Improving the status of women is critical to achieving sustainable development. The ICPD Programme of Action advocates programmes and policies that increase women's participation in government, promote education for girls, and increase employment opportunities for women, among other actions.

More women are in power
Roughly 80 percent of countries have seen an increase in the share of parliamentary seats held by women,¹ but women still remain far underrepresented in these decisionmaking bodies.

To create gender equality, women must be part of the decisionmaking process. Most countries now allow women to vote and be elected to national office, but few truly enable women to exercise these rights.² In 2003, only 15 percent of national parliamentary seats were held by women.

Leaders here, with rates of 30 to 45 percent, were countries in northern and western Europe , along with Argentina , Costa Rica and Cuba . The United States , United Kingdom and Japan trail the industrialised world with less than 18 percent. Most countries in Africa and western and south-central Asia have very few women in their national governing bodies.

More girls are in school
Much of the world reports significant progress since 1994 toward gender parity in secondary-school enrolment. But as the new millennium began, an estimated 104 million school-age children, nearly 60 percent of them girls, were not attending school.³

Education is both a catalyst for and an indicator of gender equality, so it provides a unique perspective on women's status. It boosts women's personal and social well-being. It opens doors to better jobs, which benefits the national labour supply and social and economic development.⁴ Every year of education reduces the likelihood that a girl will bear a child in her teens or live in poverty.

Malawi , Bangladesh , Gambia , Thailand , Togo and Bolivia have boosted girls' secondary school enrolment rates by more than 10 percent annually since ICPD. But large gender gaps remain in western Africa and southeast Asia.

In countries with strong patriarchal traditions, as in north Africa and most of Asia , sons get greater preference. Young women in many societies are still expected to drop out of school and take care of siblings or ailing family members, especially in countries ravaged by HIV/AIDS. Other obstacles to girls' enrolment include armed conflicts; poverty; conservative educational systems; and high rates of gender-based violence, especially in schools.⁵ In one study of women who were raped in childhood, one-third reported that the perpetrator was a school teacher.⁶

More women are in the workforce
Women's presence in the formal workforce has increased worldwide, but women still have far fewer opportunities than men to earn decent wages.⁷

Among countries where data are available, women's share of non-agricultural work ranges from 40 to 49 percent. Only about half these countries have seen increases since 1994; in some countries in central Europe and sub-Saharan Africa , women's share has actually declined.

Women in six former Soviet states and Honduras enjoy the highest shares of non-agricultural work, from 50 to 63 percent. The lowest shares (less than 20 percent) were in the Middle East , Africa , and south-central and western Asia .

The non-agricultural sector is expanding worldwide, and tends to put money directly into women's hands. The pay is also generally higher than for self-employment. But the data are often out of date and scarce, especially measurements over time. This tally also does not capture other important indicators of women's relative economic status: income comparisons, workload (paid employment may double it), unemployment rates, types of job or job security levels. Many women also participate in informal, part-time or seasonal work, which does not always yield conventional or recorded wages.⁸

> Next section: Meeting health needs

1. C. Grown and others, Promises to Keep: Achieving Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, Background Paper of the Task Force on Education and Gender Equality (New York: The Millennium Project, April 2003). The 80 percent figure refers to increases in the last decade.

2. The World Bank, “Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women”, Millennium Development Goals, http://www.developmentgoals.org/Gender_Equality.htm (accessed 29 April 2004 )

3. United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2003/04: Gender and Equality for All; The Leap to Equality, Summary Report ( Paris : UNESCO, 2003).

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. R. Jewkes and others, “Risk Factors for Domestic Violence: Findings From a South African Cross-Study”, Social Science and Medicine 55, no. 9: 1603-1617, quoted in UNESCO, Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2003/04: Gender and Education for All; The Leap to Equality, Summary Report (Paris: UNESCO, 2003).

7. The World Bank, Millennium Development Goals.

8. C. Grown and others, Promises to Keep.