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Our Issue Areas

U.N. Millennium DevelopmentGoals

Population and Poverty

Reproductive Health

HIV/AIDS

Women's Empowerment

Environmental Sustainability

How we do it:

Telling Stories, Saving Lives

Women's Empowerment and Development

In many parts of the world, cultural and social restraints keep women

from contributing to the welfare of their families. Of the worlds people

living in poverty, women form a significant proportion.

The perceived value of a womans work in the home oras a young bride

frequently outweighs the value of her education. Nearly 800 million

people over the age of 15 are illiterate and two-thirds of them are

women.

This lack of education affects women and their families in many ways.

While women beara disproportionate burden of the worlds poverty, they

play a leading role in the health, nutrition and education of the family.

Many women are denied economic opportunities through lack of education

orby sexual status, making it impossible for them to better their

economic status and secure a livelihood.

Where agriculture is a primary occupation, women work to produce food

for their families and where non-agricultural employment is not available,

they may become informally self-employed, producing good and services,

within theircapacity, to be marketed locally.


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With reduced status in their home, community and society, women are

the victims of violence and abuse, primarily at the hands of family

members. According to the United Nations Development Fund forWomen

(UNIFEM), violence against women is the most pervasive human rights

violation that we know today. It is the majorcause of death and

disability among women 16 to 44 years of age. It is also shown that there

is a link between violence against women and the rate of HIV infection in

the female population.

Empowering women through education significantly impacts their survival

rate and that of theirchildren as well as the overall health and economic

welfare of their families.10 By having an opportunity to acquire an

education, a woman also helps to ensure the education of her own

children. Seventy-five percent of children in developing countries who are

not attending primary school have mothers who did not go to school.

Womens lack of healthcare, primarily in the area of sexual and

reproductive health, is a factor of education and empowerment. An

estimated 529,000 women died from complications of pregnancy and

childbirth in 2001. Virtually all of these deaths occurred in developing

countries. In the developed world, the overall risk of complications from

pregnancy is 15 percent.

A majority of PCI-Media Impactscurrent programming is dedicated to

womens issues. Education, family planning and the right to healthcare

are essential elements of womens empowerment. And, womens

empowerment, in general, can be viewed as one of the more crucial

points for initiating change and improving life within communities. By

producing programs relevant to the lives of women in less developed

communities, we can help lessen maternal death, ensure small family size

and help ensure educational opportunities for the next generation.

Despite laws against child marriage in many countries, over 80 million

girls in the developing world will be married before the age of 18. In the


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poorest countries, one in every two girls is made to marry early.

UNICEF

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