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GIRLS & WOMEN
9 key issues affecting girls and women around the world
This stuff matters to men, as well.
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Flickr: sandeepachetan
By Hans Glick
JUNE 4, 2015
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t always “get” the women in my life quite like I do my male friends and
relatives—just ask my girlfriend, who is probably convinced I was raised by a pack of wolves considering
how oblivious I am half the time.
(In my defense, there are about a million articles out there attempting to decode what girls "really
mean," so there's no way I'm alone in this.)
To be perfectly honest, you could probably say the same about my grasp on issues relating to girls and
women in international development. This is a problem seeing as the theme of the month here at Global
Citizen is supporting girls and women around the world.
In an effort to remedy my glaring cluelessness in time for Girls & Women Month, I consulted my more
knowledgeable colleagues and combed the Web to put together this list of 9 key issues affecting girls
and women worldwide. Whether you’re new to the topic or a veteran advocate, this cheat sheet should
help clarify what we mean when we talk about something as broad as girls’ and women’s issues.
1. Access to Education
9-key-issues-affecting-girls-and-women-around-the-BODY-1.jpg
Flickr: UNAMID, Photo by Albert González Farran
A 2013 report by UNESCO found that 31 million girls of primary school age were not in school, and about
one out of every four young women in developing countries had never completed their primary school
education. That number represents a huge pool of untapped girl power: that same report suggests that
educated women are more likely to get married later, survive childbirth, raise healthy kids, find work,
and earn more money, among other positives.
2. Employment Opportunities
Flickr: Andrea Moroni
Even in a country as wealthy and developed as the US, women still experience major inequality in the
workforce: By some estimates, women earn only $0.77 for every $1 earned by men. Globally, the gender
gap is even wider: women earn only one tenth of the world’s income despite working two thirds of the
total work hours . Empowering women to earn their fair share could benefit their entire communities in
a big way: women are likely to invest more of their money back into their families and communities than
men typically do .
3. Reproductive Health & Rights

