No longer should women be denied the right to vote, no longer should women be treated as second class citizens, no longer should women not be allowed to be a citizen at all.

On the other end of the spectrum, these women who do live long enough to collect Social Security face the challenge of being disproportionately dependent on the Social Security system for retirement income.

The United Nations is a mess, riddled with scandals. In fact, the U.N. itself is a scandal.

First, women are more likely to live in poverty during their retirement years than are men.

Let us face it, the U.N. has failed. It has failed in its mission to promote world peace.

While all of these are important and significant events, it is the United States foreign policy that furthers the advancement of freedoms and rights for women that is the most striking for me.

As is the case with many Middle Eastern nations, women are nowhere near equal to men when it comes to basic freedoms and rights that we take for granted every day.