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The State of the World’s Children 2007 reports on the lives of women around the world for a simple reason: Gender equality and the well-being of children go hand in hand. When women are empowered to live full and productive lives, children prosper. UNICEF’s experience also shows the opposite: When women are denied equal opportunity within a society, children suffer.
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Equality between men and women has been a goal of the United Nations since its inception. The 1945 Preamble to the UN Charter notes its objective “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.”
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Everyone interested in development and the progress of the world’s children waits on the ‘big’ decisions: the conclusions of the G8 on aid and debt; the outcome of the Doha Round of trade negotiations; statements by international organizations and world leaders on major initiatives and positions. There is no doubting the importance of these negotiations in determining development outcomes. But there are other decisions, closer to home, that can have a larger and more direct impact on children’s lives: How will scarce food be divided among parents and siblings? Who will go to school and who will work in the field? Is a child’s temperature high enough to warrant a costly and distant trip to the doctor’s office?
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The story of women’s economic empowerment is an account of great potential, all too often unfulfilled. It is not that women do not work – they often work longer hours than men – but they almost invariably earn less income as a result of their labours and own less property. While there has been progress in recent decades in engaging women in the global labour force, there has been considerably less advance on improving the conditions under which they work, recognizing their unpaid work, eliminating discriminatory practices and laws related to property and inheritance rights and providing childcare support.
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Children have a powerful stake in political outcomes, but they have little power to shape them. Unable to vote or directly represent their own interests in governing bodies, their ability to influence policy is limited. The advocates who speak on their behalf – if there is anyone at all to do so – can make a vast difference to the fulfilment of children’s rights to survival, development and protection.
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For children to achieve their fullest potential and to grow up in families and societies where they can thrive, gender discrimination must be banished once and for all. A world free of discrimination may seem like an impossible dream, but it is a dream within our reach. In recent decades, the goal of reducing gender discrimination has steadily grown in importance on the international agenda. Corresponding successes in empowering women and girls have become increasingly apparent. Since 1945, the proportion of women in parliament has increased more than fivefold. Girls’ education has increased dramatically in many regions, and more than 90 developing countries are on course to achieve the goal of gender parity in primary education, albeit only by 2015, which is already 10 years later than the original deadline set by the international community. Discriminatory attitudes towards women and girls have been changing, not only over the course of generations, but also in some cases, through focused campaigns and discussion forums, in a matter of months. Throughout the preceding chapters of this report, it has been clear that great change in favour of women and girls is possible and that for all children, such change is essential.
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