gender justice essay

What is Gender Justice?

Our feminism is rooted in intersectionality. We recognize that women are not a monolith and experience multiple, overlapping sources of oppression. The struggle for women’s rights is deeply impacted by and connected to the struggles for racial justice, queer justice, immigration justice, climate justice, and so many more.

WHAT DOES GENDER JUSTICE MEAN?

For us, the term “gender justice” best signifies our intersectional approach that centers the diverse needs, experiences, and leadership of people most impacted by discrimination and oppression. This approach helps achieve both equity (equal distribution of resources, access, and opportunities) and equality (equal outcomes for all).

THE IMPORTANCE OF GENDER JUSTICE

Utilizing a gender justice framework also means allowing for movements to define their own priorities and indicators of success. By embracing grassroots movement leadership and participatory grantmaking, we aim to mitigate the harm of discriminatory, racist, and toxic practices by traditional Global North philanthropists, institutions, and structures.

MOVEMENTS MOVE MOUNTAINS

We envision a world where gender justice movements have transformed power and privilege for a few into equity and equality for all. Our movement-led approach embodies a new kind of philanthropy that shifts power into the hands of those working at the frontlines of gender justice.

Ending Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in Perú

Moving in Feminism with Adolescent Leaders in Action

Make an impact.

This Women's History Month, help set feminist movements #InMotion all year round with a monthly gift. For a limited time, your donation will be MATCHED for the first six months—making 2X the impact for movements around the world!

Essay on Gender Justice

Students are often asked to write an essay on Gender Justice in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Gender Justice

Understanding gender justice.

Gender justice means equal rights and opportunities for all genders. It’s about fairness, where everyone, regardless of their gender, has the same chances in life.

Importance of Gender Justice

Gender justice is crucial because it promotes respect and dignity. It allows everyone to contribute to society equally, making the world a better place.

Challenges to Gender Justice

Unfortunately, gender injustice still exists. Some people face discrimination or violence because of their gender. This is a big challenge we need to overcome.

Working Towards Gender Justice

We can promote gender justice by treating everyone equally and standing against discrimination. Let’s work together for a fair world!

250 Words Essay on Gender Justice

Introduction.

Gender justice refers to the equitable distribution of benefits, privileges, and responsibilities between genders. It challenges the deeply rooted gender norms that perpetuate disparities between men and women, and advocates for a society where everyone, irrespective of their gender, can thrive.

Gender Inequality: A Global Issue

Despite the progress made over the years, gender inequality remains a global issue. Women often bear the brunt of this disparity, facing discrimination in various spheres such as education, employment, and health. This inequality is not only unjust, but also hinders socio-economic development.

The Role of Education in Gender Justice

Education plays a pivotal role in promoting gender justice. By ensuring equal access to quality education for all genders, societies can break the cycle of gendered stereotypes and empower individuals to challenge and change discriminatory norms.

Legal Frameworks and Policies

Legal frameworks and policies are integral to achieving gender justice. Laws that guarantee equal rights and opportunities, and policies that address gender biases, can help create a more equitable society.

The Power of Collective Action

To achieve gender justice, collective action is key. Individuals, communities, and institutions must work together to challenge gender norms, promote equality, and ensure that everyone, regardless of their gender, has the ability to fulfil their potential.

In conclusion, gender justice is a fundamental human right and a cornerstone of a fair and equitable society. Through education, legal frameworks, and collective action, we can challenge gender norms, promote equality, and achieve gender justice.

500 Words Essay on Gender Justice

Gender justice refers to the equitable distribution of benefits, rewards, and responsibilities between genders. It is about challenging the norms, roles, and relationships that perpetuate gender inequality and working towards a society in which everyone, regardless of their gender, can enjoy their human rights and live free from violence and discrimination. This essay explores the concept of gender justice, its importance, and how it can be achieved.

The Concept of Gender Justice

Gender justice is rooted in the belief that all individuals should be treated equally, regardless of their gender. It encompasses various dimensions, including economic, social, and political justice. Economic justice demands equal pay for equal work and equal access to resources and opportunities. Social justice calls for the elimination of gender-based stereotypes, biases, and violence. Political justice requires equal representation of all genders in decision-making processes and leadership roles.

Gender justice is crucial for sustainable development and social progress. It is not only a matter of human rights but also a driver of growth and prosperity. Research has shown that societies with greater gender equality tend to have lower levels of poverty, higher economic growth, and better health and education outcomes. Moreover, gender justice fosters diversity and inclusivity, which can lead to more innovative and effective solutions to societal challenges.

Despite significant progress, gender justice remains an elusive goal. One of the main challenges is the persistence of patriarchal norms and structures that reinforce gender inequality. These norms limit women’s and other marginalized genders’ access to resources, opportunities, and decision-making power. Gender-based violence, discriminatory laws and policies, and social and cultural biases further undermine gender justice.

Pathways to Gender Justice

Achieving gender justice requires transformative change at multiple levels. At the individual level, it involves challenging and changing harmful gender norms and attitudes. At the institutional level, it requires adopting gender-responsive policies and practices that promote equality and diversity. Legal reforms are also needed to eliminate discriminatory laws and ensure equal rights and protection for all genders.

Education plays a critical role in promoting gender justice. It can empower individuals, especially women and girls, to claim their rights and participate fully in society. Moreover, it can help to challenge and change harmful gender norms and stereotypes.

In conclusion, gender justice is a fundamental aspect of a just and equitable society. It is about ensuring equal rights, opportunities, and protections for all, regardless of their gender. While significant challenges remain, through education, legal reforms, and transformative change at both individual and institutional levels, we can make gender justice a reality.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Gender Issues
• Essay on Right to Freedom
• Essay on Importance of Freedom

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

UPSC Coaching, Study Materials, and Mock Exams

Enroll in ClearIAS UPSC Coaching Join Now Log In

Call us: +91-9605741000

Gender Justice

Last updated on October 18, 2023 by ClearIAS Team

Gender justice refers to the fair and equitable treatment of individuals of all genders in social, economic, political, and legal contexts. Still, women continue to be under-represented in decision-making roles that directly impact their lives, safety, and well-being. Read here to understand gender justice better.

Progress towards equal power and equal rights for women remains elusive around the world.

Globally, discriminatory laws, policies, and attitudes remain common and ingrained. In crisis settings, women often bear the brunt of violence, marginalization, and economic exclusion.

Gender justice seeks to address historical and ongoing disparities and discrimination based on gender, striving for a more just and equal society where all individuals have equal rights, opportunities, and access to resources, regardless of their gender identity or expression.

Table of Contents

Gender justice

Gender justice emphasizes gender equality, which means that individuals of all genders should have equal rights and opportunities. This includes equal access to education, employment, healthcare, and participation in decision-making processes.

• It opposes discrimination based on gender, including discrimination against women, men, transgender individuals, and gender non-conforming people. Discrimination can take various forms, including unequal pay, gender-based violence, and exclusion from certain roles or positions.
• Gender justice promotes the empowerment of individuals, especially women and marginalized genders, by giving them the tools, resources, and support needed to make informed choices, participate in society, and achieve their full potential.

Access to Justice:

Ensuring that individuals have access to legal remedies and protection against gender-based discrimination and violence is a fundamental aspect of gender justice. This includes efforts to strengthen the legal framework, provide support services, and raise awareness about legal rights.

• Gender justice seeks to prevent and address gender-based violence, which disproportionately affects women and marginalized genders. It advocates for the enforcement of laws against violence, support for survivors, and efforts to change social norms that perpetuate violence.

Empowerment and Rights:

Promoting gender equality and challenging harmful stereotypes and biases are essential components of gender justice. Education and awareness campaigns help change societal attitudes and behaviors.

• Gender justice includes economic empowerment initiatives to reduce gender disparities in income, access to resources, and economic opportunities. This often involves measures to promote women’s participation in the workforce and entrepreneurship.
• Ensuring access to healthcare, including sexual and reproductive health services, is a critical aspect of gender justice. It encompasses issues like family planning, maternal health, and access to contraceptives.
• Gender justice advocates for equal participation of individuals of all genders in political and decision-making processes. This includes efforts to increase the representation of women and marginalized genders in elected offices and leadership positions.

Gender justice recognizes that individuals experience multiple forms of discrimination and disadvantage based on factors such as race, class, disability, and sexual orientation. It aims to address these intersecting forms of discrimination.

Read:  Women’s Reservation Bill

Constitutional provisions of Gender justice

India has a long history of being one of the most unequal and insensitive to gender issues nations in the world.

This is especially true for women, who suffer from a range of social issues like infanticide, foeticide, child marriage, and gender biases regarding the ownership of coparcenary property, among others.

Even in the 21st century, when the entire world has become aware of the attraction of feminism, India has been unable to break free from the constraints of antiquated social practices and customs in various regions.

India continues to be the most significant country in the patriarchal belt of the world, where women are still viewed as less important than males, in a kin-ordered social structure.

Indian women should be treated equally, and the state should protect them, according to the constitution’s creators.

• Right to Equality (Article 14): Article 14 of the Indian Constitution guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of the law to all citizens, regardless of their gender. It prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex.
• Prohibition of Discrimination (Article 15): Article 15 prohibits discrimination based on sex, among other grounds. It empowers the state to make special provisions for women and children.
• Equality of Opportunity (Article 16): Article 16 ensures equality of opportunity in matters of public employment. It prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex, and the state is authorized to make reservations for women in government jobs.
• Protection of Minorities (Article 29): Article 29 protects the educational and cultural rights of minorities, which includes women belonging to minority communities.
• Abolition of Untouchability (Article 17): Article 17 abolishes “untouchability” in any form and prohibits its practice. While this provision doesn’t explicitly mention gender, it has a significant impact on the lives of women from marginalized communities.
• Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) (Article 39): The DPSP includes principles that guide the state in matters of policy. Article 39(a) emphasizes equal pay for equal work for both men and women.
• Rights of Women (Article 42): Article 42 directs the state to make provisions for securing just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief for women.
• Reservation of Seats in Panchayats (Article 243D): This article provides for the reservation of seats for women in Panchayats (local self-government institutions) to ensure their participation in grassroots-level governance.
• Reservation of Seats in Municipalities (Article 243T): Similar to Article 243D, Article 243T mandates the reservation of seats for women in municipal bodies.
• Protection Against Violence (Article 15(3), Article 46, Article 51A(e)): While these articles do not explicitly mention violence against women, they emphasize the need for the state to protect the rights and dignity of women and to promote a culture that respects the dignity of women.
• Right to Privacy (Article 21): The right to privacy, as established by the Supreme Court of India, includes the right to bodily autonomy. This has important implications for issues such as reproductive rights and the prevention of gender-based violence.

Landmark Judgments

Over the years, the Indian judiciary has delivered numerous landmark judgments that have advanced gender justice, including judgments related to gender-based violence, workplace harassment, and property rights for women.

• Vishakha v. State of Rajasthan (1997): This landmark judgment by the Supreme Court of India laid down guidelines to prevent sexual harassment of women in the workplace. These guidelines, known as the Vishakha Guidelines , were an important step toward addressing workplace harassment and creating a safer environment for women employees.
• Shayara Bano v. Union of India (2017): This case challenged the practice of triple talaq (instant divorce) in Islamic personal law, which disproportionately affected Muslim women. The Supreme Court declared the practice of triple talaq unconstitutional, recognizing the importance of gender justice in matters of personal laws.
• Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India (2018): This historic judgment decriminalized homosexuality in India by striking down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalized consensual same-sex relations. The judgment was a significant step toward recognizing the rights and dignity of LGBTQ+ individuals , including women.
• Sarla Mudgal v. Union of India (1995): In this case, the Supreme Court addressed the issue of bigamy and the practice of Hindu men converting to Islam to marry again without divorcing their Hindu wives. The judgment highlighted the need for legal reforms to protect the rights of women in such cases.
• Vineeta Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma (2020): This judgment clarified the legal rights of Hindu daughters in matters of ancestral property. It affirmed that daughters have equal rights as sons in ancestral property, irrespective of whether the father was alive or not at the time of the amendment to the Hindu Succession Act.
• Independent Thought v. Union of India (2017): This case resulted in the Supreme Court raising the legal age of consent for sexual intercourse from 15 to 18 years, recognizing the need to protect the rights and well-being of girls and prevent child marriages.
• Joseph Shine vs Union of India (2018): This landmark judgment challenged the constitutional validity of Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), an archaic law that criminalized adultery, defining it as a crime committed solely by a man having sexual intercourse with a married woman without her husband’s consent.

