Women & Economy

Economic Empowerment of Women Good for All

By Kingsley Ighobor
Government staffer Souhayata Haidara enjoys talking about her life in a patriarchal society. Her career is a triumph of patience and perseverance, she tells Africa Renewal with a smile and a wink.

Women Activists Protest Torture & Imprisonment Under Repressive Regimes

By Thalif Deen
Faced with an uneven battle against right wing nationalist governments, repressive regimes and extremist groups, scores of civil society organizations (CSOs) are gearing themselves to fight back.

Invested in Gender Diversity

By Rakhi Kumar
Over the past decade, there has been mounting evidence that greater levels of gender diversity can have a positive impact on corporate performance and economic growth.

Making it in India: Women Struggle to Break Down Barriers Starting a Business

By Ashlin Mathew
Radhika Baburao Shinde was all of 12 years old when she was married off to a man who was 10 years older. She was sent away to live with her new husband, a truck driver, and his family in remote, drought-prone Satara district, 330 kilometers southwest of Mumbai. She left school and went to work as a laborer on her husband’s family farm.

Closing the Gender Gap: The Economic Benefits of Bringing more Women into the Labour Force

By Era Dabla-Norris and Kalpana Kochhar
As girls, we were raised with the belief that we could accomplish anything, and that no barrier was insurmountable. Yet, for so many women, the reality doesn’t quite meet their aspirations. Things weren’t exactly equal in the relatively conservative middle-class society in India where we both grew up.

It’s Simple, but Requires Determination

By Monika Weber-Fahr
I am drafting this on International Women’s Day - March 8 - with an eye towards World Water Day on March 22. On International Women’s Day we celebrate progress in gender equality. At the same time, we recognize how much remains to be done: how many women remain excluded from decision-making across many professions. Changing this is urgent. Water – clean and accessible – is getting scarcer at an alarming rate. While working to change this, we cannot afford to exclude women.

Women, Work, and Migration

By Annette Francis and Dheeraj Dubey
Social barriers have historically been blamed for the lack of gender parity in the workplace. But there are other dimensions to this age-old discourse.

The Geneva Centre reiterates the importance of fully including women in the labour market and in all spheres of society on the occasion of International Women’s Day

By Geneva Centre
On the occasion of the observance of the 2019 International Women’s Day, the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue reiterated the urgent need to intensify efforts towards achieving gender equality in all spheres of society, eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls, and promoting women’s political and economic empowerment.

Smart Tech Will Only Work for Women When the Fundamentals for Its Uptake Are in Place

By Ibrahim Thiaw
Science and technology offer exciting pathways for rural women to tackle the challenges they face daily. Innovative solutions for rural women can, for example, reduce their workload, raise food production and increase their participation in the paid labour market. But even the very best innovative, gender-appropriate technology makes no sense without access to other critical resources, especially secure land rights, which women in rural areas need to flourish.

Decent Work Still a Distant Dream for Many Latin American Women

By Mariela Jara
Women in Latin America earn one-fifth less than men for every hour worked, on average - one of the statistics that reflect the continuing inequality in the world of work that makes it unlikely for the region to meet the goal of equal pay by 2030.

Latin American Women Programme Their World against the Digital Divide

By Fabiana Frayssinet
Designed mostly by men, many digital applications are not suitable for women, but some initiatives are beginning to include them as programmers and beneficiaries in Latin America, where the gender gap is also technological.

Bringing #MeToo to the Fashion Industry

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
The global #MeToo movement has put a spotlight on sexual harassment and violence in various industries including the film and music industries. Is it now time for the fashion industry to address these issues within their supply chains, one organisation says.

Deported Salvadoran Women Pin Their Hopes on Poultry Production

By Edgardo Ayala
Salvadoran farmer Lorena Mejía opens an incubator and monitors the temperature of the eggs, which will soon provide her with more birds and eggs as the chickens hatch and grow up.

A better life for women

By Amitava Kar
(The Daily Star, Bangladesh) - The book “Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism” (2018)—as provocative as it sounds— has nothing to do with women's carnal pleasures. In it, Professor Kristen Ghodsee of the University of Pennsylvania argues that implementing socialist concepts would make women's lives more independent and fulfilling. That such an idea is put forth by an Ivy League academic from the United States of America, and not by a bleeding-heart leftist from Cuba, is striking. But not surprising.

Women’s unpaid work: Time to take concrete action

By Shaheen Anam
(The Daily Star, Bangladesh) - In 1995, during the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, the UNDP Human Development report stated that women's unaccounted work would amount to USD 3 trillion annually if monetised. Since then women's unpaid and care work has become a much discussed topic around the globe led by rights and development organisations. Recognition of women's unpaid and care work has been included in Goal 5 of the SDGs as a target to be achieved by 2030. However, there is little concrete evidence on how states are going about achieving this target.

Changing the Gender Bias in Agriculture

By Busani Bafana
Women entrepreneurs are playing an important role in transforming global food security for economic growth, but they have to work twice as hard as men to succeed in agribusiness.

‘Men-streaming’ Women’s Economic Empowerment

By Nalini Khurana and Ravi Verma
Most initiatives around Women's Economic Empowerment (WEE) are largely myopic in their approach. Failure to recognise the role of men and masculinities in this context can pose a significant barrier to both women and men's economic well-being.

Political Commitment Key to Health for All

By Ban Ki-moon
One of my proudest accomplishments as the former UN secretary-general was playing a part in the ambitious global agenda for sustainable development (SDGs), including the goal of universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030.

Undermining Human Rights of Women Trapped In Sex Trade

By Jessica Neuwirth
Seventy years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was signed in the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. Following two devastating world wars the United Nations General Assembly set out a brand new vision of human rights that the world could agree on going forward. It is still the benchmark by which most modern-day human rights organisations live.

Promoting Gender Equality On Front Lines

By Jessica Neuwirth
Last week’s announcement by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) of £50m ($64.3m) to help end female genital mutilation (FGM) is great news. The biggest ever financial commitment by any donor, it could be a game changer for the African-led movement to end this abhorrent subjugation of women.

Gender Inequality is Stunting Economic Progress

By Siddharth Chatterjee
‘Do not let us off the hook; keep our feet to the fire’. These were the words of the UN Secretary General Mr. Antonio Guterres when he promised to personally lead the global body towards greater gender equality.
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