Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Hard Numbers

Hard Numbers … in honor of International Women’s Day, March 8

​Women attend the observance of the International Women's Day 2024, at the United Nations in New York, U.S., March 8, 2024.

Women attend the observance of the International Women's Day 2024, at the United Nations in New York, U.S., March 8, 2024.

REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Make us preferred on Google
30: The United Nations has released a new report assessing progress on women’s rights worldwide 30 years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a landmark agreement for advancing gender equality, was adopted. The report finds uneven gains for women’s rights and gender parity, particularly with government representation and legal rights. There’s been stagnation or backsliding on alleviating poverty, access to education, workforce participation, and conflict-related sexual violence. Overall, 1 in 4 countries has reported some form of backlash against women’s rights in 2024 alone. Still, women remain optimistic: Check out GZERO World’s recent interview with Annemarie Hou, executive director of the UN Office for Partnerships.

46: American girls are outperforming boys in many key educational areas, from on-time high school graduation rates (89.1% vs. 82.9%), to likelihood of being held back in kindergarten (100 girls per every 145 boys get held back), to enrollment in at least one Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate class (46% vs. 38%). Girls are even closing the math achievement gap, according to a study by Education Week.

4: Olympic gold medal runner Faith Kipyegon could potentially run the mile in under four minutes, according to new research in the journal Royal Society Open Science. The phenom from Kenya could run the mile in 3:59 under the right conditions, the researchers posited; if they’re right, she’d be the first woman to do so.

15: A court in Arizona’s Maricopa County on Wednesday permanently blocked a 15-week abortion ban from going into effect. The decision affirms the state’s constitutional protection for abortions up to 24 weeks, which Arizona voters approved by ballot measure last year.

42: Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, has the highest approval rating of any European Union country leader, tied with Poland’s Donald Tusk at 42%. But that doesn’t mean she’s safe from challenge: The Italian economy grew less than projected last year, and it’s a long way till those 2027 elections.

More For You

Rare earths aren’t so rare in China
Lottie Tellyn
The minerals include yttrium oxide, which is crucial for manufacturing jet engines and semiconductors. Inside China, one kilogram costs a mere $9. But outside of China? $1,150. China’s rare earth export controls — imposed partly in response to new US tariffs — are now threatening global supply chains. Japan has warned that it could run out of some [...]
Warlord Jr. carries on the family business in Russia
Will Fitzpatrick
Being a warlord is a family affair! Pavel Prigozhin, 28, was once known for his ultra-luxurious lifestyle. But after his father was killed in a plane crash in 2023 — not at all coincidentally just two months after leading a short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military brass over the war in Ukraine — Pavel was tapped to lead Wagner. Since then, he [...]
Senegal’s LGBTQ+ crackdown
Lottie Tellyn
Senegalese LGBTQ+ people have also faced forced HIV testing and challenges getting legal representation amid a wider crackdown. As a candidate in the 2024 election, now-president Bassirou Diomaye Faye pledged to strengthen existing laws that criminalized same-sex relations. In March the government doubled the maximum prison term for same-sex [...]
El Salvador to free tens of thousands
Lottie Tellyn
Bukele’s controversial crackdown on gang violence in El Salvador has featured sweeping arrests under state of emergency powers, imprisoning tens of thousands of people in maximum-security prisons where they face mass trials. Those measures have contributed to a drastic reduction in the country’s homicide rate — dropping from 100 murders per [...]