WOMEN'S CONDITION

The almost daily headlines about cruel acts of violence and discrimination against women provide lots of reasons to be pessimistic about women’s equality and safety in today’s world like, for example, the kidnapping of nearly 300 school girls in Nigeria last month, to the latest stoning of a woman in Pakistan . The World Health Organization estimates that 35% of women worldwide experience  violence from their partner and even non partner sexual violence in their lifetime.







Also shocking in the 21st century is that the leading cause of death worldwide for girls ages 15 to 19 is related to pregnancy and childbirth, in many cases because girls are married and bearing children before their young bodies are ready.




High rates of child marriage in some countries also limit the educational opportunities and economic independence of girls.

Honor crimes and sexual violence have long gone unrecorded because such behavior is tolerated, ignored, or conveniently covered up in mostly rural communities. Survivors often remain silent for fear their attackers will take revenge if they report the crime

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Still, we mustn't forget about important gains that women and girls have made in recent decades, wich point to a much brighter future:

• First, the global gender gap in education has been reducing:  Between 1999 and 2009, the number of girls out of school dropped from nearly 61 million to 35 million;In fact, around the world, women are beginning to outnumber men at the university level.

• Women's political participation worldwide also continues to grow. As of July 2013, 35 countries, including nine in Africa, had national parliaments with at least 30% female representatives.Examples of women rising to the top of their fields -- just think of Hillary Clinton, Janet Yellen, Angela Merkel, Sheryl Sandberg.