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Abstract by the authors: Sustainable Development Goal 5 - Achieve Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls - evokes an aspiration cherished by so many for so long. However, numerous constraints and challenges have held back progress toward realizing this important goal, without which several other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will remain in jeopardy. [...] This paper is a contribution toward appreciating the current challenges in realizing SDG 5 and making specific recommendations on how progress can be accelerated toward its achievement.
Abstract by the author: The rise of evidence-based policy has brought with it an increase in the use of indicators and data-driven global projects. The United Nations System has used the indicator-based Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) projects to govern policy from above. Of particular interest in this article is how indicators are used to govern gender equality initiatives within the Goals. By using ‘governance by indicators’ as a framework for understanding global policy processes, we can better understand how the power of indicators can help or hinder progress towards gender equality depending on the extent to which it renders gendered concerns visible. Studying indicators in this forum also illuminates spaces of contestation, where policy actors can debate indicators and reshape meaning. Based on this framework, this article explores UN Women’s feminist critique of measurement and knowledge production in the MDGs and SDGs. Looking through their feminist lens applied to this form of knowledge production can yield a better understanding of the use of indicators in shaping evidence-based policy from the global level. In recognizing the value of quantification and data-driven evidence in policy, this article speaks to the tension between feminist critique of quantitative knowledge production and the feminist approach’s welcoming of multiple ways of knowing.
Abstract by the authors: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Agenda 2030) encompasses social, economic, and environmental commitments within a single global framework. However, experts have been warning that the ambitious nature of Agenda 2030's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG s) might be lost in indicator-driven implementation. This article examines the assumption that SDG indicators result in policy shrinking (offering a less ambitious framing) by exploring how the framing of Agenda 2030's gender commitments shifts from SDG s to their indicators. Employing critical frame analysis, this article shows that SDG global indicators result in policy shrinking of gender-specific targets in terms of their 1) human rights framing 2) overall scope, and 3) inclusivity of target groups. This policy shrinking does not necessarily undermine Agenda 2030, but it does call for greater attention, especially by actors promoting gender equality, to national interpretations of specific SDG targets and the inclusivity of otherwise marginalized policy target groups.
Abstract by the authors: Within the current global health landscape, gender equality and empowerment are emerging as priorities for research and programming. This is due, in part, to greater accountability through Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, but has also grown from increased knowledge that women's empowerment as a process will lead to important opportunities to improve health. While the global community has embraced the importance of empowerment, its definition is evolving and, subsequently, there is little consensus on its objective measurement. This timely Special Issue in SSM: Population Health includes 14 papers that address this challenge through the use of innovative measures of gender equality and empowerment, and provide evidence of the links between empowerment and health.
Abstract by the authors: Universities play a critical role in the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals through the third mission, i.e. public engagement activities. However, female academics miss opportunities to be part of this mission because they are caught in many roles that prevent them from getting involved in the SDGs. In light of SDG5, Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, we conducted interviews with twenty female academics from Iran and the Philippines to investigate their aspirations, opportunities and experiences with public engagement activities. Our findings show that, while recent gender policies have enabled female academics to develop robust careers, their contributions beyond the walls of the university remain limited because of longstanding patriarchal structures, distrust in women’s professional expertise and unchanged systemic constraints. By bringing women’s engagement activities forward and supporting them in the delivery of the SDGs, we reframe current debates on women’s roles in academia. We argue that HE institutions may enhance their third mission and better achieve the targets of SDGs by valuing women’s work and facilitating their engagement activities that may lead to significant societal impact. We conclude our paper with a series of recommendations for policy and practice that support women’s journeys in academia.
Abstract by the authors: The journey to realizing women’s and girls’ rights has been a long one. We marked the 25th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration in 2020, committed to the 2000 Millennium Development Goals, and renewed commitment in 2015 with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development should be used as an advocacy tool to initiate action and hold Member States of the United Nations accountable (1 –3). At 5 years into the 2030 agenda, it is clear that many countries are not on track to meet some of the SDGs and targets. There is also fear the COVID-19 pandemic will result in setbacks and complacency from governments to commitments previously made. In order to realize women’s and girls’ rights, concerted action on gender equality throughout the SDGs is needed.
Abstract by the author: Although resistance to the incorporation of ‘gender’ in human rights law and policies is not new, since 2013 anti-gender campaigns have articulated as movements and increased their visibility. More recently, the transnational dimension of the anti-gender offensive has become visible as a challenge to human rights standards, including the anti-violence against women project, and a process of democratic erosion. In this column, I make a short overview of this social and political phenomenon and describe how these anti-gender campaigns have entered the human rights systems and their discourse has shifted from religious justifications towards legal ones. I conclude with general suggestions to strengthen the resilience of the human rights systems to these processes.
Abstract by the authors: The 2030 Agenda aims for a world in which every woman and girl enjoys full gender equality and all legal, social and economic barriers to their empowerment have been removed. Without gender equality and women’s empowerment, the Sustainable Development Goals will not be achieved. Yet investments into gender equality and women’s empowerment are lagging behind investments for most other goals. Implementing commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment requires a range of tools and efforts, all underpinned by financial investments. While ODA remains an essential source of financing for gender equality and women’s empowerment, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development commits development actors to a new way of thinking about financing for sustainable development, and official flows beyond ODA are becoming an increasingly important feature. This paper sets out an overview of what we know about the financing landscape for gender equality and women’s empowerment, a way forward in order to ensure more and better financing for gender equality, and some draft principles to guide future efforts.
