There are around 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty worldwide; more than two-thirds of them are women and girls. Statistics like these reflect the bleak reality of life for millions of women in the developing world.
The facts show that women are getting a tough deal:
Entrenched attitudes deny women their rights, effectively keeping them poorer than men. As a result, whole communities fall further into poverty. In many countries, women are:
All of Oxfam's projects have gender equality at their heart, ensuring women overcome the discrimination they face, and secure their basic rights. Some examples of Oxfam's work are:
Find out more about How your money helps.
By hosting a Get Together event on International Women's Day and raising money with friends, you can help women build a better future for themselves and their families. Register now to take part.
Fazale provides legal advice for women who are victims of violence. 'I joined the [We Can] campaign because in Bangadesh there is a lot of violence against women. I want this to stop. This is why I am here. I am a lawyer, an advocate, and I got involved with We Can because provide legal assistance to women who are victims of violence."
In Mali, the challenge to educate still exists and particularly for girls. Female literacy rates never reach even 50 percent of male literacy rates. Eight of the world's ten countries farthest from the gender parity goal are in West Africa: Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Benin and Guinea.
A young girl, Sanoshini Rana, describes: 'Shankar [Parivartan worker] came and talked to us about AIDS; in the next village there's an empty house, that's where we have our training; two of us from this village went. We heard how AIDS comes and how not to get diseases.'
