‘The World’s Women 2010:  Trends and Statistics’ Documents Progress for Women

 

Worldwide in Eight Key Areas, Including Work, Power, Violence against Women

 

The United Nations today released The World's Women 2010: Trends and Statistics, a one-of-a-kind compilation of the latest data documenting progress for women worldwide in eight key areas: population and families, health, education, work, power and decision-making, violence against women, environment and poverty.  (A separate press conference covers today’s launch of the report at United Nations Headquarters in New York.)

In the book’s introduction, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon states that The World's Women 2010“finds that progress in ensuring the equal status of women and men has been made in many areas, including school enrolment, health and economic participation.  At the same time, it makes clear that much more needs to be done, in particular to close the gender gap in public life and to prevent the many forms of violence to which women are subjected”.

“It is my hope,” wrote Sha Zukang, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs in the book’s preface, “that the present publication will be used to advance an enabling social and economic environment that will ensure equal treatment of all women and men and significantly improve the status of women in the world”.  He said it should also “serve as a model for similar statistical profiles for countries, areas, regions and provinces, thus supporting the development of policies”.

Director Paul Cheung of the United Nations Statistics Division, which produces this report every five years since 1991, said: “This report is released today, on the occasion of the first ever World Statistics Day, as it demonstrates how official statistics provide policy-makers with useful and impartial data.  Fifteen years after the Beijing Conference on Women, these statistics continue to help them in their efforts to advance gender equality worldwide.”

The full text and press kit, detailing the findings in the eight principal areas, are posted online at http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/Worldswomen/WW2010pub.htm.

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For information media • not an official record