Gender Equality

This discussion paper views the whys and hows of feminist engagement with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a broader context: the key UN-related processes from the time women began getting involved with them in the 1970s. This contextual analysis for the period from the 1970s up to 2010 illuminates a central argument of the paper: namely that feminist movement building is not a simple volitional act but is enmeshed in the fluxes and changes of its external environment and institutions. This historical background sets the stage for a more in-depth discussion of the recent period of the SDGs. Given the long history and persistence of gender inequality and violations of girls’ and women’s human rights such a perspective is essential for a more balanced understanding of where we need to go and how to advance more sustainable transformations. The feminist movement is no stranger to adverse economic social and political environments. This paper argues that the ability of feminist organizations to hold their own in this fierce world to defend human rights and to advance economic ecological and gender justice requires not only clarity of vision and a track record of analysis and advocacy but also stronger communications skills greater organizational resilience and effectiveness and the ability to build and nurture effective alliances in which younger people play strong roles.

Using micro data from two recent labour force surveys collected in Cameroon and Mali this paper explores gender differentials in labour market outcomes covering key areas such as occupational segregation informality part-time work and gender wage gaps. While women’s participation to the labour market is relatively high in Africa compared to other regions of the world the examples of Cameroon and Mali suggest it varies significantly within the continent. The data also show that the differential between the two countries in terms of women’s participation is driven by the differential in education levels. The analysis also reveals that noticeable gender differences can be observed in the employment patterns: while men are more likely to be salaried workers women are more often unpaid family workers. However in both countries informal employment is the norm for both sexes. Gender gaps in monthly earnings are found to be much bigger for self-employed than for wage workers a result that is consistent with other studies. Although education of both women and men is likely to play an important role social norms in general deserve to be studied more thoroughly in order to understand remaining differences and their evolution in a context of rising education levels.

This paper examines the characteristics of past and contemporary feminisms and dissects the issues with periodizing feminism in terms of “waves”. Part two focuses on understanding the most recent wave of feminist activism by considering its antecedents and main characteristics. It presents three case studies of movements in the Global South; the cases of Brazil India and Malawi illustrate some of the ideas campaigns and organizational forms of “new feminists”.

This publication examines policies for the support of families with children in particular child-related financial transfers and early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. The analysis is mainly focused on countries with institutionalized welfare states—primarily Western European and other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries—because that is where child-related benefits and services have the longest history. The work highlights a number of core insights relevant to policy planning and decision-making for child-related transfers and ECEC services.

Cash transfers are often considered a gender-sensitive development tool because women have traditionally been the target for large social cash transfer programs. However targeting women does not automatically yield favourable outcomes for women and girls. While there is emerging evidence from the development sector to suggest that cash transfers can positively impact women and girls across an array of protection and empowerment dimensions the results are often mixed and poorly understood. The evidence base on gender and cash in humanitarian settings where the use of cash is on the rise is even more limited. Without proper gender considerations there is a concern that cash transfers may fail to reach those left furthest behind potentially limiting rather than generating opportunity for greater gender-transformative change. This paper begins by presenting an overview of the latest research on cash transfers gender protection and empowerment outcomes. It continues by discussing some of the programme design features to consider when seeking to improve gender outcomes. Finally the paper concludes with a set of research questions that can help shape future research and practice in this area.

This paper investigates how women’s right to live free from violence operates in the context of insecure immigration status. It is based on qualitative research addressing intimate partner violence against women with insecure immigration status in England and Sweden analysed within a human rights theoretical framework. Empirical data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 31 survivors from 14 different non–European Union countries and 57 professional stakeholders from local national and international organizations. The paper identifies a tension between human rights and immigration control that is present in theory policy frameworks and migrant women’s lived experiences. It contends that this tension has led to a proliferation of rights’ statuses for migrant women who are exposed to intimate partner violence. A solution is offered in the form of an expansionist model of human rights whereby presence in a territory is the basis for recognition as a rights-bearing subject.

This paper traces the restructuring of rural families’ agricultural production the intra-household division of labour and land usage in the interim between the global oil price rise of 1979 and its precipitous fall by 2015. These decades witnessed smallholder export crop production becoming increasingly uncompetitive in the world market due to the high costs of transporting bulky crops over the vast expanses of rural Africa. With the decline of cash cropping men women and youth were drawn away from farming towards off-farm cash-earning in a wide variety of non-agricultural activities. Now male heads of household no longer monopolize cash earnings in rural households to the same extent as in the past. Women’s and youth’s earnings afford them more household decision-making autonomy. Demographically the HIV/AIDS crisis has imposed strain on rural households and impacted land usage and inheritance affecting women detrimentally in some countries whereas state reform of inheritance laws has improved women’s situation in other countries. Generally officially published national-level rural labour statistics harbour gender bias and under-reporting of female labour expenditure. Domestic work continues to be the preserve of women. Marriage patterns are changing with some women experiencing a reluctance to marry men due to men’s lost income-earning capacity and women’s increased wariness of contracting AIDS. In this context matrifocal families have gained salience.

This discussion paper examines how the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has been integrated into the national debate on gender equality in Ecuador. It identifies which policies from the Agenda have been taken into account and which have been rejected. It also examines how the actors involved in clarifying the scope of these policies—women’s movements sexual diversity organizations public officials and United Nations agencies working on gender equality—have coordinated their activities with the Agenda. In so doing it attempts to answer the following questions: How does the 2030 Agenda interact with the gender equality agenda in Ecuador? Where do they intersect and what are their points of contention? How has the global agenda influenced national policies and actions on gender equality and women’s rights? The paper also assesses whether newer feminist and sexual diversity organizations in Ecuador are aware of and incorporate the 2030 Agenda and conversely whether the Agenda addresses the debates and demands made by such organizations in recent years. Lastly it provides some recommendations on how to better translate the goals and targets on gender equality from the 2030 Agenda into Ecuador’s national gender policies.