Turkish Independent Issue 13 | Page 17

17 London-News March 2014 In one Birmingham hospital as many as 40 to 50 women every month are treated after undergoing female genital mutilation. Marriage Around 14 million girls, some as young as eight years old, will be married in 2014. An estimated 1.2m children are trafficked into slavery each year; 80 per cent are girls. In 10 countries around the world women are legally bound to obey their husbands Only 76 countries have legislation that specifically addresses domestic violence – and just 57 of them in- clude sexual abuse. Working rights In the UK, the gender pay gap stands at 15%, with women on average earning £5,000 less a year than their male colleagues. The disparity is even greater in part time jobs, going up to 35 per cent. Globally only a 24 per cent of senior management roles are now filled by women. The Equalities and Human Rights Commission estimates it will take 70 years at the current rate of progress to see an equal number of female and male directors of FTSE 100 companies. This hurts everyone. The gender gap in certain industries is even more apparent and damaging. Zemach Getahun estimates that closing the gender gap in agriculture could reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 1217 per cent. If the skills and qualifications of women who are currently out of work in the UK were fully utilised, the UK could deliver economic benefits of £15 to £21 billion pounds per year –more than double the value of all our annual exports to China.(SOURCE: copyright/independent.co.uk/news/world/)