“Progress of the World’s Women 2019-2020: Families in a Changing World” examines how the transformations in families impact women’s rights, and reveals most countries can afford family-friendly policies..
As women’s rights have advanced over the past decades,
families around the world have become a place of love and solidarity but also
one where fundamental human rights violations and gender inequalities persist,
according to UN Women’s new flagship report, “Progress of the World’s Women
2019-2020: Families in a Changing World,” published today.
“Around the world, we are witnessing concerted efforts to
deny women’s agency and their right to make their own decisions in the name of
protecting ‘family values’. Yet, we know through research and evidence that
there is no ‘standard’ form of family, nor has there ever been,” said UN Women
Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. “This report counters that pushback
by showing that families, in all their diversity, can be critical drivers of
gender equality, provided decision-makers deliver policies rooted in the
reality of how people live today, with women’s rights at their core.”
Anchored in global data, innovative analysis and case
studies, the report shows the diversity of families around the world and
provides robust recommendations to ensure that laws and policies support
today’s families and meet the needs of all their members, especially women and
girls, with analysis of what it would cost to implement them.
Among the trends observed: the age of marriage has increased in all regions, while birth rates have declined, and women have increased economic autonomy;
Globally, a little over one third (38 per cent) of
households are couples living with children; and extended families (including
other relatives) are almost as common (27 per cent);
The vast majority of lone-parent families, which are 8 per
cent of households, are led by women, often juggling paid work, child-rearing
and unpaid domestic work. Same-sex families are increasingly visible in all
regions.
As the report shows, families can be places of care, but can
also bring conflict, inequality and, far too often, violence. Today, three
billion women and girls live in countries where rape within marriage is not
explicitly criminalized. But injustice and violations take other forms as well.
In one out of five countries girls do not have the same inheritance rights as
boys, while in others (a total of 19 countries) women are required by law to
obey their husbands. Around one third of married women in developing countries
report having little or no say over their own healthcare.
Women continue to enter the labour market in large numbers,
but marriage and motherhood reduce their labour force participation rates, and
the income and benefits that come with it. Globally, just over half of married
women aged 25-54 are in the labour force, compared to two-thirds of single
women, and 96 per cent of married men, new data in the report shows. A major
driver of these inequalities is the fact that women continue to do three times
as much unpaid care and domestic work as men in the absence of affordable care
services.
The report sheds some positive light on parental leave, with
an increase of its intake by fathers, particularly in countries where specific
incentives, such as ‘daddy quotas’, are in place that reserve a
non-transferable portion of the leave for them on a ‘use it or lose it’ basis.
It also puts a spotlight on the challenges that women and
their families face when they migrate. Unjust regulations mean that not all
families have the right to family reunification and they are often excluded
from access to public services. When women’s migration status is tied to their
partners, it can be difficult or impossible for them to escape violent
relationships.
The report calls on policymakers, activists and people in
all walks of life to transform families into places of equality and
justice—where women can exercise choice and voice, and where they have physical
safety and economic security.
Some of the recommendations put forth by the report to
achieve this include:
Amending and reforming family laws to ensure that women can
choose whether, when and who to marry; that provide the possibility of divorce
if needed; and enable women’s access to family resources.
Recognizing diverse partnership forms, to protect women’s rights
in both cohabiting and same sex partnerships.
Investing in public services, especially education and
reproductive healthcare, so that women’s and girls’ life choices are expanded,
and they can make informed choices about sex and childbearing.
Paid parental leave, and State support for the care of
children and older persons, must be considered in crafting comprehensive social
protection systems that can help to sustain families.
Ensuring women’s physical safety by implementing laws and
policies to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls and
providing access to justice and support services for survivors of violence.
An analysis produced for this report found that most
countries could implement a package of policies, including income support
throughout the life course, healthcare, and care services for children and
older persons for less than 5 per cent of GDP.
Ensuring that families serve as a home for equality and
justice is not only a moral imperative, but essential for the achievement of
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the world’s most comprehensive agenda
to ensure human progress.
The main global facts and figures from the report can be
found here.
Insightful regional fact sheets and stories of change
featuring civil society initiatives in various countries, along with seven data
sets and complimentary videos, are available here.
Interviews are available, please contact:
media.team[at]unwomen.org
Follow the Report launch press conference on Tuesday 25 June
2019 at 11.00 a.m. ET, webcast live on UN Women); or see the archived video on
UN Web TV.
Background
The Progress of the World’s Women report series, a periodic
thematic investigation of women's rights since 2000, seeks to spur change in
laws, policies and programmes, creating an enabling environment for women and
girls to realize their rights.
Progress of the World’s Women 2019-2020 coincides with UN Women’s “Generation Equality: Realizing women’s rights for an equal future” campaign—in the lead up to the 25th anniversary commemoration of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 1995, which is considered to be one of the most visionary agendas for the empowerment of women and girls, everywhere. Despite some progress, many challenges remain for women’s rights.
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