UN Millennium Development Library: Taking Action: Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women (UN Millennium Project) (Volume 4)
"This volume is a product of the UN Task Force on Education and Gender Equality, one of the groups assessing progress toward the UN Millennium Development Project goals. One goal is to dramatically reduce extreme poverty by 2015 while keeping gender equality firmly in view. Compiled by an impressive group of specialists, the book elucidates gender-linked strategies for poverty alleviation such as increasing girls' access to postprimary education, strengthening programs for reproductive health, guaranteeing women's property and inheritance rights, and reducing gender inequality in employment. As usual in UN documents, the tables are worse than useless since the data are collected from diverse sources and are virtually never truly comparable. But the tables are a relatively small part of the study, and many of the observations about the specific situations facing poor women and girls in various countries and regions are cogent and thought provoking. The preface states that 'the main audience for this report is the UN system and donor development agencies, policy makers at the national level, and women's advocacy organizations," but the book belongs in every city and college library as well. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries."--A. H. Koblitz, Arizona State University in Choice