Women bear a disproportionate burden of the world’s poverty. Statistics indicate that women are more likely than men to be poor and at risk of hunger because of the systematic discrimination they face in education, health care, employment and control of assets.
Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread violations of human rights. It can include physical, sexual, psychological and economic abuse, and it cuts across boundaries of age, race, culture, wealth and geography. It takes place in the home, on the streets, in schools, the workplace, in farm fields, refugee camps, during conflicts and crises.
Globally, women now account for half of all infections. Yet women increasingly make up the majority in sub-Saharan Africa, where the epidemic has stretched the furthest. In parts of Africa and the Caribbean, young women ages 15–24 are up to six times more likely to be HIV-positive than young men of the same age. The proportions of women living with HIV in Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe are also growing slowly.
Studies show higher numbers of women in parliament generally contribute to stronger attention to women’s issues. Women’s political participation is a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality and genuine democracy. It facilitates women’s direct engagement in public decision-making and is a means of ensuring better accountability to women.
The changing nature of conflict in recent decades has altered the way it affects men and women. While women remain a minority of combatants and perpetrators of war, they increasingly suffer the greatest harm. In contemporary conflicts, more than 70 percent of casualties have been civilians — most of them women and children.
Across the globe, women confront manifold violations of their human rights — when they cannot participate in the decisions that affect their lives or claim fair political representation, when they face discrimination in employment, when they are denied entitlement to land and property, or when they suffer violence within their own home.
