A government's selection of a woman to oversee female education would hardly make headlines in many countries. But this is a first in Saudi Arabia, one of the world's most restrictive places for women. As experience in the region shows, even such a minor step can shift the political sands toward more equal opportunity for the sexes.

Over the past 40 years, women around the world have moved ahead in formal education, doubling their average number of years in the classroom.

That's a profound development, with positive effects in personal and public well-being.

The education progress is reported in an unusually large-scale study of 175 countries that looked at the connection between women's schooling and reduced child mortality.

A human rights emergency often describes crises such as killings of civilians in Darfur, the Rwandan genocide or perhaps even the recent floods in Pakistan. Rarely would one consider a woman's pregnancy to fall into this category.

But when we consider the fact that more than half a million women die in childbirth or related causes every year, it's clear that the situation has reached catastrophic levels.

Sudan is the largest country in Africa, but over half of the population lives in poverty. A simple food processing project is unlocking women's potential, transforming their economic and social status in a traditional valued country.

The Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL) is pleased to share with you the Take Action Kit for the 2010 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign. This year's theme will begin to address structures in place that permit gender-based violence to exist and persist, starting with the intersections of militarism and violence against women.

In mid-August in the northern Afghanistan province of Kunduz, the Taliban carried out a horrific sentence against two young Afghan lovers who had eloped against their families' wishes. The punishment was death by stoning. Deemed by Islamic extremists to be justified under sharia law, the process involves partially burying the accused, after which a male crowd hurls stones at the victims' exposed heads until they die.

At the same time the United States is scaling back its goals for Afghanistan, women in the country are scaling up their own ambitions. In arenas ranging from medicine to the military, from small business to civil society, women are speaking up for themselves and tackling ever-larger aspirations.

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