The State of Black Women Around the World

Women’s History Month is an annual declared month that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society and corresponds with International Women’s Day on March 8th.

• Rwanda is the only country where there are more women in parliament than men surpassing all western countries such as US,UK, France which lag behind in female representation.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa 77% girls were enrolled in primary schools between 2005-2009(UNESCO Institute for Statistics – UIS).
• 61 % of African women participate in the labor force. (World Bank)
• 22 % of African women have an account at a formal financial institution compared to 25 % in South Asia  (World Bank)
• The share of Africans who are poor fell from 56% in 1990 to 43% in 2012.
• 28% Proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day, down from 1990 to 20152
• 21.4 % of African American women had a college degree or higher in 2010.
• 2 % of African American women are represented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, fields, while women in total make up 24 percent of the STEM workforce
• The number of companies started by African American women grew nearly 258 percent from 1997 to 2013.(Center of American Progress)African American women only made 64 cents to the dollar compared to white,  men in 2010. White women made 78.1 cents to the same dollar.White House. GovThe poverty rate for African American women is 28.6 percent(Center of American Progress)