"Women hold up half the sky." This is an old saying. However, research shows that perhaps women do more than their half of "holding up the sky".
Many reports have come out on the conditions and rights of women throughout the world. Some of the news in the reports is very good. For example, 90 percent of all countries have official organizations to improve the lives of women. More than half of all countries have laws to protect the rights of women. The United Nations has programs to improve the health of people in Third World countries, especially women and children. More than half of the women in the world can get various methods of birth control. Nearly half of the children in school now are girls, while in the past, in many countries, girls couldn't go to school.
The reports also have bad news. Although most countries have official organizations to improve women's lives, many of these organizations don't do anything. Women make up 50 percent of the world's people, but nearly 66 percent of all working hours are worked by women. They do most of the housework, for example, and most of the cooking and washing of clothes. Millions of women also work outside the home. Women hold almost 40 percent of all the world's jobs. For this work, they earn only about half as much as men, and they earn nothing for their housework.
In developing countries, where 3/4 of the world's people live, women produce more than half of the food. In Africa 80 percent of all agricultural work is done by women. There are many programs to help poor countries with their agricultural and economic development. However, for years these programs gave money and training to men but not to women. Now this is changing. International organizations and programs run by developed nations are helping women, as well as men, improve their production of agricultural products like wheat and potatoes.
In parts of Africa, this is a usual day for a village woman. At 4:45 a.m., she gets up, washes, and eats. It takes her a half hour to walk to the fields, and she works there until 3:00 p.m. She collects wood for cooking and gets home at 4:00. She spends the next hour and a half preparing food to cook. Then she collects water for another hour. From 6:30 to 8:30, she cooks. After dinner, she spends an hour washing the dishes and her children. She goes to bed at 9:30 p.m.
Should there be a change in the lives of women? Are women supposed to do the housework? Should they work outside the home? Will women's lives ever improve? Do their lives need to improve? Different people have different answers to these questions.
The family is changing quickly in many societies. Any change in the family affects women. Any change in the lives of women affects both the family and society. The changes now happening in the family and society will probably continue.
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