Women held back by poor statistical reporting

Dozens of countries around the world are failing to fully report basic statistics on wages, births and deaths, making it impossible to examine differences between the sexes and achieve equality for &to=http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/359/15063_women.html' target=_blank>women, according to a U.N. report released Wednesday.

"At the most essential levels of government, we need official statistics for a detailed assessment of progress of the situation of women and girls across geographic regions and socioeconomic groups," said Mary Chamie, a senior U.N. statistician and the report's lead author.

Data relating to women _from domestic violence to school enrollment to income levels_ is crucial to achieving gender equality and development goals including reducing poverty and improving education, according to the report, "The World's Women 2005."

That data has largely been lacking, especially in the developing world, the report said.