Flickr: UNICEF Ethiopia
225 million women in developing countries have an unmet need for family planning, contributing to 74
million unplanned pregnancies and 36 million abortions every year, according to figures cited by Women
Deliver, a women’s advocacy group . Helping women take charge of their baby-making reduces unsafe
abortions and maternal deaths by over 70% each, and conserves precious resources that would
otherwise have gone toward pregnancy-related costs.
4. Maternal Health
Flickr: UK Department for International Development
The World Health Organization estimates that 800 women die every day from preventable, pregnancy-
related causes. That’s nearly 300,000 lives per year needlessly lost during what is fundamentally a life-
creating event. What more is there to say?
5. Gender-based Violence
Flickr: UN Women Asia & the Pacific, Photo by Ashutosh Negi
1 in 3 women experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes, according to WHO. Whether it’s
domestic abuse, rape, or sexual trafficking, gender-based violence denies far too many women the
opportunity to live happy, healthy, and fulfilling lives.
6. Child Marriage
Flickr: UNAMID, Photo by Albert González Farran
An estimated 140 million girls will become child brides between 2011 and 2020 . Girls who marry before
age 18 are typically denied an education, at risk of complications related to premature childbearing, and
more vulnerable to intimate partner violence.
7. Female Genital Mutilation
Flickr: World Bank
Female Genital Mutilation (or FGM), defined by WHO as including “procedures that intentionally alter or
cause injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons,” is a complex issue with religious and
cultural implications for the groups who practice it. That said, the general consensus in the international
community is that FGM imposes real health consequences, violates a child’s rights, and promotes
inequality between the sexes.
8. Water & Sanitation
Flickr: Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade - Photo by Kate Holt/Africa Practice
When clean drinking water and hygienic sanitation facilities are in short supply, women and girls suffer
most. Case in point: Girls whose schools lack proper bathrooms will often skip school during their
menstrual periods for fear of embarrassment or stigma. It’s also true that women in developing
countries are frequently tasked with fetching water, which can be a time-consuming process. As my
colleague Christina pointed out, the girls and women of the world have much better things to do with
their time than shuttle buckets around.
9. Gender Equality
Flickr: UN Women Asia & the Pacific, Photo by Gaganjit Singh
Equality (or the lack thereof) is a recurring issue when it comes to women and girls, whether it’s unequal
access to schooling for girls in developing countries, or unequal pay for women in the workplace. In a
world where 95% of countries are led by a male head of state, it’s clear that we as a global community
have a long way to go before women are given a fair shake.
While the 9 issues outlined above are specific to girls and women, addressing them will positively impact
everyone—even my fellow clueless men of the world. Stay tuned to Global Citizen all month as we
explore the many ways in which a win for girls and women is a win for us all.
If you believe that girls and women everywhere deserve equal rights, and that those rights must be
protected, click the "TAKE ACTION NOW" button below to show your support by signing a petition NOW.
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In many parts of the world, women have a much harder time than men. Compared internationally, the
situation isn't as problematic in Germany, but women in many countries are still faring better.
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Women's Rights Quiz
What Country Has the Most Female Managers?
In many parts of the world, women have a much harder time than men. Compared internationally, the
situation isn't as problematic in Germany, but women in many countries are still faring better. Do you
know which ones?
Wednesday, 5/17/2017 04:01 PM
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Girls aren't allowed to go to school, they marry young and when they get pregnant, they rarely receive
prenatal care. Even in industrialized nations like Germany, women have fewer opportunities for moving
up the ladder professionally, they are paid lower wages and political and economic decisions are mostly
made by men.
That's why the United Nations (UN) placed gender equality on the list of Sustainable Development Goals
agreed to by member states in 2015 that are to be implemented by 2030. SPIEGEL ONLINE is giving close
examination to those goals as part of its "Expedition BeyondTomorrow" series.
What's the situation globally in terms of women's rights? You can test your knowledge by taking our
quiz. With each answer, you will be provided with additional information on the globe. Click on "Let's Get
Started."
Education
What does the future hold for a civil-war-torn country if the next generation hasn't even learned how to
do basic arithmetic and write? In South Sudan, only one out of three children attend primary school. A
survey conducted by UNESCO has found that girls there have few opportunities to go to school due,
among other reasons, to financial pressure, cultural conventions and early marriages.
A similarly large disparity can be found in several other African countries, including Angola and the
Central African Republic. But Afghanistan is frequently mentioned as well: Under Taliban rule, girls were
banned from going to school. The UNESCO survey doesn't include current data for the country, but
another UN organization, the children's fund UNICEF, has made clear that the level of education
attainment for Afghan girls is still markedly lower than for boys.
Political Participation
The German electoral law passed in 1918 stated that "all German men and women who have reached
the age of 20 by Election Day" can vote. The following year, 18 million women were eligible to vote in the
German federal election
In an international context, that was quite early. France introduced female suffrage on a national level in
1944, Switzerland in 1971 and Samoa in 1990. Other countries were a bit faster than the Germans,
including Russia (1917), Denmark (1915) and Finland (1906). But New Zealand was especially early,
having introduced the right for women to vote in 1893.
But do women also actively help shape policy? Most countries have male-dominated governments. Only
26 of the 175 countries examined by the WomanStats project had a reasonably gender-balanced cabinet.
In the legislative branch, women are also underrepresented. That's why the UN wants to include the
proportion of women in legislatures, among other issues, in its evaluation of sustainable development
goals.
Career Opportunities
For years, it was hard to find a woman among Norway's corporate supervisory boards. Then came the
quota: A law in place since 2008 stipulates that the boards of state-owned or publicly traded companies
must be comprised of at least 40 percent women. A survey by Credit Suisse Research also confirmed that
the gender ratio in Norwegian boardroom is, in fact, almost equal. No other country has a higher
proportion of women in its boardrooms.
There are different interpretations of how well or how poorly the quota is working. Some observers
claim that the quota has improved the working atmosphere and has also helped to break up male-
dominated structures. But in some companies, the hoped-for equalization of the sexes hasn't taken
place, because firms can change their legal entity in ways that allow them to circumvent the law.
A study by the pro-business IZA Institute of Labor Economics concluded that increasing the proportion of
women in the boardroom had little effect on other women in the company. In the companies the
institute examined, the institute did not find that women had benefited from any significant career or
salary improvements.
But precisely these kinds of improvements -- that is, below the boardroom level -- are decisive for most
women. In 54 of the 187 countries examined, the institute determined, fewer than one out of three
people working in the fields of management, academia and engineering is a woman. But in 100
countries, the gender gap is relatively equal.
Health
In its sustainable development goals, the UN calls for "women's physical integrity" to be protected. The
aim of that goal is for forced marriage, forced prostitution and the ongoing problem of female genital
mutilation to disappear from the world.
Sexual education and access to adequate health care during pregnancy are also to be guaranteed. In
many African countries, more than 500 mothers currently die per 100,000 births. In comparison, the
maternal mortality rate in most European countries is less than 10.
The road to success, it seems, will remain a very long one.
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Gender Discrimination Essay
1537 words (6 pages) Essay in Sociology
18/05/17 Sociology Reference this
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Introduction
