On Friday, “the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Demographic and Health Surveys Program released ‘Women’s Lives and Challenges: Equality and Empowerment since 2000,’ a report that assesses gains in women’s status and gender equality worldwide. This report, among the most extensive recent assessments of women’s status, looks at women’s progress in four continents and more than 45 countries. ‘Women’s Lives and Challenges’ evaluates trends in women’s employment, domestic decision-making, exposure to violence, and access to education and health care,” according to a USAID press release (3/7).