Gender, equality and globalization: Gillian Youngs

Just a few statistics indicate the importance of gender to understanding of inequality in the contemporary world. Increasing numbers of women may be joining the workforce around the world but they earn only around 75 per cent of what men earn (UNDP 2002: 23). Of the world’s estimated 854 million illiterate adults, 544 million are women, and of the 113 million children not in primary school, 60 per cent are girls. There are an estimated 100 million ‘missing’ women around the world – 50 million in India alone – who would be alive but for infanticide, neglect or sex (selective abortion). Each year more than 500,000 women die as a result of pregnancy and childbirth. Worldwide, only 14 per cent of national parliamentarians are women, with little difference between industrial and developing countries and positive exceptions including both (UNDP 2002: 10-11, 16, 23).