UNITED NATIONS REPORT FOR BEIJING CONFERENCE

DOCUMENTS WOMEN'S PROGRESS

NEW YORK, 7 August - A report released on Wednesday, 2 August by theUnited Nations shows that women have made significant progress in some areassince the First World Conference on Women was held in Mexico in 1975. However,the statistical report also makes it clear that greater efforts will berequired to achieve social, political and economic equality between the sexes.

In presenting The World's Women 1995: Trends and Statistics as anofficial document for the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing,Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali says, "The World's Women should serveas a basis for governments to take action so that the principle of equality --as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations - becomes more than anideal."

The World"s Women 1995 presents few global generalizations, focusingprimarily on country data and regional averages that will make it useful forshaping national policies. The report's data and analyses reflect the recentshift in development strategies from a focus on women in isolation to women inrelation to men. Thus, the book's gender statistics provide comparative dataand analyses of the economic, political and social differences that stillseparate women's and men's lives.

The International Conference on Population and Development, held inCairo in 1994, established a new consensus that "empowering women andimproving their status are essential to realizing the full potential ofeconomic, political and social development", the book states. And becausewomen's rights are finally being recognized as an integral part of the entireparadigm of international human rights, empowering women is an important endin itself. The World's Women is a powerful resource tool that can assistpolicy makers and the media in understanding current conditions and evaluatingpolicy options that can achieve that important goal.

The 188-page report covers the core areas of population and families,education, health, child-bearing, work and public life which were addressed inthe first edition of The World's Women in 1991. It also reports on new topicssuch as media, violence against women, poverty, the environment, refugees anddisplaced persons, and 50 years of women's participation in the United Nationsand in peacekeeping. Highlights of some of the report's findings follow:

Women have made significant gains in education over the past fewdecades, but there are marked regional contrasts. Literacy rates for womenhave increased to at least 75 per cent in most countries of Latin America andthe Caribbean as well as those of eastern and south-eastern Asia. However,high rates of illiteracy among women still prevail in much of Africa and inparts of Asia; and high illiteracy is generally accompanied by largedifferences in rates between women and men.

Progress in primary and secondary enrolment for girls was reversed inthe 1980s in regions experiencing political and economic instability,including countries in Africa, Latin American and the Caribbean, and easternEurope. In higher education, the level of women's enrolment equals or exceedsthat of men in western Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and developedregions outside western Europe. But in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia,women's enrolments continue to lag behind, with 30 and 38 women per 100 men.

Concerning child-bearing, the book states that women's increased accessto education, employment and contraception have contributed to the nearlyworld-wide decline in fertility. But country data in The World's Women revealgreat differences among regions: the number of children women bear indeveloped regions is now 1.9, or slightly below population replacement levels,while African women still have an average of 6 children.

Of great concern worldwide is the rate of adolescent fertility. Whilerates have declined in developing and developed countries over the past 20years, they remain high. In Central America and sub-Saharan Africa, rates arefive to seven times higher than in developed regions. In Latin America andthe Caribbean, 13 per cent of all births are to mothers below age 20, whilethat figure is 18 per cent in Central America. Among the developed countries,the highest rates of adolescent fertility are found in Bulgaria and the UnitedStates.

Regarding health, the book notes that in the past two decades, lifeexpectancy increased for both women and men almost everywhere. The greatestgains for women were in northern Africa, eastern, southern and western Asiaand Central America. The smallest gains were seen in eastern Europe, and in afew countries in that region, the average life expectancy of men decreased. Due to AIDS, estimated life expectancy of both women and men droppedsignificantly in Uganda and Zambia, and it is expected to stagnate or decreasein eight other sub-Saharan countries during the next five years.

Too many women still have no access to reproductive health care. Whilepregnancy and childbirth have become safer for women in most of Asia and LatinAmerica, the situation has not changed in most of sub-Saharan Africa, and ithas even worsened in some African countries. Maternal mortality alsoincreased in some countries of eastern Europe.

The book, addressing the issue of work, finds that across regions, 72 to83 per cent of men aged 15 and over were economically active around 1990, downfrom 76 to 90 per cent around 1970. But the percentage of women reported aseconomically active varied widely, from a high of 56 to 58 per cent in easternand central Asia and eastern Europe to a low 21 per cent in northern Africa. Unlike the economic activity rates for men, those for women show increases inall regions except sub-Saharan Africa and eastern Asia. Most of the increasesnoted are large.

In rural areas of developing countries, work in subsistence agricultureis underreported in official statistics, even though it is classified aseconomic in the national accounts. Women's work in the informal sector and infamily enterprises is also undercounted.

Despite their educational advancements, women still face major obstaclesentering top levels of influence in their societies. Women in the highestlevels of government are the exception in all regions. At the end of 1994,only 10 women were heads of State, and there were few women at the ministerialand sub-ministerial levels. In contrast, women have exercised increasinginfluence in non-governmental organizations. The United Nations Decade forWomen and international women's conferences enabled women to develop skillsand mobilize the resources necessary to influence the mainstream policydebates at the national and international levels.

Women's educational progress is rarely reflected in increased status inbusiness and professional fields, according to the book. Though theirparticipation in the labour force is increasing in all regions, women rarelyaccount for more than 1 or 2 per cent of top executive business positions. Inmany countries women are well represented in the health and educationprofessions, but most still work at the bottom levels of the status and wagehierarchy. Similarly, women are increasingly visible as media presenters andreporters, but remain poorly represented in the more influential mediaoccupations, such as producers and editors.

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