Poverty and Gender Women have less access to, and control of, land, credit, technology, education and health, and less access to skilled work. Women also suffer discrimination in pay, even for the same job or task, and in access to land, legacies and credit. Poor rural women face multiple tasks and, on a daily basis, rearrange competing priorities to ensure their own and their children's survival. Discrimination in education early on in life affects the economic, social and political position of women later on. With their family and home duties as well as employment, women work longer hours than men.
Women have less chance of escaping poverty.
Serious inequality in the region means that poverty is substantially above official predictions. Most of the world's poor live in Asia, where rural and urban poverty have decreased. The proportion of poor people is highest in sub-Saharan Africa. Prosperity is increasingly threatened by growing income inequality and potential civil strife. In countries of the former Soviet Union, the number of poor has more than tripled.