Yet in far too many places around the world today, there is indeed a plague holding back many communities and keeping untold millions from reaching their potential. It is a plague the world must face, not only because it is the moral thing to do, but because the cost for ignoring it is simply too great.

The plague is the systematic and violent exploitation of women. This exploitation takes many forms, depriving women of their most basic freedom, robbing them of their health, Keeping them away from the education they need and deserve, and condemning them to lives without economic opportunity.

It is particularly cogent to focus on women’s political participant because the realm of politics has been marked by both significant under-representation of women-politicians and the exclusion of gender issues. Furthermore, negative consequences of globalization (e.g. Economic Exploitation) aggravate women’s lives in poorer countries, especially when strong political commitment and will to implement gender equality are absent.

It is possible, however, to make globalization processes support social justice through the democratization of local, national and international spaces and such democratization is inherently political and therefore recent developments with respect to women’s political participation.