India ? Of nearly 200 nations worldwide, just 14 are run by women presidents or prime ministers. Only nine of 189 ambassadors to the United Nations are women. And by most accounts women hold less than 1 percent of corporate management positions worldwide.

That may have more than a little to do with why so many people in the world remain poor, hungry, ill, uneducated and at war, argued women leaders from around the world at a conference, which ended Monday, aimed at finding ways to get women more involved in solving international conflicts.

“We are not able to change the world simply by repeating over and over and over again answers that have not worked, that do not work and that will not work,” said Sister Joan Chittister, an American Benedictine nun, social psychologist and co-chairwoman of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, which organized the conference of 450 participants from 45 countries in Jaipur.