Nearly two out of three people who are blind or visually impaired are women

WASHINGTON, May 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Leading U.S.-based eye care NGOs held a briefing, "Seeing Women: Taking on Gender Inequities in Global Blindness Prevention," at the National Press Club in Washington, DC exploring links between gender and blindness, poverty, disability and education. NGOs and groups advancing the rights of women presented case studies and effective strategies that work in improving access to eye care services for women and girls.

"Globally, women bear a greater burden of blindness than men," said Victoria Sheffield, President, International Eye Foundation. "Clear evidence from developing countries shows that women receive fewer eye care services in part because eye care programs are not tailored to meet the needs of women and second, cultural and social barriers exist at the community level."

Kathy Spahn, President of Helen Keller International read a message from Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist and gender advocate: "The development community has steadily realized that you can't make much progress in international development unless you bring women into the equation. We sometimes focus so much on the injustices suffered by women that we risk perceiving poor women as a big mountain of a problem; the truth is that women aren't the problem, they're the solution."

Gender and Blindness

Of the 45 million bilaterally blind in the world, two thirds are women, yet they receive less than half the services. Moreover, 80% of these cases are preventable or treatable.

"The major cause of blindness in developing countries is cataract, curable by surgery. Women account for about two-thirds of the cataract blind because they do not receive surgery at the same rate as men," noted Dr. Suzanne Gilbert of the Seva Foun
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