Gender equality and women's empowerment

Gender equality and women's empowerment play a vital role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) outlined by the United Nations. Acknowledging the significance of SDG 5, which explicitly targets gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, it's worth noting that these elements are fundamentally tied to all 17 goals. Each goal, whether it pertains to poverty eradication, quality education, or climate action, is directly or indirectly affected by gender dynamics. Gender inequality inhibits economic growth (SDG 8) by depriving economies of the full potential of half its population, thereby exacerbating poverty (SDG 1) and hunger (SDG 2). Additionally, gender-based discrimination can limit access to quality education (SDG 4) and decent work (SDG 8) for women and girls, further perpetuating inequality. In health matters, gender roles and stereotypes often result in disparities in healthcare access and outcomes (SDG 3). With respect to environmental sustainability (SDGs 13, 14, and 15), women, particularly those in rural areas, bear the brunt of climate change impacts, but they also hold unique knowledge and skills crucial for mitigation and adaptation strategies. Likewise, women's underrepresentation in decision-making roles limits their influence on peace and justice (SDG 16) and partnerships for goals (SDG 17). Thus, achieving gender equality isn't only about justice for women and girls, but also about progress on every SDG. Women's empowerment creates a multiplier effect that boosts economic growth and promotes sustainable development, thereby setting a direct path towards achieving the SDGs. Encouragingly, concerted efforts worldwide are recognizing and amplifying women's roles in society, placing gender equality and women's empowerment at the heart of the SDGs. Such advancements signify a positive stride towards a balanced and equitable world.

Our study illustrates how consumer social risk footprints can assist in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Combining the Social Hotspots Database (SHDB) and the Eora global multi-regional input-output table, we use input-output analysis to calculate a consumer social risk footprint (SF) of nations’ imports.
Elsevier, Children and Youth Services Review, Volume 76, 1 May 2017
India has the world's highest burden of child undernutrition. Lack of income is considered as one of its primary causes. However, evidence suggests that despite steady economic growth and investments in social services directed towards child welfare, undernutrition rates continue to rise. Thus indicating, that there are other societal factors impacting child undernutrition. Previous studies indicate that countries with higher gender inequality have worse health outcomes for women and children.
Elsevier,

Comprehensive Biomaterials II, Volume 6, 2017, Pages 435-454

This chapter advances goals 3 and 5 by reviewing advancements and challenges in breast tissue engineering, potentially used for the purposes of reconstructive surgery in women who have had breast cancer surgery.
This chapter advances SDG 3 and 5 by exploring some of the factors associated with high mortality rates in Indian girls including in the 5 to 14 age group.
Elsevier,

Principles of Gender-Specific Medicine (Third Edition), Academic Press, 2017, Pages 183-201.

This book chapter advances SDG 5 and 10 by showing that gender differences in emotion experience and expression represent some of the most robust gender stereotypes worldwide.
This book chapter advances SDG 3 and 5 by describing how autism research and diagnostic practices have been challenged in terms of androcentric assumptions and biased assessment practices, suggesting that methods are insensitive to gender differences on the spectrum. It is now recognized that girls on the autism spectrum may present differently from boys and hence their identification and subsequent needs may go unrecognized.
This article explores how lawyers can work together to increase social mobility and diversity within the legal profession. Julian Sayarer talks to Chris White, founder of Aspiring Solicitors, Chris Benn, lawyer at Kemp Little, Barry Matthews, an in-house lawyer with ITV, and Toby Hornett, legal director at Canon – Europe about the role in house teams play in promoting diversity and access, contributing to SDG 10, reduced inequalities.
To support the launch of Elsevier's groundbreaking report Gender in the Global Research Landscape, it has created a resource center as a source of information for researchers, research leaders, policymakers and anyone else interested in gender diversity and its impact on science and society. Through this work, Elsevier is committed to SDG 5 to advance gender equality.
This article published on International Women's Day 2017, shines a light on the issue of forced labour, as 55% of people who are estimated to be in forced labour are women and girls. It also discusses modern slavery legislation changes and discussions in France and Australia. This legislation could contribute to the goal of SDG target 8.7 which is to take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.
Giving the World Access to Water - Elsevier Atlas
Despite the increased attention the sixth Sustainable Development Goal (clean water and sanitation) has brought, access to water in Sub-Saharan Africa is worse than ever: there are more people without access to water now than there were in 1990. In order to fix the problem we need to understand what’s going wrong with our current approaches. That was the aim of an Atlas Award-winning study published in Water Resources and Rural Development, by researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland, the University of Malawi in Malawi and the University of Lusaka in Zambia. Interestingly enough, since women and school aged girls are typically tasked with water fetching, by providing water access and sanitation authors feel there is an effect on others SDG like SDG 10 (reduced inequalities), SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 5 (gender equality)

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