Women's role in today's world is very different, depending on where they live . In industrialized countries, birth rates have fallen since the 1960s. More and more women go to work and have fewer babies. In developing countries, many women are at home, do household chores and care for their children.

Helping women in the Third World is very important and can slow down the population explosion. One of the key factors in solving this problem is education. Girls who go to school and maybe study at a university have higher chances of getting a job . They don't marry at an early age and have fewer children. Educated women know more about birth control and can decide how many children they want to have.

Better educated women also have more knowledge about health care. Young girls who have sex at an early age risk getting AIDS and passing it on to their babies when they are pregnant. More than half of the 40 million people living with AIDS today are women. In Africa, more than 75 % of all AIDS victims are young women between 15 and 24.