Gender Discrimination - Woman holding out hand as stop sign
Gender inequality, or in other words, gender discrimination refers to unfair rights between male and
female based on different gender roles which leads to unequal treatment in life. The term gender
inequality has been widely known in human history but not until the beginning the 20th century has the
transformation of gender relations become “one of the most rapid, profound social changes” (Wright &
Rogers 2009).
And at the same time, the position of men and women were generally set. The growth of this situation
has been obviously seen. According to a survey in America, female’s salary at work is 75% as low as
male’s. Coming back to last century, at work, when men were paid 1 dollar, the amount that women
received was just 58 cents, in accordance with the law in 1963 (Tran 2012) . And in Vietnam, gender
inequality is shown in the difference between two genders in the number of babies. Statistics of Ministry
of Planning & Investment in 2010 reported that there were 110.6 new-born boys out of 100 new-born
girls which was much higher than in the past.
However, as a matter of fact, gender discrimination has made a big argument in society about whether
the equality among genders should be encouraged or not. Regarding to this problem, American people
seem to appreciate the position of women, meanwhile, the Chinese tend to think of higher power of
men in life (Chang n.d.)
Thus, this paper, with the purpose of reporting the current states of gender inequality, its impacts as well
as the solutions to improve this trend, will give readers another look at this controversial problem.
Discussion of findings
What is gender inequality?
Gender inequality is a social problem which causes unfair treatment in society between different
genders. These dissimilarities are distinguished from biological factors, especially from differing
reproductive roles in life (Reeves & Baden 2000). This misperception comes originally from the wrong
understanding about the position of each gender in life.
Nowadays, the paradox that makes women suffer adversities and put women into unpleasant situation is
seen in every angle of life. However, the method of gender discrimination in one place differs from that
in others. For example, in workplace gender inequality accelerates when entering the job racing, not
only the dissimilar salary, inequality at work is demonstrated through the differences between genders
and the amount of money paid (Hsu 2012). In the aspect of education, in the past, men are prone to
have more chances to go to school. Young women seemed to have fewer opportunities for higher
education than young men (Dang 2008, p.25)
Regarding to the reasons and the origin of gender inequality, it can be seen that Asia would be the place
where gender discrimination has seemed to be a “tradition”. According to the General office for
population family planning, the idea of distinguishing men from women came from the impacts of
Confucianism and the awareness of people about life. Men were thought to have a duty of continuing
the ancestral line. In that society, not having a son meant to be disrespectful towards the ancestor. Going
on with this wrong conception, women are more likely to lose the role in community (Nguyen n.d.)
How gender inequality affects lives?
Initially, gender inequality has effects on the scale of population. According to statistics of the General
office for population family planning (Nguyen n.d.), because of the discrimination of genders, the
number of new-born boys and girls is unequal. To some people, the hope to have a son loses the balance
between two genders. Unfortunately, this situation has occurred for such a long time, so the impacts of
it in the population are rather huge. As report of Ministry of public health, it is estimated that, despite
the attempt to reduce the fluctuation between the birth of boys and girls, in 2020 there will be 4.3
million men more than women. Minister of ministry of public health statement (cited in Phuong 2012),
said that if this trend still keeps on going, it will lead to quite a few consequences in security and the
order of society before marriage age of children because there will lack brides resulting from out-
numbered new-born boys from girls. Now we can see an obvious consequence among the Chinese.
According to a Blue Paper on Society released by the China Academy of Social Science, there will run
short of brides in ten years because of severe gender imbalance among young people, particularly
among under 19-aged people (Tang 2010).
Secondly, the discrimination of genders leads to some problems in education. Education is an important
tool, is the key to the growth of human. And no matter what gender a person is, he has right to expose
to education like others. Chaudhry & Rahman (2009 p.175), reported that “there are many empirical
evidences that, increase in female education improves human development outcomes such as child
survival, health and schooling”. However, “lower female education had a negative impact on economic
growth as it lowered the average level of human capital” (Klasen 2002, cited in Chaudhry & Rahman
2009, p.175). World Bank in 2001 stated that in almost all poor countries, there is a high trend of
educational impacts of gender inequality. In poverty, girls are more likely to be influenced to approach
education.
Finally, economy is the field that is consequently affected, because there is a link between education and
economy. The impact of gender inequality on economy is found through the number of male and female
students in primary and secondary school which is negative (Barro and Lee (1994) and Barro and Sala-i-
Martin (1995), cited Stephan Klasen 1999, p.4). And they claimed that “a large gap in male and female
schooling may signify backwardness and may therefore be associated with lower economic
growth”( Barro and Lee (1994) and Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1995)). And let’s take China- a country which
is famous for strong gender imbalance all over the world- as an example of modeling the impact of
gender imbalances on economic performance (Golley &Tyers 2012). As mentioned earlier, China is facing
a lack of brides 10 years to go and this trend leads to the problems of women purchasing crime.
Especially men in poor provinces now are exposing to “marriage market” and this situation makes “the
black market of “selling wife”” on the rise, said the deputy director of the China Population Association-
Tian Xueyuan (cited Tang 2010). Another economic impact of gender discrimination is unequal wages
among male and female. According to Yang Juhua, a professor with Renmin University, the wages of
women is much lower than men’s despite the same level of position (cited Tang 2010). Tang also
mentioned the chances to get a job of women are smaller and there is more likelihood of being refused
on applying for jobs.
How to solve this problem?
Ninety-three years ago, people in some places in the world first officially celebrated the International
women’s day. In ninety three years, there have been a lot of changes made in terms of changing
attitudes of people about the inequality of genders. Nowadays we are living in a developed world which
is contributed by both men and female so why female have to suffer such that inequality which they
don’t deserve to?
Generally speaking, this kind of inequality has existed for a long time and in every area of the world, no
matter where it is (Chang n.d.). Now it’s time for the world together make this out-of-date conception
fade away. To some extent, the Nobel Committee stated that we cannot reach democracy and peace
unless we wouldn’t give equal rights and chances for women have. For the sake of making economic
recovery, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed that promoting women to participate in economy
and increasing their productivity is the key to economic growth because it will create an effect on “the
competitiveness and growth of our economies.” (cited Sharma & Keefe 2011).
In the relationship between economy and education, people cannot underestimate the importance of
education. To flourish the economy system, people have to make an effort on schooling. Regarding to the
solutions to this, setting up gender-sensitive schools is a crucial step in making a nice environment for
learning and teaching. Helping female feel more confident in studying, improving a gender-sensitive
curriculum which reflects national policy on gender equality to instruct is also necessary (Clarke 2005,
p.11)
Conclusion
From all the discussing above, gender inequality is obviously an urgent problem in the world. Despite the
fact that its volume much decreases, it still exists and makes a lot of people suffer its consequences
every day. And there are many reasons leading to gender discrimination which cannot be solved easily.
However, with education and progressive thoughts of people, there are also reasons to trust in the
future of gender inequality being stopped. Then, hopefully, people can live in fairness no matter what
gender they are.
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GIRLS & WOMEN

