May 09, 2013
A year after Saudi Arabian women were allowed to participate in the Olympic Games for the first time, the government announced this week that girls could now play sports in private schools.
The news on the Saudi sports front reminds us that advances on gender equality around the world remain both slow and uneven, while the brutal cases of gang rape in India earlier this year was just the latest sign that violence against women is not a thing of the past.
Still, we should take stock of the signs of progress in women's rights, both in the developed and developing worlds. We have gathered together some of the significant steps that have been taken over the past year.