Women & Economy

Is there Gender Parity & Reverse Sexual Harassment at UN?

By Thalif Deen
Faced with growing allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) in the UN system, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last year announced a “zero-tolerance” policy to fight harassment in the world body.But UN Women, which was created in July 2010 and dedicated to gender empowerment, has moved one step further-- and appointed an Executive Coordinator and Spokesperson on Sexual Harassment and Discrimination, perhaps one of the few UN bodies to do so.

We Have Told G7 Leaders to Make Gender Inequality & Patriarchy History

By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Michael Kaufman
For most people, the annual G7 meeting may just seem like an expensive photo-op that doesn’t connect with any concrete change in people’s lives. But for us, appointed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sit on his G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council, it was a unique opportunity to push for strong commitments for girls’ and women’s rights.

The Spotlight Initiative: Eliminating Violence & Harmful Practices Against Women & Girls

By Natalia Kanem, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka & Achim Steiner
The numbers are shocking: at least one in three women on the planet has suffered physical or sexual violence, usually at the hands of a family member or intimate partner. More than 700 million women alive today were married as children. Up to 250 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation.

‘Don’t Try to Be a Superwoman’: An Interview With Michelle Bachelet

By Dulcie Leimbach
Michelle Bachelet ended her second term as president of Chile on March 11, 2018. Her first term, from 2006 to 2010, was marked by an ambitious social and economic agenda advancing women’s rights and better health care. Her cabinet of ministers, for example, was composed of an equal number of men and women, as she vowed to do during her campaign.

Why Milk, Meat & Eggs Can Make a Big Difference to World’s Most Nutritionally Vulnerable People

By Silvia Alonso
As the world becomes increasingly aware of the growing demands being made of our planet, more and more of us are making lifestyle choices to reduce our negative environmental impact and carbon footprint.

We Need a Gender Shift to save Our Girls from the Jaws of Extremism

By Ambassador Amina Mohamed and Siddharth Chatterjee
Consider this. Boko Haram, the ISIS-affiliated insurgent group has sent 80 women to their deaths in 2017 alone.The majority of suicide bombers used by terror group Boko Haram to kill innocent victims are women and children, US study reveals.

Mothers & Children: Addressing Disappearances through a Gender Perspective

By Rangita de Silva de Alwis
At the beginning of the Nuremberg Trials, Justice Robert Jackson, the Chief Prosecutor, charged the world that submitting the enemy to the judgment of the law is “one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.”

Women Farmers in Peru Bring Healthy Meals to Local Schools

By Mariela Jara
Getting children and adolescents to replace junk food with nutritious local organic foods is the aim of a group of women farmers in a rural area of Piura, on Peru’s north coast, as they struggle to overcome the impact of the El Niño climate phenomenon.

DR Congo’s Mai-Ndombe Forest ‘Savaged’ As Landless Communities Struggle

By Issa Sikiti da Silva
Thousands of logs loaded into makeshift boats at the port of Inongo at Lake Mai-Ndombe stand ready to be transported to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

UN’s Highest Policy-Making Body to Break Male Domination— Momentarily

By Thalif Deen
The 193-member General Assembly – one of the highest policy-making bodies at the United Nations – will get a much-needed break, come September, when a woman will preside over its 73rd session, only the fourth in the history of the world body.

Indonesia’s Women Activism– Beyond Suffrage

By Devi Asmarani
More than a century has passed since Putri Mardika, Indonesia’s first ever women's organization, was established but challenges persist in the efforts to influence national politics to bring progress to all women.

Fashion Paradigm That Does Not Pollute the Planet

By Kaya Dorey
Fashion is meant to be trendy. It’s fast-paced: in one season, out the next. If you want to keep up, you had better update your wardrobe - that top you bought last summer is already outdated. While things may have been built to last a life-time a generation ago, today they don’t even last a year.

Africa’s Corporate Boardrooms: Where are the Women?

By Kwamboka Oyaro
When a woman rises to the top rung of the traditionally all-male corporate ladder in Africa, it’s front-page news because women’s progress in business leadership on the continent continues to be achingly slow.

The Role of Law Schools in Shaping Global Gender Justice

By Rangita de Silva de Alwis
March 8th, 2018, International Women’s Day, saw an extraordinary global mobilization for gender equality. In the last year, global movements for gender equality-- from marches to powerful grassroots organizing and viral social media campaigns, such as #MeToo and #TimesUp in the United States and other countries-- have galvanized the world’s attention like never before.

Women Miners Stake a Claim in Zimbabwe

By Sally Nyakanyanga
Tapiwa Moyo, 40, religiously leaves her home each day when the first cock crows and joins a throng of women who have taken up artisanal mining in her community.

Women Lead the Fight for Housing in Brazil

By Mario Osava
"Here we empower women and we do not tolerate domestic violence, which we treat as our own, not as an intra-family, issue," says Lurdinha Lopes, a leader of the squatting movement in Brazil.

#MeToo & Security Council Resolution 1325

By Mavic Cabrera-Balleza
I am one of millions of women who posted #MeToo on social media. The call to post was like a flash of light that brought back vivid memories of cat calls, male colleagues making passes, lewd jokes, men rubbing their bodies against mine in packed buses and trains and a man in an act of public sexual self-gratification on the subway.

Rural Women’s Empowerment — the Road to Gender Equality & Sustainable Development

By Lakshmi Puri
When we celebrate the International Women’s Day (IWD) this year we shine the brightest light on the vast majority of women - especially in developing countries that live and work in rural areas and whose empowerment is about bringing the farthest left behind to the forefront of being the prime beneficiaries and drivers of sustainable development, peace and security, human rights and humanitarian action.

A Fair Reflection? Women and the Media

By Audrey Azoulay
Information and communication technologies have the potential to open up new worlds of ideas and the media - television, newspapers, advertising, blogs, social networks, film – is increasingly omnipresent in the lives of many of us. In line with one of the major themes of this year’s Commission on the Status of Women, UNESCO is assessing how the media and ICTs shape the lives of women.

Ensuring Equality & Inclusion Essential to Weed Out Roots of Extremism

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury
In the next seven days two of the biggest events that drive the women’s equality agenda will energize all well-meaning people of the world. The first on 8 March the International Women’s Day will assert renewed energy for women’s activism for peace, rights and development.

Press for Progress: Women’s Equality & Political Participation

By Peter Kagwanja and Siddharth Chatterjee
March 8, 2018 International Women’s Day offers another opportunity to reflect on the progress made towards gender equality and women’s political rights.
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