Toward Prosperity: The Role of Women and Men in Building a Flourishing World Civilization

The Baha’i Community has made significant contributions on the global arena’s process of empowering women and creating a world of equality between the genders. The community issued a powerful statement as a follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and to the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly entitled “Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”. The statement affirmed a spiritual truth where women and men are equal, but acknowledged that this truth has been suppressed throughout history. It underscores the importance of the family as a crucial social environment within which formative education takes place and calls on societies not to exclude women from meaningful participation in work should they decide to dedicate a focused period of their lives to the rearing of children. Download