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
You are invited to participate in updating and improving this challenge. Please
click here
for the online suvey form.
Millennium Project Homepage