Earthdance Global Festival for Peace :: September 22, 2012
Forest
***Year of the Woman

Addressing this year's theme, all Earthdance events will focus on causes that work to promote gender equality and empower women, while fostering peace and harmony with each other and our Mother Gaia.

Earthdance believes that increasing women's access to quality education, meaningful employment, land and other resources is vital to the sustainable development and evolution of humanity in the 21st century and beyond.

* Women account for two thirds of the 1.4 billion people currently living in extreme poverty.

* Women make up 64 percent of the 774 million illiterate adults in the world. Globally, 77 percent of women are literate, compared to 87 percent of men.

* Across the globe, 70 per cent of the world's poor are women, women earn less than 10 per cent of the world’s wages – but, women do more than two thirds of the world’s work.

* On average women reinvest 90 per cent of their income into their families while men invest only 30-40 per cent.