Women & Economy

Opinion: It’s Time to Step It Up for Gender Equality

By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
If we look at the headlines or the latest horrifying YouTube clip, Mar. 8 – International Women’s Day – may seem a bad time to celebrate equality for women.

Opinion: Manipulate and Mislead – How GMOs are Infiltrating Africa

By Haidee Swanby and Mariann Bassey Orovwuje
The most persistent myth about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is that they are necessary to feed a growing global population.

Opinion: Goals for Gender Equality Are Not a ‘Wish List’ – They Are a ‘To Do List’

By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
This weekend, at the invitation of President Michelle Bachelet and myself, women leaders from across the world are meeting in Santiago de Chile. We will applaud their achievements. We will remind ourselves of their contributions. And we will chart a way forward to correct the historical record. History has not been fair to women – but then, women usually didn’t write it.

Analysis: Economic Growth Is Not Enough

By Jessica Faieta
Recent new data show a worrying picture of Latin America and the Caribbean. Income poverty reduction has stagnated and the number of poor has risen — for the first time in a decade — according to recent figures from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Indigenous Food Systems Should Be on the Development Menu

By Valentina Gasbarri
Overcoming hunger and malnutrition in the 21st century no longer means simply increasing the quantity of available food but also the quality.

Biogas Eases Women’s Household Burden in Rural Cuba

By Ivet González
On the blue flame of her biogas stove, it takes half as long for rural doctor Arianna Toledo to heat bath water and cook dinner as it did four years ago, when she still used electric power or firewood.

Sexist Laws Still Thrive Worldwide

By Thalif Deen
A rash of sex discriminatory laws – including the legalisation of polygamy, marital rape, abduction and the justification of violence against women – remains in statute books around the world.

“HeForShe” Campaign Moves to the Next Stage

By Josh Butler
It launched in a blaze of social media glory with a viral speech that rocketed around the world, and five months on from the launch of U.N. Women’s groundbreaking HeForShe campaign, the real work is well underway.

U.N. Climate Talks Advance Link Between Gender and Climate Change

By Denise M. Fontanilla
A week of climate negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland Feb. 8-13 are setting the stage for what promises to be a busy year. In order to reach an agreement in Paris by December, negotiators will have to climb a mountain of contentious issues which continue to overshadow the talks.

Women Pick Up the Slack as Fishing Declines on India’s Southern Coasts

By Nachammai Raman
Geeta Selvaraj and a few other women take turns to prepare meals with just one large gas cooker in a tiny shop.

Pakistan’s Domestic Workers Long For Low Pay and Overwork to Be a Thing of the Past

By Zofeen Ebrahim
Sumaira Salamat, a mother of three in her mid-40s, works every day from ten in the morning until half-past two in the afternoon. She travels between three homes, and in each one she dusts, sweeps, washes utensils, and does the laundry. For her efforts, she earns about 3,000 rupees (29 dollars) per month.

From Bullets to Ballots: The Face of Sri Lanka’s Former War Zone

By Amantha Perera
In four months’ time, Sri Lanka will mark the sixth anniversary of the end of its bloody civil conflict. Ever since government armed forces declared victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on May 19, 2009, the country has savored peace after a generation of war.

Antiguan Shanty Dwellers Ask if Poverty Will Be the Death of Them

By Desmond Brown
It was early on a Saturday morning and there was no sign of life in the community. The shacks erected on both sides of the old, narrow road that winds through the area are all surrounded by zinc sheets which rise so high, it’s impossible to see what lies on the other side.

Africa’s Rural Women Must Count in Water Management

By Miriam Gathigah
More women’s voices are being heard at international platforms to address the post-2015 water agenda, as witnessed at the recently concluded international U.N International Water Conference held from Jan. 15 to 17 in Zaragoza, Spain.

Not Without Our Daughters: Lambada Women Fight Infanticide and Child Trafficking

By Stella Paul
At 11 years of age, Banawat Gangotri already has four years of work experience as a farm labourer. The child, a member of the nomadic Lambada community from the village of Bugga Thanda in India’s southern Telangana state, plucked cotton and chillies from nine a.m. until 5 p.m. for about a dollar daily.

From Bullets to Ballots: The Face of Sri Lanka’s Former War Zone

By Amantha Perera
In four months’ time, Sri Lanka will mark the sixth anniversary of the end of its bloody civil conflict. Ever since government armed forces declared victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on May 19, 2009, the country has savored peace after a generation of war.

Pacific Islands Call for New Thinking to Implement Post-2015 Development Goals

By Catherine Wilson
As the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of poverty-alleviation targets set by the United Nations, come to a close this year, countries around the world are taking stock of their successes and failures in tackling key developmental issues.

Battle Heats Up Over Legalisation of Sex Work in India

By Neeta Lal
Thirty-six-year-old Chameli Devi, a sex worker operating out of New Delhi's G.B. Road - Asia's largest red-light district, housing an estimated 12,000 of India’s three million sex workers – is an unhappy woman these days.

Women ‘Sewing’ a Bright Future in Northern Pakistan

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
At 46, Naseema Nashad is starting her life over, not out of choice but out of necessity. The Afghan woman was just 25 years old when Taliban militants stormed Kabul and her family was forced to flee to neighbouring Pakistan to escape what they knew would be a brutal regime.

India’s ‘Manual Scavengers’ Rise Up Against Caste Discrimination

By Shai Venkatraman
Watching Bittal Devi deftly weave threads of different colours into a vibrant patchwork quilt, it’s hard to imagine that this 46-year-old’s hands have spent the better part of their life cleaning toilets.

Q&A: “The Economy Needs to Serve Us and Not the Other Way Around”

By Peter Costantini
Since his college days, John Schmitt says, he’s been “very interested in questions of economic justice, economic inequality.”
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