ABSTRACT
Among the world's 900 million illiterate people, women outnumber men two to one. Girls constitute the majority of the 130 million children without access to primary education. Literacy is the access to primary education. Literacy is the key to breaking the vicious cycles of poverty because it triggers advances in a number of other fields. The UN Development Program's 1995 Report on Progress in Gender Equality found that while women have in throughout the world have made important gains in the health and education, their progress in employment and in political arenas has been less impressive. Gender Empowerment Measure is a composite index devised by the UN Development Program. It concentrates on women's participation in the economic, political and professional spheres. Unlike the Gender-Related Development Index, which is concerned primarily with living standards and basic capabilities, the Gender to Empowerment Measure is designed to women's access to power.
