Women: A World Survey

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Women represent half the world’s population. And yet in country after country, they lack access to education, jobs, health services, & political & civil rights. Where women lack access to education, health care & economic oportunity, children tend to be less educated, less well nourished, & families tend to be both larger & poorer. Where women are illiterate, the environment is often poorly managed & democracy remains fragile.
An important lesson of the past several decades is that where women prosper, countries prosper. We know that investing in women, in their health & education, is vital to improving global prosperity. And we know that investing in women, so that they can assume their rightful places in decision-making bodies, is essential to continued democracy & prosperity.
But what is it that we must do to bring women fully into our national lives? Among other things, women must be able to attend school & learn, not just to be literate, but to acquire the knowledge & skills--of medicine, of engineering, of management, of computers & so forth--that will contribute to the prosperity of their families & nations. Women must have access to health-care, especially as expecting or new mothers. Wives, together with their husbands, must have access to family planning services to enable them to make voluntary, responsible & informed choices about the size of their families. Furthermore, children--girls as well as boys--must have access to preventive & curative care that will enable them to grow into healthy adults.
Often the discussion of such problems as education & health-care for girls & women is viewed as “soft”, labelled dismissively as a women’s issue belonging, at best, on the edge of serious debate about all the problems we confront on the cusp of the 21st century. I want to argue strongly, however, that the questions surrounding social development, especially of women, are at the center of our political & economic challenges.
Too often a deafening silence still sounds when women’s concerns are raised. Ruth Leger Sivard’s report, Women: A World Survey, should inspire all of us to redouble our efforts to further women’s progress around the world.--Hillary Rodham Clinton, NY Senator, Secretary of State