Jimmy Carter, whose prolific postpresidential career as an author has covered aging, his Southern boyhood and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is now tackling the treatment of women.

According to a book proposal that has circulated among several major publishers in the last week, Mr. Carter plans to write a 50,000-word book about “all aspects of women’s lives” that explores the unequal treatment of women around the world and the use of religious texts to justify discrimination.

The book proposal, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, was sent to publishers by Lynn Nesbit, the literary agent whose clients include Joan Didion and Robert A. Caro.

“I am convinced that discrimination against women and girls is one of the world’s most serious, all-pervasive and largely ignored violations of basic human rights,” Mr. Carter, 88, wrote in the proposal, adding: “It is disturbing to realize that women are treated most equally in some countries that are atheistic or where governments are strictly separated from religion.”