Way forward

Gender justice is a multifaceted and ongoing effort to create a more equitable and inclusive society.

Achieving gender justice requires the collaboration of governments, civil society organizations, businesses, and individuals to challenge gender-based discrimination and work toward a world where all individuals can live free from gender-related inequalities and injustices.

Social, political, and economic equality for women is integral to the achievement of all Millennium Development Goals . Hence, gender justice entails ending the inequalities between women and men that are produced and reproduced in the family, the community, the market, and the state.

Since 2020, UNDP and UN Women have worked together to empower women, support their leadership, and fulfill the promise of justice and human rights for all. In 2022, this partnership evolved into the Gender Justice Platform , a framework for strategic cooperation and upscaled joint initiatives.

Previous year question

Q. Explain the constitutional perspectives of Gender Justice with the help of relevant Constitutional Provisions and case laws. ( GS Paper 2 2023 )

Related article: Same-Sex Marriage

-Article by Swathi Satish

Module Classes: Join Now!

Csat course.

Join CSAT Course

Current Affairs Course

Join Current Affairs Course

• UPSC Prelims Test Series

Join Prelims Test Series

About ClearIAS Team

ClearIAS is one of the most trusted learning platforms in India for UPSC preparation. Around 1 million aspirants learn from the ClearIAS every month.

Our courses and training methods are different from traditional coaching. We give special emphasis on smart work and personal mentorship. Many UPSC toppers thank ClearIAS for our role in their success.

Download the ClearIAS mobile apps now to supplement your self-study efforts with ClearIAS smart-study training.

Reader Interactions

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Don’t lose out without playing the right game!

Follow the ClearIAS Prelims cum Mains (PCM) Integrated Approach.

Join ClearIAS PCM Course Now

UPSC Online Preparation

• Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)
• Indian Administrative Service (IAS)
• Indian Police Service (IPS)
• IAS Exam Eligibility
• UPSC Free Study Materials
• UPSC Exam Guidance
• UPSC Syllabus
• UPSC Online
• UPSC Prelims
• UPSC Interview
• UPSC Toppers
• UPSC Previous Year Qns
• UPSC Age Calculator
• UPSC Calendar 2024
• About ClearIAS
• ClearIAS Programs
• ClearIAS Fee Structure
• IAS Coaching
• UPSC Coaching
• UPSC Online Coaching
• ClearIAS Blog
• Important Updates
• Announcements
• Book Review
• ClearIAS App
• Work with us
• Advertise with us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms and Conditions
• Talk to Your Mentor

Featured on

and many more...

The future is equal

• Press releases

Gender justice and women’s rights

• Campaign Page
• Newsletter Sign-up

Every day, in every country in the world, women are confronted by discrimination and inequality. They face violence, abuse and unequal treatment at home, at work and in their wider communities – and are denied opportunities to learn, to earn and to lead.

Women form the majority of those living in poverty.  They have fewer resources, less power and less influence compared to men, and can experience further inequality because of their class, ethnicity and age, as well as religious and other fundamentalism.

Gender inequality is a key driver of poverty. And a fundamental denial of women's rights.

Gender inequality in numbers

Achieving gender justice to tackle poverty.

Oxfam understands  gender justice as the full equality and equity between women, men, LGBTQIA+, and non-binary people  in all spheres of life, resulting in women jointly, and on an equal basis with men, defining and shaping the policies, structures and decisions that affect their lives and society as a whole.

Further improvements in legislation and policy are necessary but not sufficient. We believe that  transforming gender and power relations , and the structures, norms and values that underpin them, is critical to ending poverty and challenging inequality.

We believe that  women taking control and taking collective action  are the most important drivers of sustained improvements in women's rights, and are a powerful force to end poverty not only for women and girls, but for others too.

Join the fight for gender justice

Gender inequality is when a person is discriminated against because of their sex or gender. Women, non-binary and trans people are confronted by discrimination and inequality. They face violence, abuse and unequal treatment at home, at work,in their wider communities –and are denied opportunities to learn, to earn and to lead.

Women form the majority of those living in poverty. Governments and social institutions increasingly treat women and LGBTQIA+ people unfairly and in a biased way. They have fewer resources, less power and less influence compared to men, and can experience further inequality because of their class, ethnicity and age, as well as religious and other fundamentalism.

Being treated equally and enjoying the same rights no matter your sex or gender is a fundamental human right.

Gender inequality is one of the oldest and most pervasive forms of inequality. For centuries it has caused discrimination and exclusion of women, non-binary and trans people from social, political,and economic life. It has also blocked women from leadership roles and has led to increasing gender-based violence.The Covid-19 pandemic has made this situation worse. Structural inequality has increased as well. Specifically, governments and social institutions increasingly treat women and LGBTQIA+ people unfairly and in a biased way. Intersecting inequality has worsened too. This means, on top of being mistreated because of your gender, you are also discriminated against because of your ethnicity, sexual orientation, race, disability, income, and occupation, etc. As a result, we now have even wider gender and racial gaps.

This is unacceptable and is putting a lot of people at serious risk every day.

Fighting for a feminist and gender-just world.

Oxfam recognizes that there is no economic, social, and environmental justice without gender justice. We work to make sure that women and girls, LGBTQIA+ and non-binary people live free from gender-based discrimination and violence. We campaign against deep rooted male privilege and dominance that prevent women from realizing their rights and work with communities to challenge harmful norms and beliefs that drive abuse and keep women poor.

1. Women, girls, and LGBTQIA+ people can realize their full rights, including rights that impact their sexual and reproductive health.

2. Violence against women, girls, and non-binary people is eliminated and protection offered during and after shocks and crises when the risk of discrimination, exploitation and abuse is heightened.

3. Policies and practices protect the equal rights of women, girls, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community and all those who suffer discrimination based on gender or sex.

4. Women and members of the queer community are in leadership positions across different sectors with equal recognition to men and in equal numbers. They are shaping public policy, including decision making on peace and security.

5. Feminist activists, organizations, and movements grow in strength. They lead equally, safely and freely in both online and offline spaces, exposing how patriarchal practices interact with other forms of inequality, and protected from violent anti-rights backlash.

Together we can change this and achieve gender justice!

If we stand together, wecan demand that women, non-binary, LGBTQIA+ people enjoy their full rights and live a life with dignity, free from discrimination, violence and oppression.

Exploring Gender Justice for Attaining Equality

• Reference work entry
• First Online: 01 January 2021
• Cite this reference work entry

• Maheema Rai 6 &
• Salvin Paul 6  

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

162 Accesses

1 Citations

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Ankara (2011) The inclusion of gender equality in the main plans and policies in the European Union: the analysis of Holland, Romania and Turkey. Directorate General on the Status of Women

Google Scholar  

Aziz AZ, Moussa J (2015) The due diligence principle and the role of the state: discrimination against women in family and cultural life. United Nation Working Group on Discrimination Against Women in Law and in Practice

Bhattarcharya A (2014) Notion of impurity and their operation in the society of early India: some reflection based on the Laws of Manu. J Humanit Soc Sci 19(3):17–21

Butchart A, Mikton C (2014) Global status report on violence prevention 2014. WHO, Geneva

Daley E, Flower C, Miggiano L, Pallas S (2013) Women’s land rights and gender justice in land governance: pillars in the promotion and protection of women’s human rights in rural areas. International Land Coalition. https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/CEDAW . Accessed 17 Aug 2019

Davison HK, Burke MJ (2000) Sex discrimination in simulated employment contexts: a meta-analytic investigation. J Vocat Behav 56(2):225–248

Article   Google Scholar  

Dessie GA (2015) Envsioning gender jutice in our hearts and mind: a promise tool for change. J Human Soc Sci 3(5):177–184

DeVore HK, Sachs CJ (2011) Sexual assault. Emerg Med Clin North Am 29(3):605–620

Ebenstein A (2014) Patrilocality and Missing Women, Working Paper, Department of Economics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, pp 1–64

Ebenstein A, Leung S (2010) Son preference and access to social insurance: evidence from china’s rural pension program. Popul Dev Rev 47–70

Evans M (2009) Manual on the wearing religious symbols in public area. Council of Europe, Starsbourg, pp 1–126

Garcia-Moreno C et al (2005) WHO multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence against women: initial results on prevalence, health outcomes and women’s responses. World Health Organization, Geneva

Ghai Y, Cottrell J (2010) The rule of law and access to justice. In: Ghai Y, Cottrell J (eds) Marginalized communities and access to justice. Routledge, Cavendish

Gheaus A (2012) Gender justice. J Ethics Soc Philos 6(1):1–24

GIESCR (2014) The global initiative for economic, social and cultural rights. Using CEDAW to secure women’s land and property rights: a practical guide. www.globalinitiative-escr.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/CEDAW-Guide.pdf . Accessed 29 Aug 2017

Goetz MA (2007) Gender justice, citenzenship and entitlesments: core concepts, central debates and new directions for research. In: Mukhopadhyay M, Singh N (eds) Gender justice, citizenship and development. Zubaan, New Delhi

Heilman B, Hebert L, Paul-Gera N (2014) The making of sexual violence: how does a boy grow up to commit rape? Evidence from five IMAGES countries. International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)/Instituto Promundo, Washington, DC/Rio de Janeiro

Heise L, Garcia-Moreno C (2002) Violence by intimate partners. In: Krug EG et al (eds) World report on violence and health. World Health Organization, Geneva, pp 87–121

Hibbert N (2017) Human rights and social justice. Laws 6(7):1–16

Human Security Report (2012) Sexual violence, education and war: beyond the mainstream narrative. Human Security Research Group, Simon Fraser University, Canada, Human Security Press, Vancouver

Jayachandran S (2014) The roots of gender inequality in developing countries, working paper. National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge

Book   Google Scholar  

Kaur G (2005) Women and law. Shree Publication and Distributors, New Delhi

Koch AJ, D’Mello SD, Sackett PR (2015) A meta-analysis of gender stereotypes and bias in experimental simulations of employment decision making. J Appl Psychol 100(1):128–161

Kumar B (2011) Human rights in global age. MD Publication, New Delhi

Malhotra A, Schuler RS, Boender C (2002) Measuring women’s empowerment as a variable in international development. World Bank workshop

Marsha FA, Chinkin C, Chinkin B (2013) The UN convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against economic, social and cultural rights. Oxford University Press, Oxford

Masser B, Abrams D (2004) Reinforcing the glass ceiling: the consequences of hostile sexism for female managerial candidates. Sex Roles 51(9/10):609–615

Mishra AD (2003) Gandhian approach to gender justice. In: Mishra AD (ed) Challenges of 21st Century. Mittla Publishing, New Delhi, pp 255–264

Murray WC (2007) Equality and social rights: an exploration in light of the south African constitution. Public Law: 751

Oxfam (2019) Gender justice. https://policy-practice.oxfamamerica.org/work/gender-justice/ . Accessed 19 Sep 2020

Pokharel S (2008) Gender discrimination: women perspective. Nepal J Dev Rural Stud 5(2):80–87

Rai S (ed) (2003) Mainstreaming gender, democratising the state? Institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women. Manchester University Press, Manchester, pp 1–298

Richeard V (2015) Report on equality and non discrimination, Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe

Ross W (1980) Aristotle, 3 Ethica Nicomachea. Oxford University Press, Oxford

Scully P, McCandless E, Nimer AM (2012) Gender violence and gender justice in peacebuilding and development. J Peacebuilding Dev 5(3):3–6

Shukhla N (2014) Gender justice and domestic violence. Regal Publications, New Delhi, pp 1–288

Spectorsky SA (2010) Women in classical islamic law. Boston, Brill, pp 1–223

Stamarski CS, Son Hing LS (2015) Gender inequalities in the workplace: the effects of organizational structures, processes, practices, and decision makers’ sexism. http://journal.frontiersin.org/Article/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01400/ . Accessed 6 Aug 2017

Tamanaha BZ (2007) Understanding legal pluralism: past to present, local to global. Sydn Law Rev 29:376–411

UN (2017) Women and sustainable development goals, Nairobi: UN Women Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, pp 1–31

UN (2019) Gender equality and women’s empowerment. UN Women Headquarters, New York, pp 1–48

UN Women (2015) Progress of the world’s women 20152016: transforming economies, realizing rights. UN Women, New York

UNCSW (2013) United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/57sess.htm . Accessed 25 Sept 2018

UNICEF (2013) Female genital mutilation/cutting: a statistical overview and exploration of the dynamics of change. UNICEF, New York, pp 1–184

United Nation (2002) Human rights: a compilation of international instruments, vol 1. Bookwell, New Delhi

United Nation (2014) The special rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief. United Nation Organization, Geneva

United Nation (2015) The world’s women 2015: trends and statistics. Economic and Social Affairs, UN, New York

United Nations (2010) The world’s women 2010: trends and statistics. Sales No. E.10.XVII.11

Vernier C, Vala J (2017) Justifying gender discrimination in the workplace: the mediating role of motherhood myths, myths. PLoS One 13(1):1–23

World Bank (2004) Female genital mutilation/cutting in Somalia, UNFPA

World Population Review (2019) Rape statistics by country 2019. http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/rape-statistics-by-country/ . Accessed 23 Aug 2019

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Peace and Conflict Studies and Management, Sikkim University, Gangtok, Sikkim, India

Maheema Rai & Salvin Paul

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Salvin Paul .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

European School of Sustainability Science and Research, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany

Walter Leal Filho

Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

Anabela Marisa Azul

Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, The University of Passo Fundo, Passo Fundo, Brazil

Luciana Brandli

The University of Passo Fundo, Passo Fundo, Brazil

Amanda Lange Salvia

International Centre for Thriving, University of Chester, Chester, UK

Section Editor information

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research - Natural Resources and Environment, Johannesburg, South Africa

Julia Mambo

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Cite this entry.