9 key issues affecting girls and women around the world

This stuff matters to men, as well.

Flickr: UNAMID, Photo by Albert González Farran

Flickr: Andrea Moroni

3. Reproductive Health & Rights

Flickr: UNICEF Ethiopia

Flickr: UK Department for International Development

Flickr: UN Women Asia & the Pacific, Photo by Ashutosh Negi

Flickr: UNAMID, Photo by Albert González Farran

7. Female Genital Mutilation

Flickr: World Bank

8. Water & Sanitation

Flickr: UN Women Asia & the Pacific, Photo by Gaganjit Singh

Women and Girls

Girls & Women Month

Receive alerts about the world's biggest challenges.

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GIRLS & WOMEN

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By: Brandon Blackburn-Dwyer

GIRLS & WOMEN

Girls & Women: The key to ending poverty

By: Amy Freeland

GIRLS & WOMEN

By: Brandon Blackburn-Dwyer

GIRLS & WOMEN

Supporting Girls and Women to create a better world

By: Brandon Blackburn-Dwyer

GIRLS & WOMEN

Girls & Women: The key to ending poverty

By: Amy Freeland

GIRLS & WOMEN

By: Brandon Blackburn-Dwyer

GIRLS & WOMEN

Supporting Girls and Women to create a better world

By: Brandon Blackburn-Dwyer

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

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© 2012-2019 Global Poverty Project, Inc All Rights Reserved

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Spiegel Online GmbH

Women's Rights Quiz

What Country Has the Most Female Managers?

The road to success, it seems, will remain a very long one.

Gender Discrimination Essay

1537 words (6 pages) Essay in Sociology

18/05/17 Sociology Reference this

Gender Discrimination - Woman holding out hand as stop sign

What is gender inequality?

How gender inequality affects lives?