No Country in the World Treats its Women as Well as its Men. [World] There is not a single country in the world today where women have the same opportunities as men, and although progress has been made in some areas in recent years, women are still disadvantaged in economic and political life. Gender equity is far from being achieved. The opportunities available to men and women are unequal in every country in the world. Almost 70% of the world's poor are women. The most obvious inequities are seen in the economic and political spheres. The exclusion of women is clearly visible in the political sphere. Although they account for more than half of the world's population, women occupy only 15% percent of seats in the world's parliaments on average. According to international studies, in order for women to exercise real influence on political processes, they would have to hold at least 30% of political positions. But there are a few countries that exceed this rate, and most of them are all in northern Europe: Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. In fact, the presence of women in the centres of decision-making power is the only indicator of gender equity that does not correlate to a country's level of poverty. In some of the world's wealthiest countries, like France and Japan, women occupy only 10% to 12% of seats in parliament or congress, which is less than the rate of 13% seen in sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region of the planet. At the same time, however, women hold only 6% of the positions in national government cabinets worldwide, and it is only in countries like Norway, Sweden and Finland that women occupy more than 40 percent of ministerial posts. Overall, national political decision-makers continue to be overwhelmingly male, and this is often reflected in a failure to address issues that concern women. There are 47 U.N. member nations that have still not signed or ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted in 1979, while another 43 countries have only done so with reservations, the report notes. When it comes to economic participation, women face varying degrees of labour discrimination throughout the world. They have more limited access to the labour market, and the average pay for women is lower than it is for men. The greatest inequities in both of these regards are seen in the Middle East, North Africa, and some Latin American countries, like Chile, Mexico and Peru. Contrary to what many might assume, countries do not need high levels of income to eliminate gender disparities and offer equal opportunities to women and men. There are some nations facing severe poverty that have nonetheless made significant progress in achieving greater gender equity.

Annan Draws Fire Over Gender Equality. [World] More than 240 women from over 50 countries accused U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan of failing to promote women's rights and of neglecting gender equality in his U.N. reform plans. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is proposing a shakeup of U.N. management practices. that would create a mobile civil service, allow a one-time staff buyout costing about $100,000 per person, modernize technology and consider outsourcing. The proposal, to be unveiled Tuesday, is a response to last year's investigation into the U.N. oil-for-food program which concluded that the U.N.'s shoddy management was partly to blame for widespread corruption. It is also an effort to transform the U.N.'s post-World War II management structure and practices so the world body can deal with 21st century problems. In an open letter to Annan, the women said they were "disappointed and frankly outraged" that strengthening the U.N. machinery focusing on women is not a central part of the U.N.'s reform agenda. They also expressed deep concern "that the position of women in high-level U.N. posts has stagnated." Charlotte Bunch, executive director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership, accused Annan of paying lip service to women rights.

New Light on Female Count. [World] Researchers have found misogyny plays only one part in Asia's gender imbalance. The mystery of Asia's missing women has taken an intriguing new twist. To date, the fact that men greatly outnumber women in countries such as China and India has been attributed to cultural preferences for males. But it seems that misogyny is only part of the picture and a second - biological - culprit has emerged. The missing women concept is most famously associated with the Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, who noticed that some countries have unusually high sex ratios (the number of males relative to females). While the number of men and women in the West is about equal, the number of men per 100 women in China and India is 107 and 108, respectively. By comparing actual female population figures against the expected female population figures in countries with an under-representation of women, Sen estimated that about 100 million women were "missing" in Asia. Most research into the cause of the phenomenon has focused on misogyny. Studies have found that daughters are discriminated against through a number of means including the unfair rationing of food and access to health care. In a more recent development, there is also mounting evidence that ultrasound is being used to identify and terminate female foetuses. The widely accepted argument has been that females are being purposely eliminated before birth or are suffering an excessive mortality rate as children. But the case has been reopened by a Harvard University postgraduate who argues that there is an important biological component to the puzzle of the missing women. In an article published in the Journal of Political Economy, Emily Oster claims that almost half of the women are not "missing" at all. She argues that the under-representation of women is due, in part, to a naturally occurring high sex ratio in some Asian countries. Oster provides evidence that pregnant women who are carriers of the Hepatitis B virus are 1.5 times more likely to have a baby boy than a baby girl (the mechanism is unclear but may be due to a higher rate of miscarriage of female foetuses exposed to the virus). By looking at the incidence of the virus in countries with a high sex ratio, Oster is able to estimate what proportion of the over-representation of males can be explained by Hepatitis B. She finds the virus can account for 45 per cent of all missing women, but more interesting are the inter-country differences. While 75 per cent of China's missing women are explained by Hepatitis B, in India the corresponding figure is less than 20 per cent. So, while Hepatitis B is an important factor, evidence for the role of misogyny in the under-representation of women is still strong, especially in India. Alarmingly, the sex ratio in India has continued to increase over the past 15 years. The greater availability of technologies such as ultrasound is providing a reliable and discreet means for parents to exercise control over the sex of their children and thereby artificially influence the gender balance in favour of males.