Rai, M., Paul, S. (2021). Exploring Gender Justice for Attaining Equality. In: Leal Filho, W., Marisa Azul, A., Brandli, L., Lange Salvia, A., Wall, T. (eds) Gender Equality. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95687-9_70

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95687-9_70

Published : 29 January 2021

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-319-95686-2

Online ISBN : 978-3-319-95687-9

eBook Packages : Earth and Environmental Science Reference Module Physical and Materials Science Reference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

Share this entry

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

5 Powerful Essays Advocating for Gender Equality

Gender equality – which becomes reality when all genders are treated fairly and allowed equal opportunities –  is a complicated human rights issue for every country in the world. Recent statistics are sobering. According to the World Economic Forum, it will take 108 years to achieve gender parity . The biggest gaps are found in political empowerment and economics. Also, there are currently just six countries that give women and men equal legal work rights. Generally, women are only given ¾ of the rights given to men. To learn more about how gender equality is measured, how it affects both women and men, and what can be done, here are five essays making a fair point.

Take a free course on Gender Equality offered by top universities!

“Countries With Less Gender Equity Have More Women In STEM — Huh?” – Adam Mastroianni and Dakota McCoy

This essay from two Harvard PhD candidates (Mastroianni in psychology and McCoy in biology) takes a closer look at a recent study that showed that in countries with lower gender equity, more women are in STEM. The study’s researchers suggested that this is because women are actually especially interested in STEM fields, and because they are given more choice in Western countries, they go with different careers. Mastroianni and McCoy disagree.

They argue the research actually shows that cultural attitudes and discrimination are impacting women’s interests, and that bias and discrimination is present even in countries with better gender equality. The problem may lie in the Gender Gap Index (GGI), which tracks factors like wage disparity and government representation. To learn why there’s more women in STEM from countries with less gender equality, a more nuanced and complex approach is needed.

“Men’s health is better, too, in countries with more gender equality” – Liz Plank

When it comes to discussions about gender equality, it isn’t uncommon for someone in the room to say, “What about the men?” Achieving gender equality has been difficult because of the underlying belief that giving women more rights and freedom somehow takes rights away from men. The reality, however, is that gender equality is good for everyone. In Liz Plank’s essay, which is an adaption from her book For the Love of Men: A Vision for Mindful Masculinity, she explores how in Iceland, the #1 ranked country for gender equality, men live longer. Plank lays out the research for why this is, revealing that men who hold “traditional” ideas about masculinity are more likely to die by suicide and suffer worse health. Anxiety about being the only financial provider plays a big role in this, so in countries where women are allowed education and equal earning power, men don’t shoulder the burden alone.

Liz Plank is an author and award-winning journalist with Vox, where she works as a senior producer and political correspondent. In 2015, Forbes named her one of their “30 Under 30” in the Media category. She’s focused on feminist issues throughout her career.

“China’s #MeToo Moment” –  Jiayang Fan

Some of the most visible examples of gender inequality and discrimination comes from “Me Too” stories. Women are coming forward in huge numbers relating how they’ve been harassed and abused by men who have power over them. Most of the time, established systems protect these men from accountability. In this article from Jiayang Fan, a New Yorker staff writer, we get a look at what’s happening in China.

The essay opens with a story from a PhD student inspired by the United States’ Me Too movement to open up about her experience with an academic adviser. Her story led to more accusations against the adviser, and he was eventually dismissed. This is a rare victory, because as Fan says, China employs a more rigid system of patriarchy and hierarchy. There aren’t clear definitions or laws surrounding sexual harassment. Activists are charting unfamiliar territory, which this essay explores.

“Men built this system. No wonder gender equality remains as far off as ever.” – Ellie Mae O’Hagan

Freelance journalist Ellie Mae O’Hagan (whose book The New Normal is scheduled for a May 2020 release) is discouraged that gender equality is so many years away. She argues that it’s because the global system of power at its core is broken.  Even when women are in power, which is proportionally rare on a global scale, they deal with a system built by the patriarchy. O’Hagan’s essay lays out ideas for how to fix what’s fundamentally flawed, so gender equality can become a reality.

Ideas include investing in welfare; reducing gender-based violence (which is mostly men committing violence against women); and strengthening trade unions and improving work conditions. With a system that’s not designed to put women down, the world can finally achieve gender equality.

“Invisibility of Race in Gender Pay Gap Discussions” – Bonnie Chu

The gender pay gap has been a pressing issue for many years in the United States, but most discussions miss the factor of race. In this concise essay, Senior Contributor Bonnie Chu examines the reality, writing that within the gender pay gap, there’s other gaps when it comes to black, Native American, and Latina women. Asian-American women, on the other hand, are paid 85 cents for every dollar. This data is extremely important and should be present in discussions about the gender pay gap. It reminds us that when it comes to gender equality, there’s other factors at play, like racism.

Bonnie Chu is a gender equality advocate and a Forbes 30 Under 30 social entrepreneur. She’s the founder and CEO of Lensational, which empowers women through photography, and the Managing Director of The Social Investment Consultancy.

You may also like

15 Quotes Exposing Injustice in Society

14 Trusted Charities Helping Civilians in Palestine

The Great Migration: History, Causes and Facts

Social Change 101: Meaning, Examples, Learning Opportunities

Rosa Parks: Biography, Quotes, Impact

Top 20 Issues Women Are Facing Today

Top 20 Issues Children Are Facing Today

15 Root Causes of Climate Change

15 Facts about Rosa Parks

Abolitionist Movement: History, Main Ideas, and Activism Today

The Biggest 15 NGOs in the UK

15 Biggest NGOs in Canada

About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

Closing the equity gap

Jeni Klugman

Caren Grown and Odera Onyechi

Why addressing gender inequality is central to tackling today’s polycrises

Nonresident Senior Fellow, Africa Growth Initiative, Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institution

As we enter 2023, the term “ polycrisis ” is an increasingly apt way to describe today’s challenges. 1 Major wars, high inflation, and climate events are creating hardship all around the world, which is still grappling with a pandemic death toll approaching 7 million people.

Faced with such daunting challenges, one might well ask why we should be thinking about the gender dimensions of recovery and resilience for future shocks. The answer is simple: We can no longer afford to think in silos. Today’s interlocking challenges demand that sharp inequalities, including gender disparities, must be addressed as part and parcel of efforts to tackle Africa’s pressing issues and ensure the continent’s future success.

“We can no longer afford to think in silos. … Gender disparities, must be addressed as part and parcel of efforts to tackle Africa’s pressing issues and ensure the continent’s future success.”

The burdens of the pandemic have been unequally borne across regions and countries, and between the poor and better off. Inequalities exist around gender—which can be defined as the “socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, attributes and opportunities that any society considers appropriate for men and women, boys and girls” and people with non-binary identities. 2 As Raewyn Connell laid out more than two decades ago, existing systems typically distribute greater power, resources, and status to men and behaviors considered masculine . 3 As a result, gender intersects with other sources of disadvantage, most notably income, age, race, and ethnicity.

This understanding is now mainstream. As recently observed by the IMF, “The gender inequalities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic follow different paths but almost always end up the same: Women have suffered disproportionate economic harm from the crisis.” 4 Among the important nuances revealed by micro-surveys is that rural women working informally continued to work through the pandemic , but with sharply reduced earnings in Nigeria and elsewhere. 5 And as the burden of child care and home schooling soared, rural households headed by women were far less likely than urban households to have children engaged in learning activities during school closures.

Important insights emerge from IFPRI’s longitudinal panel study (which included Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda) covering income loss, coping strategies, labor and time use, food and water insecurity, and child education outcomes. 6

Among the especially adverse impacts for women were greater food and water insecurity compared to men, including worrying about insufficient food and eating less than usual, while a large proportion of women also did not have adequately diverse diets. Moreover, many women had to add hours to their workday caring for sick family members, and their economic opportunities shrank, cutting their earnings and widening gender income gaps.

While today’s problems seem daunting, there remain huge causes for optimism, especially in Africa. Over the past three decades, many African countries have achieved enormous gains in levels of education, health, and poverty reduction. Indeed, the pace of change has been staggering and commendable. As captured in the Women Peace and Security Index , which measures performance in inclusion, justice, and security, 6 of the top 10 score improvers during the period 2017-2021 were in sub-Saharan Africa. [GIWPS.2022. “Women Peace and Security Index” Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security.] The Democratic Republic of Congo was among top score improvers since 2017, as the share of women with financial accounts almost tripled, to 24 percent; and increases exceeding 5 percentage points were registered in cell phone use and parliamentary representation. In the Central African Republic, improvements were experienced in the security dimension, where organized violence fell significantly, and women’s perceptions of community safety rose 6 percentage points up to 49 percent.

Looking ahead, efforts to mitigate gender inequalities must clearly be multi-pronged, and as highlighted above—we need to think outside silos. That said, two major policy fronts emerge to the fore.

Ensure cash transfers that protect against poverty , are built and designed to promote women’s opportunities, with a focus on digital payments. 7 Ways to address gender inequalities as part of social protection program responses 8 include deliberate efforts to overcome gender gaps in cell phone access by distributing phones to those women who need them, as well as private sector partnerships to subsidize airtime for the poorest, and to make key information services and apps freely available . 9 Programs could also make women the default recipient of cash transfer schemes, instead of the head of household. Furthermore, capacity-building initiatives can be built into program design to give women the skills and capabilities needed to successfully manage accounts and financial decisionmaking. 10

Reducing the risk of violence against women. Women who are not safe at home are denied the freedom from violence needed to pursue opportunities that should be afforded to all. In 2018, 10 of the 15 countries with the worst rates of intimate partner violence were in sub-Saharan Africa—in descending order of average intimate partner violence these were, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Zambia, Ethiopia, Liberia, South Sudan, Djibouti, and Uganda.

“As the burden of child care and home schooling soared, rural households headed by women were far less likely than urban households to have children engaged in learning activities.”

Conflicts and crises multiply women’s risk of physical, emotional, and sexual violence . During the pandemic, risk factors like economic stress were compounded by service closures and stay-at-home orders, which increased exposure to potential perpetrators. 11 Several governments responded by strengthening existing help services , including police and justice, supporting hotlines, ensuring the provision of psychological support, and health sector responses. 12 Examples of good practice included an NGO in North-Eastern Nigeria, which equipped existing safe spaces with phone booths to enable survivors to contact caseworkers.

However, given the high levels of prevalence and often low levels of reporting, prevention of gender-based violence is key. Targeted programs with promising results in prevention include community dialogues and efforts to change harmful norms, safe spaces, as well as possibilities to reduce the risk of violence through cash plus social protection programs. These efforts should be accompanied by more systematic monitoring and evaluation to build evidence about what works in diverse settings.

