This paper from the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) calls for a specific commitment to achieving gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment in the post-2015 development framework and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as robust mainstreaming of gender considerations across all parts of the framework.
A transformative stand-alone gender equality goal must be grounded in an understanding that the structural causes of gender-based inequality lie in systems of discrimination that are often justified in the name of culture, history, or group identity, and policy rationalities which assume that the best way to achieve gender equality is to reduce the role of the state and liberate ‘the market’. To address these systems of discrimination, and the institutionalization of women’s subordination that they create, the goal must seek to end violence against women and girls and provide services to victims; end histories of underinvestment in expanding women’s and girls’ capabilities and resources; and reverse the systematic marginalization of women from public and private decision-making.
In order to address the structural causes of gender-based discrimination and to support true transformation in gender relations, we propose an integrated approach that addresses three critical target areas of gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment:
Freedom from violence
Prevent and respond to violence against women and girls
- Total and age-specific rate of ever-partnered women subjected to sexual and/or physical violence by a current or former intimate partner in the last 12 months, by frequency
- Total and age-specific rate of ever-partnered women subjected to sexual and/or physical violence by a current or former intimate partner during lifetime, by frequency
- Rates of female genital mutilation and other traditional harmful practices
- Percentage of women aged 20-24 who were married or in a union before age 18
Change perceptions, attitudes and behaviours that condone and justify violence against women and girls
- Percentage of people who think it is never justifiable for a man to beat his wife, by sex
- Percentage of people who think a woman can refuse to have sex with her husband under any circumstance, by sex
Ensure security, support services and justice for women and girls
- Proportion of women over 15 years-old subjected to physical or sexual violence in the past 12 months who reported it to the justice system
- Proportion of the population who feel safe walking alone at night in the area where they live, by sex
- Proportion of national budgets allocated to the prevention of, and the response to, violence against women
- Proportion of law enforcement professionals who are women (including judges and the police)
Capabilities and resources
Eradicate women’s poverty
- Percentage of people earning their own income, by sex
- Ownership of dwelling, by sex
- Percentage of population undernourished, by sex
- Old age pension recipient ratio 65+, by sex
Promote decent work for women
- Proportion employed in vulnerable employment, by sex
- Gender gap in wages
- Percentage of low pay workers, by sex
Build women’s access to, and control over, productive assets
- Proportion of adult population owning land, by sex
- Proportion of population with access to institutional credit (other than microfinance), by sex
Reduce women’s time burdens
- Average weekly number of hours spent on unpaid domestic work, by sex
- Proportion of children under primary school age enrolled in organized childcare
Promote education and skills for women and girls
- Transition rate to secondary education, by sex
- Secondary completion rate, by sex
- Share of female science, engineering, manufacturing and construction graduates at tertiary level
- Percentage of population using the Internet, by sex
Improve women’s and girls’ health
- Prevalence of lower respiratory tract infections, by sex
- Percentage of population aged 15-49 living with HIV/AIDS, by sex
- Under-5 mortality rate, by sex
Reduce maternal mortality and ensure women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health, and reproductive rights
- Maternal mortality ratio
- Available emergency obstetric care facilities per 100,000 population
- Unmet need for family planning
- Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel
- Age of mother at birth of first child ever born
Ensure women’s sustainable access to energy
- Percentage of households using solid cooking fuels, by urban/rural location
- Percentage of households with access to electricity, by urban/rural location
- Average weekly time spent on firewood collection, by sex
Ensure women’s sustainable access to water and sanitation
- Average weekly time spent in water collection (including waiting time at public supply points), by sex
- Proportion of population using an improved drinking-water source
- Proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility
Voice, leadership and participation
Promote equal decision-making in households
- Percentage of women who have a say in household decisions regarding large purchases
- Percentage of women who have a say in household decisions regarding their own health
- Percentage of women who have a say in household decisions regarding visiting relatives
- Percentage of people who think important decisions in the household should be made by both men and women, by sex
Promote participation in public institutions
- Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments
- Proportion of seats held by women in local governments
- Percentage of the population with basic national identity documentation, by sex
- Birth registration coverage, by sex
- Proportion of women in decision-making roles in relevant regional organizations involved in preventing conflict
Promote women’s leadership in the private sector
- Proportion of women in company boards
- Percentage of women in managerial positions in firms
- Proportion of media professionals who are Women
Strengthen women’s collective action
- Proportion of managers of civil society institutions who are women
- Proportion of women who are members of civil society organizations
