Women Fail From Global Viewpoint

(CNN) -- Women have finally arrived.

From Washington to Wall Street to Twitter, writers, academics, and business leaders are pointing to the empowerment of women as key to many of the world's greatest challenges. They're publicizing the research and amplifying hard facts, like the fact that when women have equal access to agricultural resources, 100 million to 150 million fewer people will go hungry.

Or that when women participate equally in the workforce, the GDP in the U.S. the eurozone, and Japan will experience a double-digit spike. And while there's no perfect metric for the popular perception of "girl power," a 2010 Pew study found widespread public support for women's equality in virtually every nation.

The excitement over women's potential and progress is warranted. But there's still a large and disappointing disconnect between research and reality. Girls and women do indeed perform 66% of the work and produce 50% of the world's food. But they earn only 10% of the world's income and own a dismal 1% of its property.

So tell me again, where have we arrived?  How is it that half the world is second class?  While women can accomplish quite a bit in the United States, there is still a glass ceiling firmly in place.  Women are nowhere near claiming their half, even in one of the friendlier countries in the world.

If women ever unite, a whole lot of stupidity would cease.  That isn't to say new stupidity wouldn't spring up to take its place, but even that much of a break would be refreshing.  The bottom line is until we treat people equally and give them equal value, we cannot succeed.