Finally, but certainly not least, women should have space and voices in decisionmaking. This case was powerfully put by former President Sirleaf Johnson in her 2021 Foresight essay, which underlined that “ economic, political, institutional, and social barriers persist throughout the continent, limiting women’s abilities to reach high-level leadership positions .” 13 Persistent gender gaps in power and decision-making, not only limits innovative thinking and solutions, but also the consideration of more basic measures to avoid the worsening of gender inequalities. Overcoming these gaps in power and decision-making requires safeguarding legal protections and rights, investing in women and girls financially, and opening space for women in political parties so that women have the platforms to access high-level appointed and competitive positions across national, regional, and international institutions. 14

Strengthening fiscal policy for gender equality

Senior Fellow, Center for Sustainable Development, Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institution

Research Analyst, Center for Sustainable Development, Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institution

It is often said that women act as “shock absorbers” during times of crisis; this is even more so in the current context of climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and increased geopolitical conflict. These three global crises have simultaneously stretched women’s ability to earn income and intensified their unpaid work. Well-designed fiscal policy can help cushion the effects of these shocks and enable women and their households to recover more quickly.

Over 60 percent of employed women in Africa work in agriculture, including in small-scale food production; women are the primary sellers in food markets, and they work in other sectors such as informal trading. At the same time, women are an increasing share of entrepreneurs in countries such as Ghana and Uganda, even as they face financial and other constraints to start and grow their firms. [Africa Gender Innovation Lab (GIL). 2020. “Supporting Women Throughout the Coronavirus Emergency Response and Economic Recovery.” World Bank Group. ] In addition to earning income for their households, women bear the major responsibility for unpaid domestic activities such as cooking; collecting water and fuelwood; caring for children, elderly, and other dependents—so women are more time-poor than are men.

African women and entrepreneurs have been impacted disproportionately more than men by the triple shocks mentioned earlier. Extreme weather events disrupt food production and agricultural employment, making it harder for women to earn income . 15 16 17 The pandemic and conflict in Ukraine further intensified women’s paid and unpaid activities . 18 19 Beyond climate change and the war in Ukraine, localized conflicts and insecurity in East and West Africa exposes women and girls to gender-based violence and other risks as they seek to support their families and develop new coping strategies. 20 21 22

“Responding to these shocks necessitates a large infusion of resources. In this context, fiscal policy can be deployed more smartly to advance gender equality and create an enabling environment for women to play a greater role in building their economies’ recovery and resilience.”

Responding to these shocks necessitates a large infusion of resources. In this context, fiscal policy can be deployed more smartly to advance gender equality and create an enabling environment for women to play a greater role in building their economies’ recovery and resilience. Public expenditure supports critical sectors such as education, health, agriculture, social protection, and physical and social infrastructure, while well-designed tax policy is essential to fund the public goods, services, and infrastructure on which both women and men rely.

Gender-responsive budgets, which exist in over 30 countries across the continent, can be strengthened. Rwanda provides a good model for other countries. After an early unsuccessful attempt, Rwanda invested seriously in gender budgeting beginning in 2011. 23 24 The budget is focused on closing gaps and strengthening women’s roles in key sectors—agriculture, education, health, and infrastructure—which are all critical for short- and medium-term economic growth and productivity. The process has been sustained by strong political will among parliamentarians. Led by the Ministry of Finance, the process has financed and been complemented by important institutional and policy reforms. A constitutional regulatory body monitors results, with additional accountability by civil society organizations.

However, raising adequate fiscal revenue to support a gender budget is a challenge in the current macro environment of high public debt levels, increased borrowing costs, and low levels of public savings. Yet, observers note there is scope to increase revenues through taxation reforms, debt relief, cutting wasteful public expenditure, and other means. 25 26 We focus here on taxation.

Many countries are reforming their tax systems to strengthen revenue collection. Overall tax collection is currently low; the average tax-to-GDP ratio in Africa in 2020 was 14.8 percent and fell sharply during the pandemic, although it may be rebounding. 27 Very few Africans pay personal income tax or other central government taxes, 28 29 and statutory corporate tax rates (which range from 25-35 percent), are higher than even the recent OECD proposal for a global minimum tax 30 so scope for raising them further is limited. Efforts should be made to close loopholes and reduce tax evasion.

As countries reform their tax policies, they should be intentional about avoiding implicit and explicit gender biases. 31 32 33 34 Most African countries rely more on indirect taxes than direct taxes, given the structure of their economies, but indirect taxes can be regressive as their incidence falls primarily on the poor. Presumptive or turnover taxes, for example, which are uniform or fixed amounts of tax based on the “presumed” incomes of different occupations such as hairdressers, can hit women particularly hard, since the burden often falls heavily on sectors where women predominate. 35 36

Property taxes are also becoming an increasingly popular way to raise revenue for local governments. The impact of these efforts on male and female property owners has not been systematically evaluated, but a recent study of land use fees and agricultural income taxes in Ethiopia finds that female-headed and female adult-only households bear a larger tax burden than male-headed and dual-adult households of property taxes. This is likely a result of unequal land ownership patterns, gender norms restricting women’s engagement in agriculture, and the gender gap in agricultural productivity. 37

“Indirect taxes can be regressive as their incidence falls primarily on the poor. Presumptive or turnover taxes … can hit women particularly hard, since the burden often falls heavily on sectors where women predominate.”

Going forward, two key ingredients for gender budgeting on the continent need to be strengthened. The first is having sufficient, regularly collected, sex-disaggregated administrative data related to households, the labor force, and other survey data. Investment in the robust technical capacity for ministries and academia to be able to access, analyze, and use it is also necessary. For instance, the World Bank, UN Women, and the Economic Commission for Africa are all working with National Statistical Offices across the continent to strengthen statistical capacity in the areas of asset ownership and control, work and employment, and entrepreneurship which can be used in a gender budget.

The second ingredient is stronger diagnostic tools. One promising new tool, pioneered by Tulane University, is the Commitment to Equity methodology, designed to assess the impact of taxes and transfers on income inequality and poverty within countries. 38 It was recently extended to examine the impact of government transfers and taxes on women and men by income level and other dimensions. The methodology requires standard household-level data but for maximum effect should be supplemented with time use data, which are becoming more common in several African countries. As African countries seek to expand revenue from direct taxes, lessons from higher income economies are instructive. Although there is no one size fits all approach, key principles to keep in mind for designing personal income taxes include building in strong progressivity, taxing individuals as opposed to families, ensuring that the allocation of shared income (e.g., property or non-labor income) does not penalize women, and building in allowances for care of children and dependents. 39 As noted, corporate income taxes need to eliminate the many breaks, loopholes, and exemptions that currently exist, 40 and countries might consider experimenting with wealth taxes.

In terms of indirect taxes, most African countries do not have single-rate VAT systems and already have zero or reduced rates for basic necessities, including foodstuffs and other necessities. While it is important to minimize exempted sectors and products, estimates show that goods essential for women’s and children’s health (e.g., menstrual health products, diapers, cooking fuel) should be considered part of the basket of basic goods that have reduced or zero rates. 41 And while African governments are being advised to bring informal workers and entrepreneurs into the formal tax system, 42 it should be noted that this massive sector earns well below income tax thresholds and already pays multiple informal fees and levies, for instance in fees to market associations. 43 44

Lastly, leveraging data and digital technologies to improve tax administration (i.e., taxpayer registration, e-filing, and e-payment of taxes) may help minimize costs and processing time, and reduce the incidence of corruption and evasion.32 Digitalization can also be important for bringing more female taxpayers into the net, especially if digital systems are interoperable; for instance, digital taxpayer registries linked to national identification or to property registration at the local level. However, digitalization can be a double-edged sword if privacy and security concerns are not built-in from the outset. Women particularly may need targeted digital financial literacy and other measures to ensure their trust in the system. Recent shocks have worsened gender inequality in Africa. It is therefore important now, more than ever, to invest in strengthening fiscal systems to help women and men recover, withstand future shocks, and reduce gender inequalities. While fiscal policy is not the only tool, it is an important part of government action. To be effective and improve both budgeting and revenue collection, more and better data, new diagnostic tools, and digitalization will all be necessary.

• 1. Martin Wolf. 2022.“How to think about policy in a policy crisis”. Financial Times.
• 2. WTO. 2022. “Gender and Health”. World Health Organization.
• 3. Connell RW. 1995. “Masculinities”. Cambridge, UK. Polity Press.
• 4. Aoyagi, Chie.2021.“Africa’s Unequal Pandemic”. Finance and Development. International Monetary Fund.
• 5. WB.2022. “LSMS-Supported High-Frequency Phone Surveys”. World Bank.
• 6. Muzna Alvi, Shweta Gupta, Prapti Barooah, Claudia Ringler, Elizabeth Bryan and Ruth Meinzen-Dick.2022.“Gendered Impacts of COVID-19: Insights from 7 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia”. International Food Policy Research Institute.
• 7. Klugman, Jeni, Zimmerman, Jamie M., Maria A. May, and Elizabeth Kellison. 2020. “Digital Cash Transfers in the Time of COVID 19: Opportunities and Considerations for Women’s Inclusion and Empowerment”. World Bank Group.
• 8. IFPRI.2020. “Why gender-sensitive social protection is critical to the COVID-19 response in low-and middle-income countries”. International Food Policy Research Institute.
• 9. IDFR.2020. “Kenya: Mobile-money as a public-health tool”. International Day of Family Remittances.
• 10. Jaclyn Berfond Franz Gómez S. Juan Navarrete Ryan Newton Ana Pantelic. 2019. “Capacity Building for Government-to-Person Payments A Path to Women’s Economic Empowerment”. Women’s World Banking.
• 11. Peterman, A. et al.2020. “Pandemics and Violence Against Women and Children”.Center for Global Development Working Paper.
• 12. UNDP/ UN Women Tracker.2022. “United Nations Development Programme. COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker”. United Nations Development Programme. New York.
• 13. McKinsey Global Institute .2019. “The power of parity: Advancing women’s equality in Africa”.
• 14. Foresight Africa. 2022. “African Women and Girls: Leading a continent.” The Brookings Institution.
• 15. One recent study in West, Central Africa, East and Southern Africa found that women represented a larger share of agricultural employment in areas affected by heat waves and droughts, and a lower share in areas unaffected by extreme weather events. Nico, G. et al. 2022. “How Weather Variability and Extreme Shocks Affect Women’s Participation in African Agriculture.” Gender, Climate Change, and Nutrition Integration Initiative Policy Note 14.
• 16. Carleton, E. 2022. “Climate Change in Africa: What Will It Mean for Agriculture and Food Security?” International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).
• 17. Nebie, E.K. et al. 2021. “Food Security and Climate Shocks in Senegal: Who and Where Are the Most Vulnerable Households?” Global Food Security, 29.
• 18. Sen, A.K. 2022. “Russia’s War in Ukraine Is Taking a Toll on Africa.” United States Institute of Peace.
• 19. Thomas, A. 2020. “Power Structures over Gender Make Women More Vulnerable to Climate Change.” Climate Change News.
• 21. Kalbarczyk, A. et al. 2022. “COVID-19, Nutrition, and Gender: An Evidence-Informed Approach to Gender Responsive Policies and Programs.” Social Science & Medicine, 312.
• 22. Epstein, A. 2020. “Drought and Intimate Partner Violence Towards Women in 19 Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa During 2011-2018: A Population-Based Study.” PLoS Med, 17(3).
• 23. Stotsky, J. et al. 2016. “Sub-Saharan Africa: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts. IMF Working Paper 2016/512.
• 24. Kadama, C. et al. 2018. Sub-Saharan Africa.” In Kolovich, L. (Ed.), Fiscal Policies and Gender Equality (pp. 9-32). International Monetary Fund (IMF).
• 25. Ortiz, I. and Cummins, M. 2021. “Abandoning Austerity: Fiscal Policies for Inclusive Development.” In Gallagher, K. and Gao, H. (Eds.), Building Back a Better Global Financial Safety Net (pp. 11-22). Global Development Policy Center.
• 26. Roy, R. et al. 2006. “Fiscal Space for Public Investment: Towards a Human Development Approach.”
• 27. ATAF, 2021.
• 28. Moore, M. et al. 2018. “Taxing Africa: Coercion, Reform and Development. Bloomsbury Publishing.
• 29. Rogan, M. 2019. Tax Justice and the Informal Economy: A Review of the Debates.” Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing Working Paper 14.
• 30. African Tax Administrative Forum (ATAF). 2021. African Tax Outlook 2021.
• 31. Stotsky, J. et al. 2016. “Sub-Saharan Africa: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts.” IMF Working Paper 2016/512.
• 32. Coelho, M. et al. 2022. “Gendered Taxes: The Interaction of Tax Policy with Gender Equality.” IMF Working Paper 2022/26.
• 33. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 2021. Gender and Capital Budgeting.
• 34. Grown, C. and Valodia, I. 2010. Taxation and Gender Equity: A Comparative Analysis of Direct and Indirect Taxes in Developing and Developed Countries. Routledge.
• 35. Joshi, Anuradha et al. 2020. “Gender and Tax Policies in the Global South.” International Centre for Tax and Development.
• 36. Komatsu, H. et al. 2021. “Gender and Tax Incidence of Rural Land Use Fee and Agricultural In¬come Tax in Ethiopia.” Policy Research Working Papers.
• 38. Lustig, N. 2018. “Commitment to Equity Handbook: Estimating the Impact of Fiscal Policy on Inequality and Poverty.” Brookings Institution Press.
• 39. Grown, C. and Valodia, I. 2010. “Taxation and Gender Equity: A Comparative Analysis of Direct and Indirect Taxes in Developing and Developed Countries.” Routledge.
• 40. Cesar, C. et al. 2022. “Africa’s Pulse: An Analysis of Issues Shaping Africa’s Economic Future.” World Bank.
• 41. Woolard, I. 2018. Recommendations on Zero Ratings in the Value-Added Tax System. Independent Panel of Experts for the Review of Zero Rating in South Africa.
• 42. It is important to distinguish between firms and individuals that are large enough to pay taxes but do not (which include icebergs, e.g., which are registered and therefore partially visible to tax authorities but do not pay their full obligations) and ghosts, e.g., those which should register to pay but do not and there invisible to tax authorities) and firms and individuals that are small and potentially but not necessarily taxable such as street vendors and waste pickers. Rogan, M. (2019). “Tax Justice and the Informal Economy: A Review of the Debates.” Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing Working Paper 14.
• 44. Ligomeka, W. 2019. “Expensive to be a Female Trader: The Reality of Taxation of Flea Market Trad¬ers in Zimbabwe.” International Center for Tax and Development Working Paper 93.

By Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi

Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi explores the role of gender equality in Africa’s economic development.

By Cina Lawson

Cina Lawson describes Togolese initiatives to expand the reach of social protection.

By Malado Kaba

Malado Kaba identifies four priorities for governments to transform the informal sector and economic prospects for African women.

By J. Jarpa Duwuni

J. Jarpa Dawuni identifies priority areas to expand access to justice for women and girls in Africa.

Next Chapter

06 | Climate Change Adapting to a new normal

Foresight Africa: Top Priorities for the Continent in 2023

On January 30, AGI hosted a Foresight Africa launch featuring a high-level panel of leading Africa experts to offer insights on regional trends along with recommendations for national governments, regional organizations, multilateral institutions, the private sector, and civil society actors as they forge ahead in 2022.

Africa in Focus

What should be the top priority for Africa in 2023?

BY ALOYSIUS UCHE ORDU

Aloysius Uche Ordu introduces Foresight Africa 2023, which outlines top priorities for the year ahead and offers recommendations for supporting Africa at a time of heightened global turbulence.

Foresight Africa Podcast

The Foresight Africa podcast celebrates Africa’s dynamism and explores strategies for broadening the benefits of growth to all people of Africa.

• Media Relations
• Terms and Conditions
• Privacy Policy

Gender equality, justice in law and practice: Essential for sustainable development

Facebook Twitter Print Email

Fundamentally linked to human development, gender justice requires ending inequality and redressing existing disparities between women and men, according to a high-level United Nations forum on the situation in Arab States.

Laws that promote gender equality "will help the Arab region move forward on the issue of justice and equality for women”, Jordan Ambassador to the UN Sima Bahous, told UN News after chairing the forum centered around the study with the same name: Gender and Law Justice, Evaluation of Laws Affecting Gender Equality in the Arab States .

Gender equality is achieved when both sexes enjoy the same rights and opportunities across society, including access to justice and to economic and social gains. The study stressed that sustainable development goals cannot be achieved without ensuring gender equality in law and practice.

On 14 March, on the margins of the 63rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women ( CSW ), the UN Development Programme ( UNDP ), the Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA), Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Women's Fund (UNIFEM) organized the conference, which discussed discrimination and criminal, personal status and labour laws across 18 Arab countries.  

“Human development means expanding opportunities for women and men to improve their lives and education, and create better opportunities”, Ms. Bahous explained.  

Room in Arab region for women’s equality

Gender justice relies on accountability and equality.  

Salma Al-Nemes, Secretary General of the Jordanian National Committee for Women, spoke about the forum’s importance, saying that it aims to “emphasize that there is still room in the Arab region to achieve women’s equality.”  

She stressed that problems can only be solved if they are recognized, and that countries can benefit “from the experiences of the Arab and Islamic countries that have achieved equality and build on this by adapting it to national reality.”  

Because national and local contexts differ, Ms. Al-Nemes acknowledged that “we must examine how to meet these challenges in an appropriate context so that we can achieve equality not only in legislation, but in practice as well”. 

For her part, Naziha el Obaidi, Minister of Women, Family, Childhood and the Elderly of Tunisia, told UN News about her Government’s decree that “when considering the appointment of a senior official in the country, four biographies of candidates, two for women and one for men, should be submitted." 

Also in Tunisia, the law of ‘horizontal equinoxes and vertical equinoxes’ states that if an electoral list is headed by a woman, a man must hold the second position, and vice versa. Ms. el Obaidi credited this with women’s participation nearly 48 per cent of municipalities, noting that this law will also be implemented in the legislative elections. 

Honour crimes

Because gender-based violence is a major barrier to gender justice, Gender justice and the law closely examines its various forms, including sexual, physical and psychological and economic violence, assessing laws and policies that affect gender equality and protect against gender-based violence.

For example, the penalties for committing so-called honour crimes – which include murder, wounding and beating – vary, depending on the country.

In Algeria , Bahrain , Morocco , Qatar , Syria and Yemen a sentence can be reduced if a “spouse” is caught in an act of adultery.

Whereas in Djibouti and Sudan there are no specific provisions identified in the Penal Code to reduce penalties for these crimes.

Leniency for perpetrators of honour crimes against women in Saudi Arabia is not codified in the law, so men are sentenced at the court’s discretion.

Meanwhile, the Penal Code in Egypt spells out that if a husband kills his wife committing adultery, he and the man with whom she was with would receive reduced penalty not to exceed three years in prison.

Should “a person” kill a wife, daughter or sister, or her sexual partner, in the sudden heat of rage after finding her in a sexual act in Somalia , the penal code requires a reduced sentence.

If a man kills his wife or one of his female relatives while engaging in the act of adultery in Iraq , he would be incarcerated for no more than three years. In Libya the sentence would not exceed eight years.

At the same time, some countries repealed reduced sentences for honour crimes, such as Lebanon in 2011, Oman in 2001 and Tunisia in 1993.

While the penal code in  Jordan  was amended in 2017 to prevent reduced penalties for honour crimes, the original mitigated penalties for murdering a spouse caught in the act of adultery has yet to be removed. Similarly, mitigation of penalties for honour crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories were repealed in 2011 in the West Bank and 2018 in Gaza, however, the Government there has not applied the reforms. 

Honour crimes are just one of the topics addressed in the study. Violence manifest itself in many ways, including rape, sexual harassment, child and forced marriage, female genital mutilation/cutting and other harmful traditional practices – all of which the study covers.  

It is worth mentioning that the UN Commission on the Status of Women is responsible for developing global policies to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. The annual session, which drew to a close on 22 March, provides an opportunity to review progress and identify difficulties, challenges and policy formulation. 

