The World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Report calculates that in 134 countries for which data is available, greater gender equality generally correlates positively with higher gross national income.

Gender Gap Report 2010, World Economic Forum, cited in UN Women Strategic Plan 2011-2013

Providing girls with an extra year of schooling increases their wages by 10-20% and women with more years of schooling have better maternal health, fewer and healthier children and greater economic opportunities.

Progress of the World's women 2009

Agricultural outputs in many Sub Saharan Africa countries could increase by up to 20% if women's access to agricultural inputs was equal to men's

Despite agriculture being the most common source of work for rural women in most developing regions, just 20 percent of landholders in developing countries are women, and their landholdings are smaller than those of men.

FAO 2010 The State of Food and Agriculture 2010-2011

Globally, 53 percent of women work in vulnerable employment, with a rise to 80 percent in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Of the 215 million international migrants in 2010, half are women – the bulk concentrated in the unprotected informal manufacturing and service sector

World Migration Report 2010, International Organization for Migration

In sub-Saharan Africa, the lack of universal access to water means that women spend 40 billion hours a year collecting water – the equivalent of a year's worth of labour by the entire workforce of France

Progress of the World's Women 2009