Designed as an agenda for women's empowerment, the Platform's emphasis was not only on achieving equality and eliminating discrimination, but on the integration of women as full and equal partners in all policies and decision-making processes. Despite this, however, women worldwide continue to bear a disproportionate burden of poverty, illiteracy, dislocation, violence, poor nutrition, and ill health. They still lag behind in virtually all aspects of life. Maternal mortality is still at unacceptably high levels and each minute four women and girls undergo female genital mutilation. Although for the first time in history, most of the world lives under democratic norms of government, requiring the full participation of all citizens, this is not reflected in women's advancement into positions of leadership in the political arena.
Gender gaps vary from place to place but the overall pattern of women's disadvantage is clear.
We need to overcome major constraints related to the underlying issue of political will and the need to develop greater capacity to translate our plans into real actions on the ground. Better information, based on more reliable data is an important requirement. The scarcity of sex-disaggregated data for key measures of economic, human and social development remains an important constraint. Better data indicators and benchmarks can lead to better planning and permits the more accurate assessment of progress. We know that the task of achieving gender equality is difficult but we also know that there are many opportunities for accelerated progress.