UN Women Releases Knowledge Products Briefs to Step It Up for Women’s Economic Empowerment
As the world moves forward towards implementing and localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) it is critical to remember that gender equality is an essential factor in the ability of a country to attain sustainable development and that women’s empowerment is a core element in attaining gender equality.
Over half of households living in poverty – as working poor, indigent or otherwise – are headed by women. Children comprise the majority of the poor in the Caribbean. Poor households headed by women tend to be larger than those headed by men; and these households, where there are only women and children, tend to have much higher rates of unemployment. Yet, these households tend to be seen as more “resilient” in the face of worsening economic or natural crisis. This resiliency is often confused with a “burden of necessity” which women hold, faced with limited mobility options in light of the larger, extended family for which they are often solely responsible.
Extending social protection, and establishing gender- and child-responsive social protection schemes that ensures universal access to health care including maternity care and basic income security, will protect women and their families from the effects of economic shocks and crises that may result in job and wage losses and an increase in precarious work.
The conditions under which women work in the Caribbean is a cause for concern. Inconsistent minimum wages and income earning gaps, particularly in the private sector, adversely affect women. Legislative gaps in equal pay for equal work, sexual harassment and minimum wage undermines women’s rights at work and decent work principles.
Guaranteeing women’s right to decent work is a necessity, not just for women’s rights but for the sustainability of national economic growth and recovery.
UN Women’s Multi-Country Office Caribbean and UNICEF’s Eastern Caribbean Office work together through the UN Joint Programme on Social Protection. The Programme works in the Eastern Caribbean on policy and legal reform processes, strengthening national capacities to establish transparent, evidence-based and targeted social safety net services to poor populations, while ensuring child and gender sensitivity.
Under this thematic area, women’s economic empowerment, UN Women Caribbean and UNICEF have produced a series of nine publications including research reports, technical papers and policy briefs in support of the Programme. We must Step it Up for Gender Equality – Agenda 50/50 by 2030.