""Women are now playing a stronger role in developing societies than ever before. The representation of women at the very highest level in national parliaments, in business and in labour organisations such as unions has vastly increased. But nearly 100 years on from the first International Women's Day, it defies belief that so many women across the developing world are still facing some of the fundamental historical challenges that have held women back for centuries." In Malawi, nearly three-quarters of the country's full-time farmers are women, and mothers are still burying one in 10 of their babies. Indeed, maternal ill-health is one of the biggest battles remaining to be fought around the world. The scale of the crisis is exposed today in a new report from an influential parliamentary select committee, claiming that up to one million pregnant women die every year from largely avoidable causes, nearly double the previous estimate."