Governance as an SDG Accelerator by OECD

Author:OECD
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: governance
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Published: 2019-07-16T00:00:00+00:00

Gender equality as a cross-cutting enabler of SDG implementation

Gender equality is both a goal in itself in the 2030 Agenda (SDG 5) and a cross-cutting catalyst for accelerating progress in nearly every other SDG, from tackling poverty and malnutrition, to improving children’s education and health and supporting more sustainable consumption patterns (UN Women, 2018[1]). The SDGs have set a far-reaching agenda to advance gender equality and empower all women and girls to achieve sustainable development and to mainstream gender in other goals through the development of gender-sensitive sectoral indicators.

Despite increasing political commitment and growing political awareness of the gender equality imperative, its effective realisation remains undermined by many factors, including cultural barriers and stereotypes, and insufficient institutional capacity. Progress in closing gender gaps has been very slow and gender gaps have even widened in some countries. While in many countries the income and labour market participation gap between women and men has decreased in recent decades, gender inequality persists – to varying degrees – in education, employment, entrepreneurship and public life. When women do work, they are more likely to work part-time and work for lower pay. On average, gender pay gaps across OECD countries remains at about 15% at the median, and little change has been recorded in recent years. Within public administrations, which often have a better gender balance than the private sector, women continue to be over-represented in low-level job categories and part time work.

The new digital context, characterised by disruptive technologies and big data, brings about new gender-related challenges: while digital technologies could give better opportunities to all, they can also expand the scale of persisting gender inequalities, and create new divides. OECD research shows that barriers to access, affordability of digital technologies, lack of education as well as inherent biases and socio-cultural norms curtail women’s and girls’ ability to benefit from the opportunities offered by the digital transformation (OECD, 2018[2]).

Furthermore, violence against women and discrimination of women in law (e.g. inheritance) and social norms (e.g. spousal responsibilities) also remain a challenge for many societies.

Although women are often at the losing end of structural gender inequality, the cultural norms and stereotypes are simultaneously creating problems for men and boys, such as underdiagnosed mental health problems, addiction and alcohol abuse, and use of violence as a masculinity expression.

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