ISSUE IN FOCUS
Gender equality is a basic human right and its achievement has immense socioeconomic implications. Yet, gender inequalities are deeply rooted in every society.
Sustainable Development Goal No. 5 is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. While progress has been made, no country in the world has achieved gender equality.
- Nearly 40% of women and girls, or 1.4 billion people, live in countries that are “failing on gender equality.”
- According to recent data from some 90 countries, women devote on average roughly three times more hours a day to unpaid care and domestic work than men, limiting the time available for paid work, education and leisure and further reinforcing gender-based socioeconomic disadvantages.
- Women are paid approximately 81 cents for every dollar a man makes.
- Women continue to be underrepresented at all levels of political leadership. As of 1 January 2019, women’s representation in national Parliaments ranged from 0 to 61.3%, with the average standing at 24.2%.
- While women represented 39% of world employment, only 27% of managerial positions in the world were occupied by women in 2018.
- 35% of women worldwide have experienced either intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.
- Globally, one in five girls were married before age 18.