• ARAB COUNTRIES
• GENDER EQUALITY

• Search Menu
• Browse content in Arts and Humanities
• Browse content in Archaeology
• Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Archaeology
• Archaeological Methodology and Techniques
• Archaeology by Region
• Archaeology of Religion
• Archaeology of Trade and Exchange
• Biblical Archaeology
• Contemporary and Public Archaeology
• Environmental Archaeology
• Historical Archaeology
• History and Theory of Archaeology
• Industrial Archaeology
• Landscape Archaeology
• Mortuary Archaeology
• Prehistoric Archaeology
• Underwater Archaeology
• Urban Archaeology
• Zooarchaeology
• Browse content in Architecture
• Architectural Structure and Design
• History of Architecture
• Residential and Domestic Buildings
• Theory of Architecture
• Browse content in Art
• Art Subjects and Themes
• History of Art
• Industrial and Commercial Art
• Theory of Art
• Biographical Studies
• Byzantine Studies
• Browse content in Classical Studies
• Classical History
• Classical Philosophy
• Classical Mythology
• Classical Literature
• Classical Reception
• Classical Art and Architecture
• Classical Oratory and Rhetoric
• Greek and Roman Papyrology
• Greek and Roman Epigraphy
• Greek and Roman Law
• Greek and Roman Archaeology
• Late Antiquity
• Religion in the Ancient World
• Digital Humanities
• Browse content in History
• Colonialism and Imperialism
• Diplomatic History
• Environmental History
• Genealogy, Heraldry, Names, and Honours
• Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
• Historical Geography
• History by Period
• History of Emotions
• History of Agriculture
• History of Education
• History of Gender and Sexuality
• Industrial History
• Intellectual History
• International History
• Labour History
• Legal and Constitutional History
• Local and Family History
• Maritime History
• Military History
• National Liberation and Post-Colonialism
• Oral History
• Political History
• Public History
• Regional and National History
• Revolutions and Rebellions
• Slavery and Abolition of Slavery
• Social and Cultural History
• Theory, Methods, and Historiography
• Urban History
• World History
• Browse content in Language Teaching and Learning
• Language Learning (Specific Skills)
• Language Teaching Theory and Methods
• Browse content in Linguistics
• Applied Linguistics
• Cognitive Linguistics
• Computational Linguistics
• Forensic Linguistics
• Grammar, Syntax and Morphology
• Historical and Diachronic Linguistics
• History of English
• Language Evolution
• Language Reference
• Language Acquisition
• Language Variation
• Language Families
• Lexicography
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Linguistic Theories
• Linguistic Typology
• Phonetics and Phonology
• Psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Translation and Interpretation
• Writing Systems
• Browse content in Literature
• Bibliography
• Children's Literature Studies
• Literary Studies (Romanticism)
• Literary Studies (American)
• Literary Studies (Asian)
• Literary Studies (European)
• Literary Studies (Eco-criticism)
• Literary Studies (Modernism)
• Literary Studies - World
• Literary Studies (1500 to 1800)
• Literary Studies (19th Century)
• Literary Studies (20th Century onwards)
• Literary Studies (African American Literature)
• Literary Studies (British and Irish)
• Literary Studies (Early and Medieval)
• Literary Studies (Fiction, Novelists, and Prose Writers)
• Literary Studies (Gender Studies)
• Literary Studies (Graphic Novels)
• Literary Studies (History of the Book)
• Literary Studies (Plays and Playwrights)
• Literary Studies (Poetry and Poets)
• Literary Studies (Postcolonial Literature)
• Literary Studies (Queer Studies)
• Literary Studies (Science Fiction)
• Literary Studies (Travel Literature)
• Literary Studies (War Literature)
• Literary Studies (Women's Writing)
• Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
• Mythology and Folklore
• Shakespeare Studies and Criticism
• Browse content in Media Studies
• Browse content in Music
• Applied Music
• Dance and Music
• Ethics in Music
• Ethnomusicology
• Gender and Sexuality in Music
• Medicine and Music
• Music Cultures
• Music and Media
• Music and Religion
• Music and Culture
• Music Education and Pedagogy
• Music Theory and Analysis
• Musical Scores, Lyrics, and Libretti
• Musical Structures, Styles, and Techniques
• Musicology and Music History
• Performance Practice and Studies
• Race and Ethnicity in Music
• Sound Studies
• Browse content in Performing Arts
• Browse content in Philosophy
• Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
• Epistemology
• Feminist Philosophy
• History of Western Philosophy
• Metaphysics
• Moral Philosophy
• Non-Western Philosophy
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophy of Perception
• Philosophy of Science
• Philosophy of Action
• Philosophy of Law
• Philosophy of Religion
• Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic
• Practical Ethics
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Browse content in Religion
• Biblical Studies
• Christianity
• East Asian Religions
• History of Religion
• Judaism and Jewish Studies
• Qumran Studies
• Religion and Education
• Religion and Health
• Religion and Politics
• Religion and Science
• Religion and Law
• Religion and Art, Literature, and Music
• Religious Studies
• Browse content in Society and Culture
• Cookery, Food, and Drink
• Cultural Studies
• Customs and Traditions
• Ethical Issues and Debates
• Hobbies, Games, Arts and Crafts
• Lifestyle, Home, and Garden
• Natural world, Country Life, and Pets
• Popular Beliefs and Controversial Knowledge
• Sports and Outdoor Recreation
• Technology and Society
• Travel and Holiday
• Visual Culture
• Browse content in Law
• Arbitration
• Browse content in Company and Commercial Law
• Commercial Law
• Company Law
• Browse content in Comparative Law
• Systems of Law
• Competition Law
• Browse content in Constitutional and Administrative Law
• Government Powers
• Judicial Review
• Local Government Law
• Military and Defence Law
• Parliamentary and Legislative Practice
• Construction Law
• Contract Law
• Browse content in Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure
• Criminal Evidence Law
• Sentencing and Punishment
• Employment and Labour Law
• Environment and Energy Law
• Browse content in Financial Law
• Banking Law
• Insolvency Law
• History of Law
• Human Rights and Immigration
• Intellectual Property Law
• Browse content in International Law
• Private International Law and Conflict of Laws
• Public International Law
• IT and Communications Law
• Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law
• Law and Politics
• Law and Society
• Browse content in Legal System and Practice
• Courts and Procedure
• Legal Skills and Practice
• Primary Sources of Law
• Regulation of Legal Profession
• Medical and Healthcare Law
• Browse content in Policing
• Criminal Investigation and Detection
• Police and Security Services
• Police Procedure and Law
• Police Regional Planning
• Browse content in Property Law
• Personal Property Law
• Study and Revision
• Terrorism and National Security Law
• Browse content in Trusts Law
• Wills and Probate or Succession
• Browse content in Medicine and Health
• Browse content in Allied Health Professions
• Arts Therapies
• Clinical Science
• Dietetics and Nutrition
• Occupational Therapy
• Operating Department Practice
• Physiotherapy
• Radiography
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Browse content in Anaesthetics
• General Anaesthesia
• Neuroanaesthesia
• Clinical Neuroscience
• Browse content in Clinical Medicine
• Acute Medicine
• Cardiovascular Medicine
• Clinical Genetics
• Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Dermatology
• Endocrinology and Diabetes
• Gastroenterology
• Genito-urinary Medicine
• Geriatric Medicine
• Infectious Diseases
• Medical Toxicology
• Medical Oncology
• Pain Medicine
• Palliative Medicine
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Respiratory Medicine and Pulmonology
• Rheumatology
• Sleep Medicine
• Sports and Exercise Medicine
• Community Medical Services
• Critical Care
• Emergency Medicine
• Forensic Medicine
• Haematology
• History of Medicine
• Browse content in Medical Skills
• Clinical Skills
• Communication Skills
• Nursing Skills
• Surgical Skills
• Browse content in Medical Dentistry
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Paediatric Dentistry
• Restorative Dentistry and Orthodontics
• Surgical Dentistry
• Medical Ethics
• Medical Statistics and Methodology
• Browse content in Neurology
• Clinical Neurophysiology
• Neuropathology
• Nursing Studies
• Browse content in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Gynaecology
• Occupational Medicine
• Ophthalmology
• Otolaryngology (ENT)
• Browse content in Paediatrics
• Neonatology
• Browse content in Pathology
• Chemical Pathology
• Clinical Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics
• Histopathology
• Medical Microbiology and Virology
• Patient Education and Information
• Browse content in Pharmacology
• Psychopharmacology
• Browse content in Popular Health
• Caring for Others
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Self-help and Personal Development
• Browse content in Preclinical Medicine
• Cell Biology
• Molecular Biology and Genetics
• Reproduction, Growth and Development
• Primary Care
• Professional Development in Medicine
• Browse content in Psychiatry
• Addiction Medicine
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Forensic Psychiatry
• Learning Disabilities
• Old Age Psychiatry
• Psychotherapy
• Browse content in Public Health and Epidemiology
• Epidemiology
• Public Health
• Browse content in Radiology
• Clinical Radiology
• Interventional Radiology
• Nuclear Medicine
• Radiation Oncology
• Reproductive Medicine
• Browse content in Surgery
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Gastro-intestinal and Colorectal Surgery
• General Surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Paediatric Surgery
• Peri-operative Care
• Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• Surgical Oncology
• Transplant Surgery
• Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
• Vascular Surgery
• Browse content in Science and Mathematics
• Browse content in Biological Sciences
• Aquatic Biology
• Biochemistry
• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Ecology and Conservation
• Evolutionary Biology
• Genetics and Genomics
• Microbiology
• Molecular and Cell Biology
• Natural History
• Plant Sciences and Forestry
• Research Methods in Life Sciences
• Structural Biology
• Systems Biology
• Zoology and Animal Sciences
• Browse content in Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Computational Chemistry
• Crystallography
• Environmental Chemistry
• Industrial Chemistry
• Inorganic Chemistry
• Materials Chemistry
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Mineralogy and Gems
• Organic Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry
• Polymer Chemistry
• Study and Communication Skills in Chemistry
• Theoretical Chemistry
• Browse content in Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Architecture and Logic Design
• Game Studies
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Mathematical Theory of Computation
• Programming Languages
• Software Engineering
• Systems Analysis and Design
• Virtual Reality
• Browse content in Computing
• Business Applications
• Computer Security
• Computer Games
• Computer Networking and Communications
• Digital Lifestyle
• Graphical and Digital Media Applications
• Operating Systems
• Browse content in Earth Sciences and Geography
• Atmospheric Sciences
• Environmental Geography
• Geology and the Lithosphere
• Maps and Map-making
• Meteorology and Climatology
• Oceanography and Hydrology
• Palaeontology
• Physical Geography and Topography
• Regional Geography
• Soil Science
• Urban Geography
• Browse content in Engineering and Technology
• Agriculture and Farming
• Biological Engineering
• Civil Engineering, Surveying, and Building
• Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Energy Technology
• Engineering (General)
• Environmental Science, Engineering, and Technology
• History of Engineering and Technology
• Mechanical Engineering and Materials
• Technology of Industrial Chemistry
• Transport Technology and Trades
• Browse content in Environmental Science
• Applied Ecology (Environmental Science)
• Conservation of the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Environmental Sustainability
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Environmental Science)
• Management of Land and Natural Resources (Environmental Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environmental Science)
• Nuclear Issues (Environmental Science)
• Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Environmental Science)
• History of Science and Technology
• Browse content in Materials Science
• Ceramics and Glasses
• Composite Materials
• Metals, Alloying, and Corrosion
• Nanotechnology
• Browse content in Mathematics
• Applied Mathematics
• Biomathematics and Statistics
• History of Mathematics
• Mathematical Education
• Mathematical Finance
• Mathematical Analysis
• Numerical and Computational Mathematics
• Probability and Statistics
• Pure Mathematics
• Browse content in Neuroscience
• Cognition and Behavioural Neuroscience
• Development of the Nervous System
• Disorders of the Nervous System
• History of Neuroscience
• Invertebrate Neurobiology
• Molecular and Cellular Systems
• Neuroendocrinology and Autonomic Nervous System
• Neuroscientific Techniques
• Sensory and Motor Systems
• Browse content in Physics
• Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
• Biological and Medical Physics
• Classical Mechanics
• Computational Physics
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Electromagnetism, Optics, and Acoustics
• History of Physics
• Mathematical and Statistical Physics
• Measurement Science
• Nuclear Physics
• Particles and Fields
• Plasma Physics
• Quantum Physics
• Relativity and Gravitation
• Semiconductor and Mesoscopic Physics
• Browse content in Psychology
• Affective Sciences
• Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Criminal and Forensic Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Health Psychology
• History and Systems in Psychology
• Music Psychology
• Neuropsychology
• Organizational Psychology
• Psychological Assessment and Testing
• Psychology of Human-Technology Interaction
• Psychology Professional Development and Training
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Browse content in Social Sciences
• Browse content in Anthropology
• Anthropology of Religion
• Human Evolution
• Medical Anthropology
• Physical Anthropology
• Regional Anthropology
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Theory and Practice of Anthropology
• Browse content in Business and Management
• Business Ethics
• Business Strategy
• Business History
• Business and Technology
• Business and Government
• Business and the Environment
• Comparative Management
• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Entrepreneurship
• Health Management
• Human Resource Management
• Industrial and Employment Relations
• Industry Studies
• Information and Communication Technologies
• International Business
• Knowledge Management
• Management and Management Techniques
• Operations Management
• Organizational Theory and Behaviour
• Pensions and Pension Management
• Public and Nonprofit Management
• Strategic Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Browse content in Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice
• Criminology
• Forms of Crime
• International and Comparative Criminology
• Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
• Development Studies
• Browse content in Economics
• Agricultural, Environmental, and Natural Resource Economics
• Asian Economics
• Behavioural Finance
• Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics
• Econometrics and Mathematical Economics
• Economic History
• Economic Systems
• Economic Methodology
• Economic Development and Growth
• Financial Markets
• Financial Institutions and Services
• General Economics and Teaching
• Health, Education, and Welfare
• History of Economic Thought
• International Economics
• Labour and Demographic Economics
• Law and Economics
• Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
• Microeconomics
• Public Economics
• Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
• Welfare Economics
• Browse content in Education
• Adult Education and Continuous Learning
• Care and Counselling of Students
• Early Childhood and Elementary Education
• Educational Equipment and Technology
• Educational Strategies and Policy
• Higher and Further Education
• Organization and Management of Education
• Philosophy and Theory of Education
• Schools Studies
• Secondary Education
• Teaching of a Specific Subject
• Teaching of Specific Groups and Special Educational Needs
• Teaching Skills and Techniques
• Browse content in Environment
• Applied Ecology (Social Science)
• Climate Change
• Conservation of the Environment (Social Science)
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Social Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environment)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Social Science)
• Browse content in Human Geography
• Cultural Geography
• Economic Geography
• Political Geography
• Browse content in Interdisciplinary Studies
• Communication Studies
• Museums, Libraries, and Information Sciences
• Browse content in Politics
• African Politics
• Asian Politics
• Chinese Politics
• Comparative Politics
• Conflict Politics
• Elections and Electoral Studies
• Environmental Politics
• European Union
• Foreign Policy
• Gender and Politics
• Human Rights and Politics
• Indian Politics
• International Relations
• International Organization (Politics)
• International Political Economy
• Irish Politics
• Latin American Politics
• Middle Eastern Politics
• Political Behaviour
• Political Economy
• Political Institutions
• Political Methodology
• Political Communication
• Political Philosophy
• Political Sociology
• Political Theory
• Politics and Law
• Public Policy
• Public Administration
• Quantitative Political Methodology
• Regional Political Studies
• Russian Politics
• Security Studies
• State and Local Government
• UK Politics
• US Politics
• Browse content in Regional and Area Studies
• African Studies
• Asian Studies
• East Asian Studies
• Japanese Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Middle Eastern Studies
• Native American Studies
• Scottish Studies
• Browse content in Research and Information
• Research Methods
• Browse content in Social Work
• Addictions and Substance Misuse
• Adoption and Fostering
• Care of the Elderly
• Child and Adolescent Social Work
• Couple and Family Social Work
• Developmental and Physical Disabilities Social Work
• Direct Practice and Clinical Social Work
• Emergency Services
• Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
• International and Global Issues in Social Work
• Mental and Behavioural Health
• Social Justice and Human Rights
• Social Policy and Advocacy
• Social Work and Crime and Justice
• Social Work Macro Practice
• Social Work Practice Settings
• Social Work Research and Evidence-based Practice
• Welfare and Benefit Systems
• Browse content in Sociology
• Childhood Studies
• Community Development
• Comparative and Historical Sociology
• Economic Sociology
• Gender and Sexuality
• Gerontology and Ageing
• Health, Illness, and Medicine
• Marriage and the Family
• Migration Studies
• Occupations, Professions, and Work
• Organizations
• Population and Demography
• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Theory
• Social Movements and Social Change
• Social Research and Statistics
• Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
• Sociology of Religion
• Sociology of Education
• Sport and Leisure
• Urban and Rural Studies
• Browse content in Warfare and Defence
• Defence Strategy, Planning, and Research
• Land Forces and Warfare
• Military Administration
• Military Life and Institutions
• Naval Forces and Warfare
• Other Warfare and Defence Issues
• Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
• Weapons and Equipment

• < Previous chapter
• Next chapter >

17 Global Gender Justice

Alison M. Jaggar is College Professor of Distinction in the Departments of Philosophy and Gender Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Distinguished Research Professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Birmingham.

