Gender equality

Gender Equality was made part of international human rights law by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948. That milestone document in the history of human rights recognized that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and that “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, … birth or other status.”

In 1979, the General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which is often described as an International Bill of Rights for Women. In its 30 articles, the Convention explicitly defines discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination. The Convention targets culture and tradition as influential forces shaping gender roles and family relations, and it is the first human rights treaty to affirm the reproductive rights of women.

The UN system continues to give particular attention to the issue of violence against women. The 1993 General Assembly Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women contained “a clear and comprehensive definition of violence against women [and] a clear statement of the rights to be applied to ensure the elimination of violence against women in all its forms”. It represented “a commitment by States in respect of their responsibilities, and a commitment by the international community at large to the elimination of violence against women”.

The Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, went a step further than the Nairobi Conference. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action asserted women’s rights as human rights and committed to specific actions to ensure respect for those rights.

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The CSW is instrumental in promoting women’s rights, documenting the reality of women’s lives throughout the world, and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women. The Commission's priorities for the 2021-2024 period are:

• Women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

• Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes.

• Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

• Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations is now focusing its global development work on the recently-developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Women have a critical role to play in all of the SDGs, with many targets specifically recognizing women’s equality and empowerment as both the objective, and as part of the solution.

Goal 5, to "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls" is known as the stand-alone gender goal, because it is dedicated to achieving these ends. Deep legal and legislative changes are needed to ensure women’s rights around the world. While a record 143 countries guaranteed equality between men and women in their Constitutions by 2014, another 52 had not taken this step.

Stark gender disparities remain in economic and political realms. While there has been some progress over the decades, on average women in the labour market still earn 20 per cent less than men globally. As of 2024, only 26.8 per cent of all national parliamentarians were female, a slow rise from 11.3 per cent in 1995.

When developing programming, some things to keep in mind regarding gender equality:

• "Gender equality" and "focusing on women / girls" are not the same thing.

  • To pursue gender equality it is crucial to involve men and to identify men and boys who are champions for social change

  • It is important consider the specific issues that effect men and boys i.e. in some communities boys are expected to leave schooling early to undertake child labour to support the family, and girls are expected to leave schooling early to have an early marriage / child marriage and relieve the family of another mouth to feed. Its important to consider both issues fairly and address the gendered aspects of early school leaving / non-completed education.

• Gender equality is multi-dimensional and its important to apply carefully tailored programming that is relevant for a specific context and meets the community where they are starting from. It is important to be aware of the risk that in involving women in non-traditional spheres (i.e. paid work in areas where women are usually in unpaid work within the home or further / tertiary education in areas where women usually finish school early) this could increase the burden of women (by expecting them to do work both outside the home / study outside the home and also fulfil their traditional roles inside the home) if there isn't associated changes among men and boys to take up work inside the home to free up women or girl's time. Similarly, involving women in paid work outside the home without addressing gender norms regarding financial decision making can result in women working for money they have no control over.

Resources:

Australian Council for International Development'sGender Equality: Building Blocks for an effective, just aid program"

UN Women Strategies and Tools

Gates Foundation Gates Equality Toolkit