Unfortunately, reality lies a long way from this ideal. Although Northern agencies claim that they are against coercion, women activists believe that a great deal of coercion does go on - from outright blackmail or violence to subtler forms of exploitation. But where girls are considered the property of their parents, they may have no choice about being married off. Almost all these mothers are poor. By contrast, maternal mortality is rare in the affluent areas of the North.
Women are invisible , especially if they are poor.
Women often find themselves pulled under the same cloak of invisibility as the children for whom they care. Motherhood, like childhood, may attract sentimental approval but little status, money or political power. In too many societies, women are accustomed to not being heard. In some societies, they are not seen either because of dress codes imposed by prevailing male-controlled religious dictates.