• Published: 02 April 2020
• Cite Icon Cite
• Permissions Icon Permissions

This chapter surveys the rapidly expanding philosophical work on global gender justice. The chapter clarifies some central themes, beginning by identifying several structural features of the current global order which are facially gender-neutral but are profoundly reshaping global gender relations and divisions of labor. The feminization of the global labor force raises questions about the justice of migration for gendered employment such as sex and domestic work as well as the international trade in procreative services. The chapter also touches briefly on some gendered implications of environmental degradation. It raises epistemological questions about identifying, measuring, and explaining gender injustice and discusses how political responsibility for addressing injustices should be assigned. Overall, the chapter shows that gender concerns are integral to most aspects of global justice and that reflection on these sheds new light on some central issues of global justice.

This chapter overviews some of the rapidly expanding philosophical work on global gender justice. In the space available, it is not possible to provide a comprehensive survey so I offer a sampling of issues and themes, none explored in depth. I aim to show that gender concerns are integral to many—perhaps all—aspects of global justice and that reflection on gender justice is encouraging fresh approaches to some important philosophical questions.

1 Starting Points

1.1 what is justice.

Justice exists when social relationships are in moral balance. Plato thought of justice as a character trait, but this chapter takes it to be a desirable feature of the structures, institutions, and practices which provide the frameworks for systematic social relationships. Social relationships hold paradigmatically among human beings but may also hold among various kinds of collectivities and, arguably, even with animals. Philosophers concerned with justice ask how our collective life may best be arranged so as to produce a proper balance among the entitlements and obligations of all legitimate claimants. Philosophers perennially debate not only what should count as proper balance but also who/what are legitimate claimants of justice, what they may claim, and what are the spheres and circumstances in which these claims hold. For this reason, justice is called an “essentially contested” concept.

People’s lives in every society are organized by structures, institutions, and practices which regulate divisions of labor, family relations, access to resources, and processes for dealing with conflict. Social structures create menus of available options for action and assign the respective benefits and costs of making various decisions. Unlike philosophers concerned with personal ethics, philosophers concerned with justice focus less on assessing specific decisions made by particular agents or entities and more on assessing the structure of the frameworks that open or close various options for those agents. When social structures are unjust, they provide systematically imbalanced sets of life options and prospects for the members of different social groups, enabling some to enjoy undeserved advantages and privileges while arbitrarily disadvantaging others and rendering them disproportionately vulnerable to ills such as violence, impoverishment, and political marginalization.

Gender is one dimension along which systematic injustice often occurs. Feminist social and political philosophy is dedicated to identifying injustices along this dimension and envisioning more gender-just social arrangements. Most feminist work has focused on relational and distributive justice, studying what would constitute just relationships among genders and fair distributions of social benefits and burdens, entitlements, responsibilities, and opportunities. However, feminist philosophers have also contributed to the literatures on retributive justice, which deals with how wrongdoing should be punished, reparative justice, which investigates how to compensate or repair past wrongs, and transitional justice, which considers how best to redress the legacies of massive human rights abuses.

1.2 What Is Gender?

Today, public discourse and official documents tend to use “sex” and “gender” interchangeably. However, sex is best understood as a biological classification, though not a simple one, 1 and gender as a complex set of social norms and expectations about the proper behavior of human individuals according to the biological sex they are assigned. People assigned to the male or female sexes are expected to behave in accordance with the respective gender norms prevailing in their societies. In most societies, more or less rigid gender norms shape most aspects of most peoples’ lives, enabling and constraining their work opportunities and responsibilities and conditioning their access to resources. Gendered norms also regulate people’s modes of self-presentation, dress, deportment, sexuality, and styles of speech.

Gender norms are often enforced coercively, so people who do not conform to prevailing standards of sex and/or gender may be subject to interventions intended to force compliance. Such interventions include involuntary sex assignment surgeries performed on intersex infants or children, and severe social sanctions for those whose behavior, including sexual behavior, violates gender norms. People who entirely reject their gender identities and even their initial sex assignments are often sanctioned with special severity, because transgender and transsexual people challenge widespread and deep-rooted beliefs that sex and even gender refer to natural kinds and that both are dichotomous.

Gender norms vary across societies, so different norms of masculinity and femininity characterize different social contexts. For example, farming, building, or trading may be regarded in one society as work for women and in another as work for men. Although multiple norms of masculinity and femininity prescribe different behavior for sexed individuals in various social contexts, transnational gender norms are also emerging, and some of these will be discussed in this chapter.

Gender everywhere is interwoven with other categories of difference and inequality, because people typically live within multiple systems of social power. In modern societies, no one is merely a man or a woman; in addition, we belong to specific nationalities, classes, religions, age cohorts, etc., and our gender identities are always shaped by these other social divisions. 2 The permeation of gender by other social categories and the consequent proliferation of gender identities are often called intersectionality. Both masculinities and femininities are intersectional.

Gender norms are not static but evolve in response to many factors, including direct efforts to change them. Feminist activists strive to transform institutions and practices that they believe embody unjust gender norms and produce systematically unjust relationships.

2 What Is Global Gender Justice?

2.1 the global as a domain of justice.

If justice is a proper balance in social relationships, then questions about justice can arise only when entities are in some sort of social relation with each other. From the seventeenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, most Western philosophers agreed that the moral demands of justice held only among humans who shared a common way of life, and they typically identified the boundaries of this moral community with the frontiers of the sovereign state. Because no governance institutions existed to regulate relations among states, philosophers thought that the international sphere could not be a site of justice and instead regarded it as a potential battleground in which each state must be perpetually prepared for war against any or all of the others.

After WWII, several institutions of global governance were established and philosophers began revising their longstanding assumption about the spatial domain of justice. The 1945 establishment of the United Nations provided a framework for international cooperation and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights expressed a cosmopolitan concern for the rights of all human beings everywhere. The Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes tribunals, as well as later tribunals, were designed to demonstrate that these rights must be respected universally. In 2002, the International Criminal Court was founded as a permanent international tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. During the same period, the global economy became more tightly integrated and organized through the establishment of international financial institutions, notably the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization, designed to regulate global trade, was established in 1995. All these developments encouraged philosophers to begin recognizing the global arena as a domain of justice. However, philosophical controversy continues over which entities are properly considered claimants of justice in this domain, what type of claims may be negotiated, and what principles of justice are appropriate.

2.2 Women in Nonwestern Cultures

Scattered reflections on sex equality can be traced far back in the history of Western philosophy, but philosophical thinking about this topic increased dramatically in the early 1970s. Influenced by the second-wave feminist slogan “The personal is political,” feminist philosophers challenged traditional understandings of the domain of justice, just as global justice theorists were beginning to do. However, whereas global justice theorists argued that the domain of justice extended beyond the frontiers of the state, feminist philosophers argued for recognizing claims of justice in the close quarters of so-called personal life, including sexual, procreative, and family relations. They pointed out that these areas of life were structured by gendered power imbalances and argued that justice questions should be raised about many issues hitherto neglected by academic philosophy, including domestic violence, unpaid domestic work, abortion, and many issues involving sexuality.

In the 1990s, a few philosophers began raising concerns about gender justice at the global level. Two prominent liberal feminists, Susan Okin and Martha Nussbaum, were troubled by various Nonwestern practices which they perceived as unjust to women. They sought philosophical justification for challenging those practices and were disturbed by what they saw as the relativism of postcolonial feminists who resisted simply condemning the practices. In Okin’s and Nussbaum’s view, the central philosophical issues of global gender justice were moral universalism versus cultural relativism and the possibility of “external” as opposed to “internal” social criticism (Okin 1994 ; Nussbaum 1992 , 2000 ). Okin’s and Nussbaum’s work was extremely valuable in raising questions about some gendered aspects of global justice, but they framed some of the issues in ways that were unduly narrow and misleading.

2.3 Expanding Understandings of Global Gender Justice

Some of the limitations of Okin’s and Nussbaum’s work on global gender justice resulted from their using the term “culture” in a particular sense employed in the 1990s by many anglophone political philosophers. In this usage, culture was taken to refer primarily to religion, sexuality, and family life as opposed to politics and economics. 3 It was the same sphere of personal life that the feminist philosophers of the 1970s had emphasized. Okin wrote, “the sphere of personal, sexual, and reproductive life provides a central focus of most cultures” (Okin 1999 : 12). When culture is interpreted in this sense, it has special significance for women, as Okin noted, because these are areas of life to which women are often relegated.

Okin’s and Nussbaum’s attention to matters of religion, family, and sexuality was certainly legitimate, but the heavy emphasis they gave to those areas tended to divert attention from the ways in which gender is also embedded in the basic political and economic structures of most societies. Not only are women a large and increasing proportion of the paid workforce in both the formal and informal economic sectors of most societies but even women’s unpaid work at home produces crucial economic goods and services, such as food and healthcare. In addition, focusing on cultural issues, construed as somewhat distinct from economic and political structures, tends to suggest that achieving gender justice is more about changing beliefs and attitudes than it is about reforming basic structures. Thus, taking gender injustice to be primarily cultural, in the sense used by political philosophers of the 1990s, minimizes its extent and depth.

A further problem with Okin’s and Nussbaum’s conception of culture was its assumption that clear contrasts could be drawn among cultures. Uma Narayan argues that drawing such contrasts requires culturally essentialist generalizations, which offer totalizing characterizations of whole cultures treated as static, internally homogeneous, and externally sealed (Narayan 1998 ). More empirically adequate understandings recognize that cultures are internally contested and constantly evolving, often in response to external influences; for example, gender norms in many Asian, African, and Latin American societies were forcibly altered by colonization, and fading cultural traditions sometimes gained new life as symbols of resistance to colonialism. 4 In focusing on gender injustice in Nonwestern cultures, Okin and Nussbaum tended to treat those cultures as self-contained, rather than seeing them as interacting with larger global contexts.

Additional limitations of Okin’s and Nussbaum’s work included its implicit assumptions that West is Best for women and that they were personally able to assess “other” cultures impartially (Jaggar 2005 ). Okin and Nussbaum did not address the possibility that their own judgments might be biased by their specific global locations, partial perspectives, cultural values, and even adaptive preferences. Finally, by expressing concern only for women, they ignored gender injustice to men and boys.

Since the turn of the millennium, philosophical work on global gender justice has expanded and become more self-reflective. Through examining the gendered dimensions of issues such as war, global governance, political freedom, nationalism, migration, indebtedness, poverty, mental health, climate change, and more, feminist philosophers are revealing that gender is integral to virtually all aspects of global justice, not limited to a few marginal issues. As they study the ways in which local practices interact with global structures, they have recognized that many unjust practices are nore than self-contained local matters. Moreover, they are giving more attention to the gendered forces which shape and constrain men’s as well as women’s lives in the changing global order. Currently, philosophers working on global gender justice investigate how gendered norms and practices often cross across national borders and seek to identify emerging transnational gendered collectivities and identities. Finally, many philosophers working on global gender justice are reflecting on the ways in which their own philosophical perspectives might be shaped by their particular locations in the global order and exploring epistemological and methodological issues regarding situated assessments of global justice.

3 Some Normative Issues of Global Gender Justice

3.1 some structural features of the current global order.

Although women’s and men’s situations vary widely among and within different regions of the world, many gender parallels exist. The World Bank’s 2012 World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development provides a recent comprehensive overview (World Bank 2011 ). The report finds that advances toward gender equality have been made on several fronts. Gender gaps in primary education have closed in almost all countries, and in many countries girls now outnumber boys in secondary schools, and young women outnumber young men in universities. Nutrition and life expectancy have improved in general and for women in particular—though unevenly (World Bank 2011 : xx). Women’s labor force participation has risen, progress has been made towards women’s formal rights, and in many countries fertility rates have declined rapidly (World Bank 2011 : xi). Nevertheless, women worldwide tend to have less access to resources than men of the same ethnicity, class, and even family and to be more vulnerable to overwork, sexual violence, and political marginalization.

