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The contributions that
women make to the economic,
social, and political lives of their nations, communities,
families and the next generation make them key actors
in effective development. More than 800 million women
are economically active worldwide -- in agriculture,
small and microenterprise, and, increasingly, in the
export processing industries that drive globalization.Over
70 percent of these women live in the developing regions
of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Women's unemployment
rates remain high relative to those of men, and when
employed, they are paid less than men for the same work.
It is not surprising, then, that women constitute 60
percent of the rural poor.
Limitations on women's
legal rights and participation in civil society
are widespread. Political leadership positions are still
largely occupied by men although women have increasingly
provided dynamic leadership in the nongovernmental (NGO)
and small enterprise sectors. Legal restrictions on
women's land and property ownership continue to hamper
women's ability to acquire productive assets and to
reduce their vulnerability when family or other crises
affect them. Girls' education has been shown to have
a dramatic impact on women's earning power and on families'
welfare but progress toward gender
equality in education still lags, both in absolute
terms and relative to those of boys.
Conflict and crisis appears to have a disproportionate
impact on women. Not only do they suffer the immediate
impacts of the conflict including violence, loss of
income and displacement, but women must try to provide
for and protect their families, as well as themselves
from starvation, rape, trafficking,
bodily harm and disease.
Promoting a stronger and more productive role for women
in development demands a broad and flexible approach.
USAID's approach to gender
integration is to design programs that take both
women's and men's participation into account. When this
is done development programs are more effective.
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