Twenty years ago at an international conference held in Beijing, the global community committed to securing equality for women.

Twenty years later, women have enjoyed advances on many fronts but, when it comes to abuse against women, despite more publicity and awareness, and more just laws on the books, there is only a bit of real progress in the trenches.

Violence against women remains rampant.

One third of women have been victims of violence.

One tenth of girls younger than eighteen have been raped.

One third of women who are murdered are murdered by their own partners.

Spousal rape continues to be legal in numbers of countries.

Domestic violence laws are at best inconsistently enforced. And as a result, domestic violence often goes unreported.

Just from an economic standpoint, the price of domestic violence runs high at a staggering $8 trillion.

More encouraging, compared to 1995, girls are as likely as boys to attend grade school.

More women have access to employment.

Death during childbirth has declined by fifty percent.

Twice as many women serve as legislators.

Except for 32 countries, all guarantee women equal rights on paper.

Member nations of the United Nations renewed their commitment to equality for women in a nonbinding declaration now targeting realization of equality for women by 2030.

Read more in this New York Times news article: U.N. Reveals ‘Alarmingly High’ Levels of Violence Against Women .