Why Women?

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Approximately one-quarter of girls in developing countries are not in school.
Girls from poor families are nearly twice as likely to marry before 18 than girls from wealthier families.
Approximately 19 teenage girls are married every minute. That's 10 MILLION a year.
One in seven girls in the developing world (excluding China) will be married before the age of 15.
The infant of a mother under 18 has a 60% greater risk of dying in its first year than the infant of a mother over 19.
Medical complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15-19 worldwide.
Worldwide, nearly 50% of all sexual assaults are against girls aged 15 years or younger.
Of the world’s 130 million out-of-school youth, 70% are girls.
Girls with secondary schooling are up to six times less likely to be married as children than those with little or no schooling.
Every extra year of schooling reduces infant mortality by up to 10%.
Secondary school completion rates for adolescent girls is below five percent in 19 sub-saharan African countries.
The total global population of girls ages 10 to 24 - already the largest in history - is expected to peak in this decade.
Closing the joblessness gap between girls and their male counterparts would yield an increase in GDP of up to 1.2 per cent in a single year.
Giving women the same access to non-land resources and services as men could reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 100-150 million.
In sub-Saharan Africa, fewer than one in five girls makes it to secondary school.
When a girl in the developing world receives seven years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.
Less than 2¢ of every development dollar goes to girls.
75% of 15- to 24-year-olds living with HIV in Africa are female, up from 62 percent in 2001.
Girls and women spend 90% of their earned income on their families, compared with 30% to 40% among males.
Child brides have a pregnancy death rate double that of women in their 20s.
Research in developing countries has shown a consistent relationship between better infant and child health and higher levels of schooling among mothers.