One of my passions is travel and I have had the good fortune to spend a lot of time seeing the world and meeting with all kinds of people. What has always stood out in my travel has been the delta between men and women in terms of social, political and economic status. In many agricultural societies women are often working the fields and feeding the families though when you look at positions of power in business or government, they are seriously underrepresented. Of course, I can also look in my own backyard here in France and see a problems with women being properly represented in business and government, even though France does have a woman as one of the leading candidates for president though I would consider Segolene Royal as the exception that proves the rule. Back in the US, while the situation is improving, representation in government still lacks what one finds in Scandinavia who are about 50/50 men and women.
The Independent lists a few things to consider on this day, reminding us of how far we have to go.
Figures compiled by the British government, development agencies and human rights groups resemble a roll call of shame:
* Two-thirds of the world's 800 million illiterate adults are women as girls are not seen as worth the investment, or are busy collecting water or firewood or doing other domestic chores.
* Two million girls aged from five to 15 join the commercial sex market every year.
* Domestic violence kills and injures more people in the developing world than war, cancer or traffic accidents.
* Seventy per cent of the world's poorest people are women.
* Violence against women causes more deaths and disabilities among women aged 15 to 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents or war.
* Women produce half the world's food, but own less than two per cent of the land.
* Of the more than one billion people living in extreme poverty, 70 per cent are women.
