While the world has achieved progress Goal 5: Achieve gender

towards gender equality and women’s

empowerment under the Millennium
equality and empower
Development Goals (including equal access all women and girls
to primary education between girls and boys),
women and girls continue to suffer
discrimination and violence in every part of
the world.

Gender equality is not only a fundamental

human right, but a necessary foundation for a
peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.
Unfortunately, at the current time, 1 in 5
women and girls between the ages of 15-49
have reported experiencing physical or sexual
violence by an intimate partner within a 12-
month period and 49 countries currently have
no laws protecting women from domestic
violence. Progress is occurring regarding
harmful practices such as child marriage and
FGM (Female Genital Mutilation), which has
declined by 30% in the past decade, but there
is still much work to be done to completely
eliminate such practices.

Providing women and girls with equal access

to education, health care, decent work, and
representation in political and economic
decision-making processes will fuel
sustainable economies and benefit societies
and humanity at large. Implementing new
legal frameworks regarding female equality
in the workplace and the eradication of
harmful practices targeted at women is crucial
to ending the gender-based discrimination
prevalent in many countries around the world.
1. The process of being fair to women and men.
2. Requires equal enjoyment by women and men of socially valued-goods, opportunities,
resources and rewards.
3. It doesn’t mean men and women being the same…

1. Forbidden from driving

2. Right to divorce
3. Access to education
4. Right to travel
5. Professional Obstacles
6. Feminization of Poverty
4 steps to achieve gender equality in our lifetimes

1. Stop child marriage and sexual

harassment
In Bangladesh and elsewhere, child marriage is a major
impediment to girls’ education. In Bangladesh more than 50% of
girls are married before the age of 18, and about 30% of girls 15 to
19 already have one child. If we want girls to be able to complete
education we have to end child marriage. We also have to seriously
address sexual harassment of girls. Insecurity is one of the reasons
parents give for marrying their daughters. It is also a major barrier
to girls’ full participation in education.

4. Make education gender sensitive

There has been much progress in increasing access to education, but
progress has been slow in improving the gender sensitivity of the
education system, including ensuring textbooks promote positive
stereotypes. This is critically important for girls to come out of schools as
citizens who can shape a more equal society. In some countries, there is a
tendency to assume that things are fine as long as there are equal number
of girls in schools.
6. Empower mothers
In Afghanistan, there have been great moves to increase number of girls
going through formal education through providing schools for girls in
every district. We have learned that through empowering women on the
community level you will also enhance girls education. When mothers are
educated and empowered to make choices in their lives, they enable their
daughters to go to school.

10. Work together

Alarmingly, gender gaps in sub-Saharan Africa have widened at higher
levels of schooling. This is a reverse of the global trend towards greater
parity. Between 1999 and 2010, the ratio of girls in secondary school fell
from 83 to 82 girls for every 100 boys at the secondary level and from 67
to 63 girls for every 100 boys at the tertiary level. This is stalled progress
and a reversion to the deep gender equalities that characterised previous
eras.