Human rights of women

The last century saw a great leap forward in the struggle for women's human rights. In many countries women won the right to take part in government, though in some, they did not. Many women acquired an economic independence and social status unthinkable a hundred years earlier. A few countries have adopted constitutions or legislation banning discrimination on the grounds of gender. But women are still treated as second-class citizens all over the world. By the end of the last century, women comprised two-thirds of the world's one million illiterate people. Women continue to bear the double burden of work and childcare, to own and earn less than men, and to be excluded from making decisions over their own bodies. Women are struggling to help their families and communities survive poverty and armed conflict. And in many countries, they still contend with violence in the family, in the community and from the government.