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1945U.N. Charter Signed The United Nations Charter becomes the first international agreement to proclaim gender equality as a fundamental human right. Read More » 
1950 Fertility Rate Sees Decline In 1950, the world’s total fertility rate—the number of children a woman has during childbearing years—was 5. By 2010, the total fertility rate would be halved, to around 2.5. Read More »
1960 First Female Prime Minister Siramavo Bandaranaike of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) becomes the world's first female Prime Minister. 
1962
A World Bank First
Alice Brun, a Danish national, becomes first female Executive Director of the World Bank Group. Read More » -
1970 Right to Vote: Two Decades From 1950 to 1970, more than 70 countries granted women the right to vote in elections. 
1975Mexico City Conference First World Conference on Women held in Mexico. Participants agree to pursue full gender equality, elimination of gender discrimination, participation of women in development, and increased contribution by women towards strengthening world peace. Read More » -
1977Women’s Day Formalized The U.N. General Assembly formalizes International Women’s Day (March 8) as an annual event. Read More » -
1979CEDAW Adopted United Nations adopts Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. It defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination. Read More » -
1980 Copenhagen Conference Second World Conference on Women held in Copenhagen. Conference calls for stronger national measures to ensure women's ownership and control of property, as well as improvements in women's rights to inheritance, child custody and loss of nationality.
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1980 First Elected Head of State Vigdís Finnbogadóttir becomes President of Iceland. She is the world’s first democratically elected female head of state. 
1982First Female Chief EconomistAmerican Anne Krueger becomes the World Bank’s first female Vice President/Chief Economist. -
1985Nairobi Conference Third World Conference on Women held in Nairobi. Participants agree to measure three indicators of progress on gender equality: constitutional and legal measures; equality in social participation; equality in political participation and decision-making. Read More » -
1986Aquino Elected The Philippines’ Corazon Aquino becomes the first democratically elected female head of state in Asia. -
1988Bhutto Elected Benazir Bhutto becomes Prime Minister of Pakistan. She is the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state. -
1990Chamorro Elected Nicaragua’s Violeta Chamorro becomes the first democratically elected female head of state in the Americas. -
1994Bank Issues Gender Policy World Bank issues operational policy to reduce gender disparity and enhance women’s participation in the economic development of their countries.
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1995 Beijing Conference Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing; representatives of 189 countries attend. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action identifies 12 priorities for action, including education and training of women, women and health, violence against women, women’s human rights, and the girl child. Read More » -
1995 Women in Parliament In 1995, women account for 10% of members of parliament worldwide; this rate would increase to 17% by 2009. -
2000Millennium Development Goals World leaders adopt eight Millennium Development Goals, committing nations to reduce poverty and meet a series of targets by 2015. Goal 3 addresses gender equality and women’s empowerment. Read More » -
2006 Sirleaf Elected Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf elected first female head of state in Africa. - 2005-2006
More Girls in School From 1975 to 2005, gross enrollment rates for girls in some low-income countries jumped from 52% to 94%. From 1999 to 2006, girls’ primary school completion rose by 9% worldwide.
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- 2007
Gender Action Plan World Bank launches the Gender Action Plan: Gender Equality as Smart Economics, focused on the economic empowerment of women in four key markets – financial, labor, land/product, and infrastructure. Read More » -
2008Helping Adolescent Girls World Bank Adolescent Girls Initiative launches to promote the transition of girls from school to productive employment. As of late 2010, the initiative was active in Afghanistan, Lao PDR, Jordan, Liberia, Nepal, Rwanda and South Sudan.
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2008 Maternal Mortality Drops From 1990 to 2008, the number of women dying due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth decreases by 34%.
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2010 UN Women Launches Former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet appointed to head United Nations Women (UN Women), a newly created entity to oversee all U.N. programs to promote women’s rights and full participation in global affairs. Read More » -
2010 Bank Gender Roadmap World Bank releases Three-Year Road Map for Gender Mainstreaming to apply lessons from the Gender Action Plan and create momentum for women's economic opportunity. Road map focuses on farm inputs, access to financial services and jobs, and efforts to mitigate the effects of fuel and food price spikes on women. Read More » -
2011-2012 WDR 2012 on GenderThe World Development Report 2012, scheduled for release in late 2011, will focus on gender equality. Read More »
