Vital Voices

The world is waking up to a new reality, a rising consciousness of women's contribution to our shared progress. In the past, those who have cared about improving the lives of girls and women have spoken a language of fairness. While that language and that sentiment are still relevant today, there is something even more compelling to be said about women: women are the most consistently under-utilized resource in just about every country in the world, and are vehicles of transformational change. The Economist estimates that women have contributed more to global GDP growth over the past decade than new technology or emerging heavyweights India and China. The UN has found that women reinvest up to 90 percent of their income in their families and communities. Where we see an increase in women's university enrollment rates, an increase in women's earnings, improved maternal health and a reduction in violence against women, we see more prosperous communities, better educated,