How business leadership can advance Goal 5 on Gender Equality
Gender equality is a fundamental and inviolable human right. Yet women around the world continue to face significant economic, social, and legal barriers to equality. Women are more likely than men to be unemployed, are overrepresented in low wage jobs, hold fewer managerial, entrepreneurial and leadership positions, and on average, only make 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. In 18 countries, men can legally prevent their wives from working. Women continue to bear disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care work and often experience maternity-related discrimination. Women entrepreneurs also face particular challenges to building and growing their businesses including lack of access to financing and business networks. In fact, less than 1% of spending by large businesses on suppliers is earned by women-owned businesses.
While progress has been made in terms of education and health, significant gaps remain. STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) programmes and fields continue to be dominated by men, women around the world continue to lack access to reproductive and maternal health care, and worldwide, an estimated one in three women will experience physical or sexual abuse in her lifetime.
