Gender Equality

Gender inequality makes women in most societies poorer.  Women face more obstacles than men in labour markets, receive lower wages for the same work, dominate in the informal economy and have less access to credit, land, time, education, and other productive resources.  In most parts of the world poor women do the caring, feeding and cleaning for the family, treating for the sick and dying – particularly in this era of HIV & AIDS, as well as earning small amounts of cash through labour-intensive activities.  As farmers, workers, heads of households and community leaders they make productive and essential contributions to their community and country. As such, poverty eradication strategies must see women as active agents and not intrinsically vulnerable.  For if women are vulnerable it is only because they have been made vulnerable – legally, economically, culturally, sexually, structurally – for centuries.   

The fight against poverty therefore requires equality and justice for women. Sufficient income is necessary to lowering poverty, but getting communities out of poverty will depend on women’s leadership, access to education, time, land, healthcare and credit, as well as women enjoying their reproductive and sexual rights, freedom from violence, and equal rights in the family and in society. 

Similarly, the fight against poverty is also a fight against the unequal distribution of wealth.  It is a fight against the neoliberal economic framework which favours corporations and powerful domestic lobbies in North America and Europe and a system that does not contribute to the eradication of poverty or the achievement of human rights and development goals.  It is a fight for a system of global governance that supports equality and social justice.

International Women's Day

• IWD March 8th, 2008
  
• IWD March 8th, 2007

To know more

The Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)
AWID is an international membership organisation connecting, informing and mobilising people and organisations committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development and women's human rights. 

WWSF Women's World Summit Foundation
WWSF , an international, non-profit, non-confessional empowerment NGO (with UN consultative status ECOSOC, UNFPA and DPI) serves to help implement women’s and children’s rights and the UN Millennium Development Goals MDGs. 

Agenda
Agenda as a feminist media organisation in Africa is committed to giving women a forum, a voice and skills to articulate their needs and interests towards transforming unequal gender relations. Its website contains links to gender resources that are free to use and access.

The Center for Women's Global Leadership
The Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL) was founded as a project of Douglass College in 1989 and is a unit of the Institute for Women's Leadership (IWL), a consortium of six women's programs at Rutgers University created to study and promote how and why women lead, and to develop programs that prepare women of all ages to lead effectively.

Women's Environment & Development Organisation
Founded in 1991, the Women's Environment & Development Organisation (WEDO) is an international organisation that advocates for women’s equality in global policy. 

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
The Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom, hereinafter referred to as WILPF brings together women of different political beliefs and philosophies who are united in their determination to study, make known and help abolish the causes and legitimisation of war. 

International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN)
The International Gender and Trade Network is a network of feminist gender specialists who provide technical information on gender and trade issues to women's groups, NGOs, social movements and governments.

Women's Learning Partnership ( WLP )
WLP is a builder of networks, working with 18 autonomous and independent partner organizations in the Global South, particularly in Muslim-majority societies, to empower women to transform their families, communities, and societies.

WIDE
WIDE is a European feminist network of women’s organisations, development NGOs, gender specialists and women’s rights activists.

IWMF – International Women’s Media Foundation
IWMF is committed to strengthening the role of women in the news media around the world, based on the belief that no press is truly free unless women share an equal voice.

Global Women's Strike network
The Global Women's Strike network, with national co-ordinations in 11 countries and participating organisations in over 60 countries, is demanding the return of military budgets to the community, beginning with women the main carers of people and the planet.

Web links for Directory of Resources on Gender and Women's Issues:
Region and country specific information on the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women 

United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
UNIFEM produces a variety of publications and tools that are available for free in electronic form on this website. Print copies may be for sale and are available through WomenInk; select titles can also be ordered from Kumarian Press.

Gender Campus at the International Labour Organisation
The Gender Campus is the new virtual meeting place for the community of gender experts, advocates and sympathizers of the Gender Coordination Unit of the ILO International Training Centre. It includes a gate to enter all our on-line learning courses and many more facilities. 

Gender, Science and Technology Gateway
The Gender, Science and Technology Gateway is a resource for researchers, policy makers, and NGOs. It provides key links and information on research, practice, policy and partners in sustainable development which focuses on gender equality to promote sustainable and equitable science and technology for development. 

Siyanda: A Project of BRIDGE, Institute of Development Studies , University of Sussex
Siyanda is a very useful on-line database of gender and development materials. It is also an interactive space where gender practitioners can share ideas, experiences and resources.

The Gateway to Development Tools (Eldis): Gender Resource Guide
Offers gender related information on a range of issues including education, health, conflict, trade, poverty, HIV/AIDS and statistics.

Asian Development Bank: Gender and Development
Particularly helpful are their sections on Sectoral Gender Checklists (i.e. gender checklist for Urban Development, Health, and Education), Gender Equality in ADB Projects and Publications.

Canadian International Development Agency: Gender Equality
See brief online guide to "What is gender analysis" as well as their section on Tools & Resources which has a couple good publications on gender-sensitive indicators. CIDA also provides links to national and international NGO's working on issues related to gender.

The World Bank: GenderStats
GenderStats is an electronic database of gender statistics and indicators. It offers statistical and other data in modules on several subjects. The data in each module is presented in ready-to-use format. Users have the option of saving the country views in Excel (or other spreadsheet software) to customize them for their own reports.

UNDP: Women's Empowerment
This site has a lot of helpful information on gender mainstreaming including Fact Sheets that discuss gender mainstreaming in different UNDP policy areas (i.e. water governance, HIV/AIDS, and parliamentary development).

World Health Organisation: Gender, Women, and Health
A wealth of information on gender mainstreaming, gender based violence, gender and HIV/AIDS and general health issues.