Twenty-six years ago, gender equality activists gathered in Beijing at a landmark global conference on women and girls to plead a simple case: “Women’s rights are human rights.” In response, world leaders pledged to “promote women’s economic independence” and “take all necessary measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women”. But these declarations were not followed with significant new money or policies. So, despite incremental progress, what was true in 1995 remains true today. No matter where you are born, your life is harder if you are a woman or a girl.
The Covid-19 pandemic, which forced the Forum to mark the 25th anniversary of Beijing a year late, has made the need for change brutally apparent. Women were nearly twice as likely as men to lose their jobs when the pandemic hit. Part of the reason is that, with schools closed and everyone staying closer to home, the demand for childcare and other unpaid housework spiked, and it was overwhelmingly women who met it. Women were already doing about three-quarters of unpaid work, and some women have been forced to drop out of the workforce altogether.
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