Directions for students: The facts below are from the 1995 United Nations Women's Conference. Read them and consider this basic question: What are the possible causes for the dilemmas described? Think of the situation of women in your country, the U. S., and any other countries you are familiar with.
- Women represent two-thirds of the more than one billion adult illiterates.
- Studies show that three to four million women are battered each year worldwide. In the U.S., a woman is raped every six minutes.
- Women work longer hours than men in all countires except Peru. On the average, women put in 12% more time than men in job activities and household work.
- In Eastern Europe, women's participation in parliaments dropped sharply, from 22% in 1987 to 6.5% in 1993. In your country, and in counties you know of, are women becoming less or more important in the realm of government?
- Seventy percent of poeple living in absolute poverty are women.
- On the average, each girl receives 4.4 years less education than each boy.
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