in Arab countries.

Europe: Women account for 30.6% of legislative and management positions in the EU and 19.2% of legislators in OSCE countries (with 24% average in EU countries). Norway requires that the boards of all companies registered at its stock market consist of at least 40% of each sex. About 57% of EU women work, but average 15% less pay for equal work than men. Since few men are taking more family responsibilities, women want improved public and private infrastructures allowing mothers to continue their professional careers, yet they worry about reduced quality time for family life. About 700,000 East European women are sex slaves in Western Europe. The new EC-funded European Institute for Gender Equality should also educate men about women’s contributions to all parts of society, leading to better policies. As many as 50,000 women were raped during the war in Bosnia.

Latin America: Women account for 35% of legislative or management positions in the region. While women in Latin America and the Caribbean have seen enormous progress in the protection of their human rights over the past few years, unsafe abortion is a serious public health problem and continues to be one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in the region. Some states in Mexico now protect women who want an abortion within the first 12 weeks. Governments should change laws about rape, sexual harassment, and equal pay for women. One of the greatest challenges to the region is changing male “machismo” attitudes.

North America: Women account for 41.2% of legislative or management positions in North America. The U.S. performs particularly well on women’s educational attainment and only slightly less so on economic participation and political empowerment. However, it ranks poorly on maternity leave and related maternity benefits and child care. Canada is ranked seventh in the world by the World Economic Forum’s Women’s Empowerment measurements, while the U.S. is seventeenth. U.S. has not yet ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. State corporate boards by law in Quebec will have to be 50% female by 2012.

Graph: Women in National Parliaments (percentage)

Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union


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