Women & Poverty

* 1/5 of the world's population, 1.2 billion people survives on less than $1 a day: 70% of those people are women.
*No society treats women as well as it treats men. Women work longer hours than men in almost every country. Women earn less than men and have less access to land, credit, and employment opportunities.
*There are almost twice as many illiterate women in the world as illiterate men
*While more than 300 million low income women run micro businesses, only about 5 million have access to credit form sources other than money lenders.
*Worldwide, the invisible contribution of women is $11 trillion a year
*The number of rural women living in absolute poverty rose by nearly 50% over the past 25 years