Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Why Ending Gender Discrimination Benefits Everyone
Empowering women and eliminating gender discrimination is key to improving the survival and well-being of children worldwide, according to a new UNICEF report.
UNICEF has just released its flagship report “The State of the World’s Children 2007”. It concludes that an end to gender discrimination would produce the ‘double dividend’ of benefiting both women and children – which, in turn, has a positive impact on the health and development of societies everywhere.
The report documents the ways in which eliminating gender discrimination improves society. It finds that when women are key decision-makers in the family, more resources are devoted to the well-being of children and therefore, children have better health and get a better education.
The report makes several concrete recommendations, including:
• Invest government funding in gender equality,
• Enact legislation to create a level playing field for women, and to prevent and respond to domestic violence as well as gender-based violence in conflict,
• Ensure women’s participation in politics,
• Involve women’s grassroots organizations early on in policy development,
• Engage men and boys so the importance of gender equality can be understood by all, and
• Improve research and data on gender issues, which are critical if progress is to be made.
UNICEF is clear that gender discrimination continues throughout all parts of the world in all areas of women’s lives, from experiences of physical and sexual violence to limited work and education opportunities for women.
Canada is no exception:
• Canadian women’s incomes are just 62% of men’s (Statistics Canada, 2006).
• Canadian women still earn 71 cents for every dollar men earn for work of equal value (Pay Equity Task Force, 2006).
• Women are five times more likely than men to be the victims in spousal homicide (Juristat, 2006).
• Women make up only 20% of the seats in the House of Commons (Parliament of Canada, 2006).
The UNICEF report is available at: http://www.unicef.org/sowc/index_37436.html.
For more information on Canadian's women's equality, visit this fact sheet from CRIAW.
UNICEF has just released its flagship report “The State of the World’s Children 2007”. It concludes that an end to gender discrimination would produce the ‘double dividend’ of benefiting both women and children – which, in turn, has a positive impact on the health and development of societies everywhere.
The report documents the ways in which eliminating gender discrimination improves society. It finds that when women are key decision-makers in the family, more resources are devoted to the well-being of children and therefore, children have better health and get a better education.
The report makes several concrete recommendations, including:
• Invest government funding in gender equality,
• Enact legislation to create a level playing field for women, and to prevent and respond to domestic violence as well as gender-based violence in conflict,
• Ensure women’s participation in politics,
• Involve women’s grassroots organizations early on in policy development,
• Engage men and boys so the importance of gender equality can be understood by all, and
• Improve research and data on gender issues, which are critical if progress is to be made.
UNICEF is clear that gender discrimination continues throughout all parts of the world in all areas of women’s lives, from experiences of physical and sexual violence to limited work and education opportunities for women.
Canada is no exception:
• Canadian women’s incomes are just 62% of men’s (Statistics Canada, 2006).
• Canadian women still earn 71 cents for every dollar men earn for work of equal value (Pay Equity Task Force, 2006).
• Women are five times more likely than men to be the victims in spousal homicide (Juristat, 2006).
• Women make up only 20% of the seats in the House of Commons (Parliament of Canada, 2006).
The UNICEF report is available at: http://www.unicef.org/sowc/index_37436.html.
For more information on Canadian's women's equality, visit this fact sheet from CRIAW.
Labels: Resources_and_Research
