Many of us take our access to education for granted. We shouldn't, because what's a given in our own communities is a luxury elsewhere. Did you know that 42% of girls in developing nations are not enrolled in school? Economic hardship, gender bias, and cultural assumptions of the roles of females prevent these girls from getting an education. Lacking basic skills, many of them will grow up with few options open to them.  According to the non-profit Room to Read, "Educating girls is the most powerful and effective way to address global poverty--and the single best investment one can make."

Room to Read has a Girls' Education program that operates in eight countries:  Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Zambia. Theirs is not a broad-brush approach; the program in each country is tailored to the needs of that nation's communities and to the cultural issues and context. The local partners identify out-of-school girls or those who are in danger of dropping out, and supports them with long-term scholarships and assistance. Nearly 7,000 girls are currently involved with the program, and in 2008 98% of girls in the Girls' Education program advanced to the next grade.

Education and literacy are critical to self-determination and self-sufficiency. Room to Read's Girls Education program gives girls the tools they need to improve their lives and pull themselves out of poverty. Their website offers you the opportunity to set up a personal fundraising campaign to make a donation and encourage others to do so in lieu of gift-giving this holiday season.

It wouldn't be December without the ubiquitous Top 10 list. Perhaps that's because it's easier to end the year by reviewing the best and worst, thereby giving us that often-invoked sense of 'closure.'

I used to browse whatever Top 10 list crossed my path to see if I agreed or disagreed with the list-maker. Now that I'm responsible for coming up with a few lists of my own, it becomes less fun and a little more nerve-wracking. With every list I compile, I know I'll get both kudos and complaints.

Barbara Walters has her "Most Fascinating People." Others come up with the "Most Influential." Looking over what I've covered in the past year, I decided on "Most-Talked About." Is that a cop-out? Sort of.

I resist handing you a "Most Important" or "Most Significant" list because I don't want to play Moses coming down from the mount with a numbered list set in stone; that feels too patriarchal and not very collaborative. So instead, I looked back at the posts I wrote and the women I highlighted, and took into consideration the numbers and types of comments I received. Usually if you're buzzing about something, the rest of the world is too.

So here are my picks for the "Top 10 Most-Talked About Women of 2009." Some are serious, others are frivolous. Some made us feel good and a couple made us feel uncomfortable. All of them were women whom everyone seemed to have an opinion about.

Take a look, and then tell me if I missed anyone. If you had to put together your own "Top 10 List of  the Most [fill in the blank] Women of 2009," whom would you include?

What numbers do you associate with this time of year? Four calling birds, three french hens, 25 days of Christmas, 8 days of Hanukkah, 7 days of Kwanzaa. But one of the most important numbers may be the least familiar.

Every woman should know about the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence from November 25 through December 10. It's a global effort to raise awareness of the fact that violence against women is a human rights issue.

In more than 150 countries, over 2000 agencies and organizations have observed the 16 Days since it was established in 1991. One of them is Save Darfur, which is dedicated to helping Sudanese women who have endured rape, beatings, hunger and humiliation in Darfur and in the refugee camps of eastern Chad.

The Center for Women's Global Leadership, the sponsoring organization behind 16 Days, has a website featuring many more organizations worthy of your attention and support, along with voices from around the world sharing their stories.

Black Friday came and went without my contributing significantly to the economy. But my 16-year-old daughter did some internet shopping, buying from the same youth-oriented clothing retailers she sees at the mall. Each online catalog showed items cleanly displayed against a white background. For Em, shopping online is about product, not about image. But we can all remember printed holiday catalogs from the past that sold much more than 'product.' They sold us a lifestyle, a fantasy world, and a dream of how the other half lives. Some even sold us 'image' in ways that skirted the edge.

My daughter Em is too young to remember, but six years ago one teen-clothing retailer published a paper catalog so sexist and controversial that several national groups threatened a boycott The retailer quickly pulled that catalog from the stores and eventually discontinued its publication.

Who was the retailer and what was the catalog some described as softcore porn? At the Gender Ads project, you can see the 2003 holiday catalog that featured topless women in layouts mimicking group sex, and find out more about the groups responsible for getting the catalog pulled. And at the National Review online, writer Ann Morse examines the controversy and what it took to get a major retailing chain to stop "deliberately aiming its porn and damaging lifestyle advice, not at dirty old men, but at kids."

Have you seen any particularly sexist ads or images this holiday season? Do you think the objectification of women in advertising is getting  better...or worse?