Abstract by the author: It is widely believed that female employment and empowerment are intimately related. This paper presents relationships between women's employment and various measures of their empowerment, using data from rural India. The measures capture several dimensions of empowerment, including control in economic decision-making, psychosocial aspects of empowerment, and women's own internalization of a lesser status. A number of these measures correlate positively with women's employment, supporting the notion that female employment and empowerment are closely linked.
Abstract by the authors: This study examines country's voluntary national reviews (VNRs) to assess global commitment to gender equality in the era of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While the SDGs promise realisation of gender equality, progress data indicate that gender equality will not be achieved in the next century, let alone by the SDGs target date of 2030. This study posits two explanations for slow progress on gender equality: (i) countries selectively pursue gender equality, as evidenced by our finding that country VNRs demonstrated commitment to achieving only 31% of extant gender equality gaps;and (ii) countries are more committed to achieving gender equality on ‘practical’ dimensions (i.e., relating to basic needs, such as maternal health and education) than ‘strategic’ dimensions which seek to challenge unequal power relations and women's subordinate position within society (e.g., income, land, political power). Whether via refinements to the SDG/VNR process, or through well-established gender platforms such as the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Index and Equal Measures 2030 SDG Gender Index, gender equality advocates must push for pursuit of the entirety of the holistic gender equality agenda as hard-fought for and agreed by the seminal Beijing Platform for Action. Without greater attention to strategic dimensions, women will be stuck in a vicious cycle of ‘empowerment without power’ and gender equality will elude women for yet another century..
Abstract by the authors: Despite the progress that has been made towards achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), evidence shows that gender disparities remain persistent in most countries. The aim of the article is to identify lessons from the experiences of those countries which have made considerable progress in bridging the gender gap. More specifically, the article seeks to identify strategies that will enable SSA countries to achieve the gender equality goal in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Abstract by the authors: Universities play a critical role in the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals through the third mission, i.e. public engagement activities. However, female academics miss opportunities to be part of this mission because they are caught in many roles that prevent them from getting involved in the SDGs. In light of SDG5, Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, we conducted interviews with twenty female academics from Iran and the Philippines to investigate their aspirations, opportunities and experiences with public engagement activities. Our findings show that, while recent gender policies have enabled female academics to develop robust careers, their contributions beyond the walls of the university remain limited because of longstanding patriarchal structures, distrust in women’s professional expertise and unchanged systemic constraints. By bringing women’s engagement activities forward and supporting them in the delivery of the SDGs, we reframe current debates on women’s roles in academia. We argue that HE institutions may enhance their third mission and better achieve the targets of SDGs by valuing women’s work and facilitating their engagement activities that may lead to significant societal impact. We conclude our paper with a series of recommendations for policy and practice that support women’s journeys in academia.
Abstract by the authors: Prior research on educational, numeracy, and wage gaps tends to focus on highincome, countries. However, achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development, goals for education and gender equality requires focusing on middle-income countries., In this study, we examine gender gaps in educational attainment, use of numeracy skill, in the workplace, and wage inequality in 12 middle-income countries. By analyzing, data from the World Bank’s Skills Toward Employment and Productivity (STEP) study, we find that educational attainment explains differences in numeracy skill use, as well, as independently influences the gender wage gap. Our analyses also indicate that in, four countries examined in this study, a one-unit increase in women’s engagement with, numeracy tasks is positively correlated with a 5% increase in women’s wage. In, addition, this study suggests that unlike in the OECD, in these middle-income countries, investigated, the roots of gender wage gaps lie in forces even before women entering, the labor market. In the context of Sustainable Development Goals, this paper provides, new evidence about the importance of improving gender equality in education and, skills across middle-income countries to fulfill SDGs 4 and 5.
Abstract by the authors: Women's empowerment is a fundamental human right but attempts to measure progress in this area have been limited. We used 142 nationally representative surveys to quantify empowerment in six domains (Intimate Partner Violence, Family Planning, Reproductive Healthcare, Employment, Education, and Decision-Making) for first-level subdivisions of all countries in Sub-Saharan Africa for three years (1995, 2005, and 2015). The possible value for each domain ranged between zero (worst) and one (best). The median value for employment decreased by 0.02, but it increased between 0.09 and 0.16 for the other domains. The average empowerment score increased from 0.44 to 0.53, but it remained low for Education (0.34). While progress was clear and consistent, it was uneven within and between countries, and Sahelian West Africa fell further behind. The expanded understanding of geographic variation and trends in women's empowerment that we provide should be instrumental in efforts to improve women's lives.
Abstract by the authors: We evaluate a multifaceted policy intervention attempting to jump-start adolescent women's empowerment in Uganda by simultaneously providing them vocational training and information on sex, reproduction, and marriage. We find that four years postintervention, adolescent girls in treated communities are more likely to be self-employed. Teen pregnancy, early entry into marriage/cohabitation, and the share of girls reporting sex against their will fall sharply. The results highlight the potential of a multifaceted program that provides skills transfers as a viable and cost-effective policy intervention to improve the economic and social empowerment of adolescent girls over a four-year horizon.
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