In a little over a month, on October 9, the Freedom Center will open a new, permanent exhibition on contemporary forms of slavery and its sordid companion: human trafficking.

The exhibition, entitled “Invisible: Slavery Today,” explores the extent of slavery today, which by some estimates is a global business of exploitation, abuse and oppression involving at least 12 million people trapped in situations where they are subjected to violence, paid hardly anything, and kept isolated from the world around them.

A recurring theme throughout the new exhibition is the mistreatment of women as a root cause of modern slavery.  A majority of trafficking victims are women, for example.  In some cultures, women are assigned a secondary, subservient role, which makes them vulnerable to spousal abuse, political repression and, as the world is witnessing in Afghanistan, horrific torture.  Where women (and, increasingly, girls) are treated as less than equal to their male counterparts, they are often denied basic human rights, prevented from owning property and — not infrequently — sold off by their families into forced marriages, prostitution and slave labor.

This week, the Washington Post published a guest column by Alyse Nelson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Vital Voices Global Partnership.  Her column asserts that while women are increasingly driving economic, political and cultural changes around the world, they lag behind in achieving equality in the law, the workplace, and society.

With fewer protections and a pervasive lack of respect, Nelson writes, women are constantly under physical threat.

“. . . only about one third of countries around the world have laws in place to combat violence against women, and in most of these countries those laws are not enforced, well resourced or taken seriously.

Violence against women and girls, in the form of human trafficking, harmful cultural practices, rape as a tactic of war and domestic violence, is one of the single greatest barriers holding women back. A staggering statistic: one out of every three women will be a victim of violence in her lifetime. And the problem is getting worse every year.”

Violence against women is tied to trafficking in several ways.  Traffickers abuse their victims as a method of control.  Spousal or parental abuse also is a factor in driving girls and women out of the home and more vulnerable to the promises of skilled traffickers. Recent studies in Europe also reveal that women — many of them abused or trafficked earlier in their lives — often run trafficking operations for criminal gangs.

The good news, or at least the optimistic view, is that achieving equal status in society (and in the process reducing or eliminating gender-based violence) isn’t a “zero-sum” game for society, Nelson says. No one’s rights need be taken away or diminished to elevate women to equality.  What’s more, she concludes, progress for women means progress for the world.

“If we’re looking to foster shared progress, progress that’s unqualified, sustainable and global,” Nelson says, “we’ve got to invest in womens economic, social and political presence with equal consideration.”