UN Report: Anti-Woman Bias Firmly Rooted

L O N D O N, Sept. 20 -- Eighty million unwanted pregnancies and 20 millionunsafe abortions. Millions of beatings and rapes. Infanticides andso-called “honor” killings.

This is what the world’s women still endure each year, despitemajor changes to their lot at the end of the 20th century,according to a U.N. report published today.

The report by the U.N. Population Fund said discrimination andviolence against women “remain firmly rooted in cultures aroundthe world,” stopping many from reaching their full potential.

“Passed down from one generation to the next, ideas about ‘realmen’ and ‘a woman’s place’ are instilled at an early age and aredifficult to change,” the report said.

Education, Health Care Denied

The “State of World Population Report 2000” said girls andwomen the world over are still routinely denied access to educationand health care — including control over their reproductiveactivity — and to equal pay and legal rights.

The report points out that governments last year agreed totargets that include halving the 1990 illiteracy rate for women andgirls by 2005, meeting the need for family planning by 2015,reducing youth HIV levels by one quarter by the year 2010, andensuring that skilled attendants assist 90 percent of all births by2015.

Providing family planning is a particularly significantchallenge, said the report, compiled from sources that include U.N.agencies, the World Health Organization, World Bank, nationalgovernments and surveys. About one-third of all pregnancies — 80million a year — are believed to be unwanted or mistimed.

In developing countries, only 53 percent of all births areattended by professionals, translating into “the neglect of 52.4million women annually.” Nearly 30 percent of women who give birthin developing countries — some 38 million a year — receive no careafter the birth.