Women's Economic Empowerment, Gender Equality, Women in Politics, Indigenous Women, UN Women

However, despite recent rapid technological advances, some important ideas have yet to be disseminated in many parts of the world. This is especially true when it comes to the notion of human rights.

During her days as first lady, Hillary Clinton represented the United States at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women hosted by Beijing. In a stirring speech to international delegates from 189 countries, she declared to thunderous applause, “Women’s rights are human rights!”

“I ended the speech with a call to action to return to our countries and renew our efforts to improve educational, health, legal and political opportunities for women,” Clinton writes in her 2003 book, Living History. To her credit, Clinton, former U.S. secretary of state and the undeclared frontrunner for the presidency in 2016, forced women’s rights onto the international agenda.

Unfortunately, Clinton’s ideas have yet to take root in many places. According to the International Labour Organization, approximately 865 million women around the globe endure sexist discrimination at school and in the workplace.

Similarly, the World Bank contends that sexism remains a significant problem. “Trends suggest that gains in women’s labour force participation worldwide over the last three decades have been small and slow, hovering around 51% globally, but as low as 21% in the Middle East and North Africa,” states a World Bank primer entitled, Gender at Work: A companion report to the World Development Report on Jobs.

The World Bank reports that women commonly face legal barriers in the work world. Of the 143 economies studied, the Bretton Woods institution found that “128 had at least one legal sex differentiation in 2013.” Legal barriers to women included restricted access to identity cards, prohibitions on property ownership or the borrowing of money. And incredibly, in no less than 15 countries, women must get their husbands’ permission to enter the labour force.

Inclusive growth

Thanks to the work of the Bretton Woods institutions — the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) — the international system has benefited from “unprecedented economic and financial stability over the past seven decades,” Christine Lagarde stated last month in London, England, where she delivered the Richard Dimbleby Lecture. Lagarde is the managing director of the IMF, the first woman to hold that exalted job.

However, she believes that policymakers and economists need to change their way of thinking about economics. The IMF boss contends that they should “make sure that inclusion is given as much weight as growth in the design of policies.” In short, the world economy needs “inclusive growth.”

“If we talk about inclusion in economic life, we must surely talk about gender,” Lagarde declared. “As we know too well, girls and women are still not allowed to fulfil their potential — not just in the developing world, but in rich countries, too.”

When world leaders came together at the UN in 1999 to establish the Millennium Development Goals, a clear set of international development benchmarks to be achieved by 2015, they understood that development and gender equality are inextricably linked. That’s why they made the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women one of the top MDGs.

According to Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada’s website, the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment is “essential to the achievement of all the other Millennium Development Goals.” Consequently, the promotion of gender equality is integral to Canada’s international development programs....

VENDORS at two key marketplaces in Solomon Islands are set to benefit from a new UN Women project that will inject more than SBD$20 million into making markets safe working environments that promote women’s empowerment through improved market governance, physical infrastructure, and onsite services.

Between 75 and 90 per cent of vendors working at Pacific markets are women and their earnings are often significant to the incomes of poor households. Markets may seem small-scale, but they are significant contributors to the national economy.

However, vendors, especially women, face numerous day-to-day challenges – the hours are long, the profits are low and violence against women is widely reported.

And despite the high number of women working in marketplaces, it is often men who run marketplaces and control decision-making.

This makes markets a particularly effective place to help improve women’s economic position and reduce national poverty.

In an offer exclusive to Guardian Global Development Professionals Network members, we are inviting you to a discussion on the rights of women and girls hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK's Department for International Development and Save the Children.

Speakers include:

• The UK's Secretary of State for International Development, Justine Greening MP

• Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda Gates

• CEO of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Tewodros Melesse

• CEO of Save the Children, Justin Forsyth

The discussions will focus on the steps towards improving the lives of women and girls around the world, through family planning, ending female genital mutilation, child marriage and infant mortality.

The event is on Wednesday 21 May, from 2.30 to 3.30pm in a central London location. There will be an opportunity to meet the Global Development Professionals Network team beforehand.

We have a limited number of seats available to our members, for a chance to win a place, sign up here then send a question the speakers via this form.

The persistent constraints and deprivations that prevent many of the world’s women from achieving their potential have huge consequences for individuals, families, communities, and nations. Expanding women's agency—their ability to make decisions and take advantage of opportunities—is key to improving their lives as well as the world we all share.
-- World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, Foreword, Voice and Agency: Empowering Women and Girls for Shared Prosperity

A new World Bank report, Voice and Agency: Empowering Women and Girls for Shared Prosperity, distills vast data and hundreds of studies to cast important new light on the constraints women and girls face worldwide, from epidemic gender-based violence to biased laws and norms that prevent them from making decisions about their own lives. These constraints are not only fundamentally unjust but economically unwise, slowing efforts to end poverty and boost shared prosperity.

WATCH EVENT RECORDING

A Gender and Development Seminar Series event

The report, Roadmap for Promoting Women's Economic Empowerment, a collaboration between the UN Foundation and the ExxonMobil Foundation, identifies proven, promising and high-potential interventions to promote women’s economic advancement and increase women’s productivity and earnings worldwide. It also looks at the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of programs to provide a new framework for how best to empower women. The report particularly focuses on four categories—entrepreneurship, farming, wage employment and young women’s employment—identified as priority areas in the WDR 2012 on Gender Equality and Development....

