Written by: Shannon Fissori
Arroyo Grande, CA
While women make up half the world’s population, they comprise 70 percent of the world’s poorest people. As a woman not a part of that figure, this is heartbreaking to me. To think simply being born a girl increases your chances of being targeted for violence or exploited for sex trafficking is just as sad.
This can change. There are many ways to shift the tide of oppression against women around the globe.
Education has proven to be one of the most effective ways to lift women out of poverty. Investing in a girl’s education has a ripple effect over the entire community. An increase in education typically leads to greater job opportunities, higher wages and a general tendency to marry later and have fewer children. Income equality for women often lifts whole families out of poverty due to the fact that women are more likely to spend money on nutrition, medicine and housing - thus resulting in healthier children.
Gender equality has come a long way but much work remains to be done. Our mothers, daughters and sisters around the world continue to need our help.
To learn more about issues impacting women today, organizations working to improve their lives and ways you can help, please check out the Half the Sky movement here.
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