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IN THE XXI CENTURY POVERTY STILL HAS A WOMAN'S FACE |
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By Gro Harlem Brundtland*
Significant
progress has been made in our time fighting discrimination against
women and working for equal rights and the full participation of
women in the development of communities and nations, indeed of our
entire globalised world, writes Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general
of the World Heath Organisation.
Unfortunately this progress has been highly
uneven, and discrimination continues to stand in the way of equitable
and just societies, the author writes in this article for IPS.
Women's issues are intrinsically linked with
poverty, and poverty carries a woman's face. Three fourths of the
poorest billion people of the world are women. In many countries,
women own nothing, inherit nothing and earn nothing. Poverty leads
to ill-health and additional strain on already over-stretched households,
and ill-health intensifies poverty.
There is no way we can overcome poverty and
gender discrimination if we do not take the health of girls and
women seriously. Then we must empower women so that they are able
to make healthy choices for themselves and their children.
(*) Gro Harlem Brundtland is director-general
of the World Health Organisation (WHO)
This is an excerpt from the article. Editors
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romacol@ips.org specifying
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