This map tells us whether nations take at least one approach to protecting gender equity in their constitution.

Only constitutional provisions are included in this map. Legislative protections are not shown here. Read more about why constitutions matter.

More information:

New York—At the 58th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, UN Women and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women today announced a new partnership which will see the collaboration between UN Women’s Knowledge Gateway for Women’s Economic Empowerment and the Cherie Blair Foundation’s Mentoring Women in Business Programme.

Over the next 12 months, UN Women and the Cherie Blair Foundation will work together to support women’s economic empowerment through a range of projects — including by linking women entrepreneurs from the Foundation’s mentoring programme with the Knowledge Gateway and offering the mentoring opportunity to members of the Knowledge Gateway community.

“This kind of collaboration is vital, and is a testimony to the engagement of all sectors of society to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment,” said Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director, UN Women. “The Knowledge Gateway offers an opportunity to reach millions of women and girls worldwide and at all levels of society. Mentoring and support is the catalyst that many women need to truly unlock their potential and achieve the goals they have set for themselves, whether it is to improve their businesses, get a bank loan, bring new tools to their farms, use a computer or to make their dream of an income and independence, a reality.”

The Knowledge Gateway for Women’s Economic Empowerment, launched in September 2013, is a global community established to share resources and tools for women’s economic empowerment, crowdsource feedback on innovative ideas and to connect women entrepreneurs and workers with experts, peers and networks, as well as Knowledge Gateway partners for concrete learning and growth opportunities. In its first six months alone empowerwomen.org has attracted more than 40,000 visitors from over 180 countries and has garnered more than 1,700 registered members, and 15 global partners to support women entrepreneurs, workers, farmers as well as policymakers. The Gateway also supports grass-roots women and men through a revolving group of ‘Global Community Champions’ from diverse countries and backgrounds with a focus on exchange of experiences, learning and advocacy for women’s economic empowerment.

The Cherie Blair Foundation’s Mentoring Women in Business Programme combines mentoring with technology to offer cross-border support to women entrepreneurs. This innovative programme matches women entrepreneurs in developing and emerging markets with male and female mentors around the world. Using the Cherie Blair Foundation’s online platform, the mentees and their mentors spend 12 months working one-on-one to achieve key business goals. Participants build their business skills and digital literacy through the Foundation’s trainings and become part of a global community of committed, ambitious entrepreneurs who are invested in each other’s success.

About UN Women
UN Women is the global champion for women and girls, dedicated to upholding the rights of half the world’s people. Established in 2010, UN Women acts on the fundamental premise that every woman has the right to live a life free from violence, poverty and discrimination, and that gender equality is central to achieving development. UN Women stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, but pursues a handful of elements proven to unlock rapid transformation, including ending violence against women, increasing women’s participation and leadership, and enhancing women’s economic empowerment.

Moderator:  Ms. Martine Dennis, Presenter, Al Jazeera Television   

Opening Remarks:   Dr. Donald Kaberuka, President, African Development Bank

Panelists:

Rapporteur:   Ms. Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Special Envoy on Gender, AfDB

Description:

There is strong business case for gender equality: Societies lag behind when half of their citizens cannot live to their full potential. Development and economic growth is slower when half of the continent’s citizens do not have access to productive resources and capabilities. Leadership is not complete when half of those who would-be leaders lack a voice. In a nutshell, gender equality generates stronger business and development results. Indeed, harnessing the full potential of women in business is a key driver of growth. This is what we need today for the Africa we want in 50 years. This side event will provide an opportunity to discuss and propose innovative and practical solutions to unlocking the productive resources for gender equality and women’s empowerment and provide a forum for sharing best practices and innovative solutions in ensuring women’s access to the productive resources that lead to gender equality and women’s empowerment, namely land and financing in Africa.

The e-discussion consists of four separate discussion threads: (1) Women’s access to financial services and products; (2) Women’s financial literacy and skills; (3) Women’s employment in the finance sector; and (4) Measuring the gender impact.

The objectives of the discussion are:

And while women have made progress — comprising more than half of professional-level jobs and earning 60 percent of undergraduate and maser’s degrees across the country — we are still marginalized with only 9 percent of women holding top management positions across the U.S., according to recent findings from the Center for American Progress, Catalyst, Center for Economic Development. Furthermore, the Center for American Progress predicts that women won’t reach parity with men when it comes to filling those leadership roles until the year 2085.

“When you look at the U.S., we were once this clubhouse leader, and now we are lagging behind other nations in women’s economic participation,” she said. “In the last two decades, when you look at 1990 to 2010, we were the sixth highest rate of female labor-force participating among 22 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, and we have dropped to No. 17 on the list. So we are not moving forward.”

This map tells us whether nations include measures to protect the right to equal pay for equal work based on gender in their constitution.

Only constitutional provisions are included in this map. Legislative protections are not shown here. Read more about why constitutions matter.

More information: