SECTION B Women and Change.docVIP

Women and Change 课文讲解 Women hold up half the sky. This is an old saying. However, research shows that perhaps women do more than their half of holding up the sky. ? ? Many reports have come out on the conditions and rights of women throughout the world. Some of the news in the reports is very good. For example, 90 percent of all countries have official organizations to improve the lives of women. More than half of all countries have laws to protect the rights of women. The United Nations has programs to improve the health of people in Third World countries, especially women and children. More than half of the women in the world can get various methods of birth control. Nearly half of the children in school now are girls, while in the past, in many countries, girls couldnt go to school. ? ?The reports also have bad news. Although most countries have official organizations to improve womens lives, many of these organizations dont do anything. Women make up 50 percent of the worlds people, but nearly 66 percent of all working hours are worked by women. They do most of the housework, for example, and most of the cooking and washing of clothes. Millions of women also work outside the home. Women hold almost 40 percent of all the worlds jobs. For this work, they earn only about half as much as men, and they earn nothing for their housework. ? ? In developing countries, where 3/4 of the worlds people live, women produce more than half of the food. In Africa 80 percent of all agricultural work is done by women. There are many programs to help poor countries with their agricultural and economic development. However, for years these programs gave money and training to men but not to women. Now this is changing. International organizations and programs run by developed nations are helping women, as well as men, improve their production of agricultural products like wheat and potatoes. ? ? In parts of Africa, this is a usual day for a village woman. At 4:45 a.m., she gets u