For Bangladeshi children under age 5, boys receive 16 percent more food than girls, despite equivalent nutritional needs. At 30 percent, women start to have a visible impact on the style and content of political decisions. Between 1987 and 1994, the number of countries with no women in ministerial positions dropped from 93 to 62. In 144 countries, there are no women at all in these areas and at these levels. At the current rate of progress, it would take 475 years for women to reach equality with men as senior managers.
Studies show that poor women invest more in their families than poor men.
In Brazil, for example, children's chances of survival increase by approximately 20 percent when income is in the hands of mothers versus fathers.