Studies show that societies where discrimination is greatest have more poverty, slower economic growth and a lower quality of life than societies with less discrimination. The effects are strongest in the poorest countries. (UNFPA State of the World's Population 2000).

Some of the factors that prevent people, particularly women, being able to move out of poverty are:

• opportunities to do so are being blocked
• limitations of time
• inability to participate in political life, education, employment, health care and access to justice
• inability to exercise human rights
• lack of resources to afford the cost of social networking because poor people have little to exchange
• dealing with the stigma of poverty
• exclusion of women, including rigid gender segregation based on the concept of purdah and rigid definitions of public and private spheres
• caste - traditional occupational castes are among the poorest and most excluded, particularly in rural areas. Additionally, being a woman, a child and belonging to a low caste automatically makes them vulnerable
• exclusion results in fear, periodic violence, and vulnerability
• poverty means inadequate schooling and illiteracy, which in turn makes it more difficult for people to express themselves or obtain information about health care and in turn poor health reduces the incentive to invest in children's education

In this globalised world, inequality between men and women results in lost opportunities and prevents mutual gain. Women's equality is an absolute necessity if poverty is to be removed and empowering women is a key to equality.