With five years to go until the endpoint of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015—objectives set in 2000 to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of the world’s poorest people—many countries are falling short. Peru’s maternal mortality rate—240 mothers die per 100,000 live births—has dropped by half in rural areas but is still far higher than those of other Latin American countries, which highlighs a problem the overall statistics conceal. Even if countries hit their M.D.G. targets, poverty rates remain high among indigenous people, women, children and rural residents. The urban-rural gap also holds true for primary education and access to water and sanitation. Some millennium goals also show a gender gap. In Latin America, although girls outnumber boys in high school and post-secondary education, women hold only one-third of top-level jobs. In places like Panama, Venezuela, urban Brazil and Mexico, more than half of all women in nonfarm jobs work in the informal economy, with no benefits or security. The figure rises to more than 70 percent in cities in Peru and Ecuador.
Gender Gap for Development Goals
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
Join the 'Jesuitical' team at the studio and headquarters of America Media in New York City for two days of community, prayer and sharing stories of faith.
There are some signs of progress in addressing the questions raised in “Laudato Si’.” There are also intimations of backpedaling, particularly by the Trump administration, regarding the industrialized world’s malign effects on creation.
In this episode of “Inside the Vatican,” Colleen and Gerry explore the pope’s message to the Vatican workforce and recap Pope Leo’s formal installation at the Basilica of St. John Lateran on Sunday, May 25.
Joining Zac and Ashley on this week’s episode of “Jesuitical” is Jamie Baxter, Founder & CEO of Exodus 90, a program that helps men to strengthen their faith through prayer, asceticism and fraternity.