More on the Elusiveness of Gender Equality

(The following statement was published by the United Nations Department of Public Information in December 1996. The last WCN issue published some facts on the Status of Women This issues follows up on facts about women and political participation and education.)

• The first country to grant women the right to vote was New Zealand in 1893.
• Only 24 women have been elected heads of state or government in this century.
• Women hold 10.5 percent of the seats in the world's parliaments.
• In early 1995, Sweden formed the world's first cabinet to have equal numbers of men and women.
• Of the 185 highest-ranking diplomats to the United Nations, seven are women.
• The percentage of female cabinet ministers worldwide has doubled in the last decade, from 3.4 in 1987 to 6.8 percent in 1996.
• Of the world's nearly one billion illiterate adults, two-thirds are women.
• Two-thirds of the 130 million children worldwide who are not in school are girls.
• During the past two decades the combined primary and secondary enrollment ratio for girls in developing countries increased from 38 per cent to 78 per cent.

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