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United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

UN sustainable goal logo  five gender equality

Women already spent three times as many hours in domestic and care work as men. With the advent of the global COVID-19 pandemic, women's proportion of domestic and care work has increased.

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. There has been progress on harmful practices such as child marriage and genital mutilation, (which has declined by 30% in the past decade), but to completely eliminate such practices requires more work.

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.

Gender Equality and Sustainable Development
