Sometimes you'll hear about how women have achieved equal status to men. Not only is this not true in the Western world, but is it an outright lie in the developing world.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (or MDGs as I will refer to them) were created in 2000 to improve the quality of life for people in developing countries and help them escape poverty. Goal number 3 is "Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women."


One way the UN is trying to achieve this goal is by helping out with UNIFEM more. UNIFEM is the women's fund at the UN. It was established in 1976, and it provides financial and technical assistance to innovative approaches aimed at fostering women's empowerment and gender equality.

UNIFEM focuses on four goals

• Reducing women's poverty and exclusion;
• Ending violence against women;
• Reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls;
• Supporting women's leadership in governance and post-conflict reconstruction.

More women and children are living in poverty than men. For this reason there is an increased focus for development organisations to work with women on their projects, such as with this story. Women are also more likely to spend any extra income on their family or health care instead of leisurely activities.

Why is the gender inequality worse in the developing world?
Because men are the primary bread winners. Because there are more domestic tasks at home (imagine life without a washing machine or a dishwasher...now imagine life without plumbing) that women and children must perform. Because school fees are so expensive and boys are still believed to be smarter. Because girls are too valuable at home.
Because because because because...I could go on.

Out of all the children in the world, more than 100 million of them are not in school. Also, 46% of girls in the world's poorest countries have no access to primary education at all because they're so valuable at home.

According to Oxfam, "Young people who have completed primary education are less than half as likely to contract HIV as those missing an education. Universal primary education would prevent 700,000 cases of HIV each year - about 30% all new infections in this age group."

That's incredible!

Think of the impact of more schools and education. More HIV/AIDS knowledge and fewer deaths. More literacy and better jobs. Gender equality. Increased health.

While these issues may seem a little far from home there's still plenty we can do here. Promote gender equality (don't let feminism be a bad thing), donate books to charities- especially ones that will be sent overseas, donate school supplies to charities that will put them to use overseas. Learn about the plight of women globally.

A world of equality seems like a difficult thing. Tolerance seems impossible at times when we are surrounded with stories of racism, sexist, bigotry and homophobia. We can stake small steps at home and within our lives to ensure that women and other marginalized groups are treated with the same respect as other individuals.

"The day will come when men will recognize woman as his peer, not only at the fireside, but in councils of the nation. Then, and not until then, will there be the perfect comradeship, the ideal union between the sexes that shall result in the highest development of the race."
—Susan B. Anthony