By: Christopher Williams

The fate of the world depends on the fate of the world's women. This was the resounding message during the unveiling of the WomanStats program Thursday, October 11 in the Kennedy Center on Brigham Young University campus.

The WomanStats project is a comprehensive database on the status of women in nations around the world funded by various charities and institutions like BYU's College of Family, Home and Social Sciences. The project's creator, Valerie M. Hudson, conducted the unveiling and explained how, in today's world, it has become almost conventional to direct an eye towards the international situation of women now that women actually matter in international affairs.

Valerie Hudson, who is also a professor of political science at Brigham Young University, became interested in the availability of information on women internationally through work she did studying the abnormal sex ratios of Asia. The WomanStats project was born out of questions Hudson had asked herself concerning whether there could be broader or similar implications based on her findings.

"My female students and my daughters are some of the most wonderful people I know." Hudson said. "That there are places in this world where they would be mistreated is something that I will fight to my last dying breath."

The WomanStats project now spans many universities and includes some of the finest minds on college campuses. Volunteers come from all across the nation to offer their time and talents towards the expansion and refinement of the project.

The WomanStats project seeks to address problems and difficulties in the compilation of data concerning women. Despite the progress in recent years, there are still missing and obscure data, problems with existing data sets and indexes, and language barriers. By rectifying the available data, the WomanStats project hopes to allow others to continue research into the international state of women.

"You can't cure something that's under the carpet," Hudson said, "You can only cure something you can see."

The WomanStats project currently encompasses 245 variables in 172 countries, and serves as a resource to policymakers, researchers, journalists, teachers and students in providing information searchers would be hard pressed to find elsewhere.

"This is a centralized knowledge base, no more scavenger hunts," Hudson said. "You want to know about someone in Burkina Faso? We're your first stop."

People interested in the project or who would like to participate in the project can visit the WomanStats Web page at http://www.womanstats.org.