ABSTRACT
When social historians many generations hence chronicle the twentieth century, they may single out the rise in status of women as perhaps its most important feature. Nearly everywhere, women are better educated than they were even a few decades ago, with more access to medical care and to family planning services and more control over their fertility. The trend is still far from universal—the lot of many poor women has not improved and progress has been very limited in some regions—but nonetheless, there has been progress. Women are also playing a more active economic role, working increasingly outside the home in factories, offices, and retail stores and in the informal economies of many developing countries. And, in a few countries, women are emerging as a real political force.