Philosophers concerned with the gender dimensions of global justice have identified several structural features of the current global order which are facially gender-neutral but profoundly influence gender relations worldwide. Below I list some of those features, whose relevance to issues of gender justice will emerge in subsequent sections.

The lingering effects of past colonization mean that countries becoming independent in the middle of the twentieth century were disadvantaged as they entered the new global order. Today, many of these countries still function in this order primarily as sources of raw materials and unskilled or semi-skilled labor. This radically affects the life prospects for women and men in those countries, though typically in different ways.

In order to meet their basic material needs, increasing numbers of people depend on an expanded and integrated global market. Dependence on this market has transformed the working lives of many women who continue to produce most of the world’s food and clothing but do so now in context of global supply chains (Balakrishnan 2002 ). Expansion of the global market has not only transformed local economies; it has also rendered them more vulnerable to exogenous shocks.

Since 1970, when the period of formal colonization was ending, the economic gap has widened between what is now called global North and global South, giving the global North disproportionate influence in setting the rules of international trade. 5 These rules have often been criticized not only for general unfairness to poor countries but also specifically for placing disproportionately heavy burdens on the women of those countries.

Following the international debt crisis of 1970s, many nations in the global South were subjected to strict conditions for debt servicing and further borrowing. These conditions are often referred to as “structural adjustment” policies. They were guided by neoliberal political philosophy and characterized by reduction of trade tariffs, hostility to government regulation, private exploitation of hitherto public assets, and austerity in social services. Austerity weighed particularly heavily on women in countries subjected to structural adjustment, because their socially assigned responsibilities for family welfare made them especially dependent on social services (Jaggar 2002 ).

Shocks to the global economy, such as the oil crisis of the 1970s, which raised indebtedness among less-developed countries, and the 2008 financial crisis, which intensified structural unemployment, have increased inequality both within countries and among them. These inequalities have gender dimensions.

Global wealth inequality motivates millions of people to migrate internationally despite increasingly draconian restrictions on immigration into wealthy countries. Gender-structured labor markets and definitions of family mean that contemporary migration is deeply gendered.

Radically improved global communications, especially access to the Internet, have resulted in the transnational spread of ideas. Western ideas have disproportionate influence because much of the material is in English and produced in the West. They include gender ideologies characterized by distinctive conceptions of what it is for men and women to be successful, happy, and sexually desirable.

Conflicts over resources and proxy wars have drastic consequences for all affected populations, but these consequences differ systematically for groups differentiated by class, gender, and age (Jaggar 2014b ). They include the breakdown of social order, forced conscription of boys and young men, and rape and sexual torture, whose victims include boys and men but are mostly girls and women.

These structural features of the current global order are reshaping gender relations and raising many questions of gender justice.

3.2 Feminization of the Global Labor Force

In many countries of the global South, women’s traditional subsistence agriculture, local market food production, and small-scale textile and garment production have been undermined by the expansion of export agriculture and a flood of cheap mass-produced imports, often required by structural adjustment programs. Today, women not only produce much of the world’s food and clothing in global supply chains; they also perform most jobs such as electronic assembly, often in the increasing numbers of export-processing zones scattered across the global South. These zones typically escape local taxation and local laws governing labor relations, equal pay, occupational safety, and health (United Nations 1999 ; Beneria 2003 : 79). Women have been called the new global proletariat. In addition, women often do paid piecework at home, combining it with the care of children and/or older people. Home-based work is notoriously low-paid and lacking in labor protections, and children and older people are often enlisted to help (Khattak 2002 ).

Women’s increased entry into the global paid labor force has occurred just as that labor force has become more “flexible.” Over the past half century, much manufacturing industry has moved to the global South, and many formerly well-paying blue-collar jobs in the global North have been replaced by lower-paid, irregular jobs in service industries. There has been a worldwide increase in informal employment, which lacks social protection, and the distinction between formal and informal employment has blurred (Beneria 2003 : 96, 110). Following the financial crisis of 2008, widespread unemployment spread to many countries in Western Europe and, to a lesser extent, the United States. Would-be workers confronting this dire situation have been named the “precariat.” They are said to constitute a new class which is able to access only intermittent and casual work, enjoys no predictability or security, and is sometimes receptive to extremist ideologies (Standing 2011 ).

The global labor force is now feminized in several senses. Most obviously, women now comprise a larger proportion of the paid labor force than ever before (World Bank 2011 ). In addition, a larger proportion of the available jobs are regarded as “women’s work.” Finally, labor market conditions for many men have deteriorated, becoming more like the precarious labor market conditions that typically characterized many “women’s jobs” (Standing 1999 ; Elson 2002 : 94). The feminization of the global labor force raises many questions of global gender justice.

One extremely complicated cluster of questions concerns the justice of the emerging gendered divisions of global labor. It is well known that paid work provides women with new opportunities for economic independence and for escaping abusive family situations; yet these opportunities often come at the cost of economic insecurity, long hours, high pressure, and sexual harassment. Changing transnational arrangements bring gendered costs as well as benefits for many males too. In some ways, “boys and young men (are) at a relative disadvantage” (World Bank 2011 : 9). In many countries girls now outnumber boys in secondary schools and young women outnumber young men in universities (World Bank 2011 :ix, xx). Cultural definitions of masculinity in terms of underperformance in schooling and education may diminish men’s future employment and earnings opportunities, and boys may also use risk behavior and sexual experience to prove themselves “real” men (World Bank 2011 : 173). Increased competition for historically male jobs and downward pressure on wages mean that many men find it difficult to marry and establish families, and the World Bank reports that “excess mortality” of men occurs in some countries. Worldwide, men tend to have higher suicide rates than women and also higher rates of premature death due to violence, accidents, coronary heart disease, and drug and alcohol abuse (Moeller-Leimkuhler 2003 ). It is hard to assess the justice of these gendered benefits and costs, including time costs (Jaggar 2013 ). Over the past thirty years, it is possible that the life prospects of the least-advantaged groups of both women and men have worsened relative to other groups because income inequality has risen and the relative share of income going to wages has decreased in comparison with the share going to profits (Razavi 2011 : 9).

In studying the justice of the changing gender organization of the global economy, a crucial task is to develop categories capable of identifying which groups are legitimate claimants of justice. Much of the earlier philosophical discussion on global justice was framed as a dispute between the moral claims of nationalism and cosmopolitanism, but the ungendered categories of “citizen” and “foreigner,” on the one hand, and “human being,” on the other, obscure gendered divisions and collectivities that stretch across national boundaries. Gendered but otherwise universalistic terms like “women” and “men” are also too coarse-grained for many circumstances because they conceal multiple divisions of ethnicity, race, and nation. To capture whatever gendered groupings are morally significant in contemporary divisions of global labor, we need more finely tuned and empirically grounded categories (Kang 2014 ).

3.3 Migration for Gendered Employment

Today many people seek employment abroad. One out of every thirty-three persons in the world is a migrant, and an increasing proportion is composed of economic migrants rather than political refugees (International Organization for Migration 2012 ). Labor migration reflects transnationally continuous ideas about the gender division of labor. The International Organization for Migration says:

Despite the fact that women increasingly migrate autonomously as the main income providers for the family, the labour markets in receiving countries remain sex-segregated. Thus, only certain sectors are open to the employment of women, including migrant women, including the so-called “traditional” female occupations such as domestic work, entertainment, nursing, care-giving, etc. (IOM 2012 )

In this section, I will sketch a few of the global justice issues associated with women’s large-scale migration for domestic service and sex work.

The sex industry is said to be the largest and most profitable industry in the world, although reliable statistics are unavailable because much of the industry is illegal. The industry includes street prostitution, brothels, “massage parlors,” stripping, erotic dancing, sex tourism, phone sex, and arguably “mail order brides.” Much sex work remains local in scale but large-scale migration for work in the sex and entertainment industries also occurs and a multi-billion-dollar pornography industry exists. The domestic service industry also has global as well as local dimensions. Millions of women cross borders and oceans to seek employment in wealthy countries as maids and nannies in private homes (Parreñas 2001 ). Some of these migrants are legal, but many are undocumented. Both the sex and domestic service industries are highly gender-structured but in different ways. In both industries, the majority of the workers are women or girls, although many men and boys provide sexual services too. However, there is a gender difference between those who purchase the respective services: in the domestic service industry, most employers are relatively well-off women, but those who buy sexual services include all classes of men. Men also constitute most, though certainly not all, of those transporting sex-workers and establishing the infrastructure for the trade.

Both the supply of and the demand for feminized workers in the transnational sex and domestic service industries are influenced by global factors. On the supply side, women who need income have always been motivated to enter sex work or domestic service when employment options are limited, but usually they have performed these jobs in local contexts. However, several structural features of the current global order encourage them to migrate transnationally to do similar work. The most obviously motivating feature is wealth inequality among countries. Many families and less-developed countries rely heavily on the remittances from migrant domestic workers abroad. Some less-developed countries have official policies encouraging migration; for example, Philippine women are encouraged by government policy to migrate to the US, the Middle East, and Japan as “maids,” which have been said to be the Philippines’ most important export product (Lutz 2002 : 92). Similarly, many families in less-developed countries depend on remittances from sex work, and increasing numbers of poor countries depend on the tourism industry, which is invariably accompanied by entertainment and sex work. Indeed, the IMF and the World Bank have encouraged many poor countries to view tourism as a development strategy, and they have received loans for this purpose. Sassen writes: “At some point it becomes clear that the sex trade itself can become a development strategy in areas with high unemployment and poverty and where governments are desperate for revenue and foreign currency” (Sassen 2002 : 270). Women across the world have long used “marrying up” as a strategy for social mobility, but the privileging of heterosexual marriage in international immigration law enables the transnational mail-order bride industry to function.

Transnational factors influence not only the supply of women migrants but also the demand for their services. In wealthy countries, the demand for maids is fuelled by the gendered division of family labor, which throws the main burden of household work on women. This longstanding division of labor is slow to change: the 2012 World Development Report asserts that men worldwide resist assuming domestic responsibilities (World Bank 2011 : 218). Another factor contributing to the demand for maids is the decline of real wages in wealthy countries, so that women as well as men must often work for pay. Moreover, inadequate public provision for children and elders in some wealthy countries means that private arrangements often have to be made for the care of those who cannot care for themselves. However, care work is widely regarded as a specifically feminine type of labor, so it is usually available only to women.

Gender ideology shapes the transnational sex trade as well as the transnational maid trade. It creates the social meanings of the services provided and determines how gendered individuals can participate. Gendered norms of sexual desirability are spread across the world by global media in entertainment, advertising, and pornography. They often eroticize gendered power inequalities, which are then further complicated by eroticizing inequalities of age, race, class, and nation. Exposure to these ubiquitous images molds the sexuality of both girls and boys, influencing their senses of their own and others’ desirability and normalizing the idea of women servicing men. They prepare girls and boys to participate in the global sex-market as workers and as consumers respectively. Similarly, global media promote heterosexual marriage as an institution that will guarantee happiness, social status, sexual satisfaction, and economic security. Both women and men seek trophy spouses, but women seek husbands who are good providers, while men seek wives who are attractive and deferential (Hughes 2000 , 2004 ). 6

The global trade in sexual and domestic services brings up some of the same issues of gender justice raised by the general feminization of the global labor force. They include the balance of costs and benefits to various gendered groups as well as more general issues of decent work and fair wages. However, additional questions are raised by the facts that workers in these industries are migrants who often suffer exceptionally poor working conditions and that the work they do has more deeply gendered meanings.

Conditions for migrant sex-workers vary widely. Some are self-employed and mix occasional sex work with other paid occupations, while others find themselves trapped in situations of extreme abuse. In some countries, the vulnerability of migrant sex workers is increased by laws forbidding foreign women to engage in sex work, fostering their dependence on criminal gangs. Migrant domestic workers are also extremely vulnerable, especially those without work visas and/or living in their employers’ homes. Male migrant workers are vulnerable too but they gain some protection by working in teams within a framework recognized by other employees, so that their relations with their employers are contractual (Altman and Pannell 2012 : 299). By contrast, the relationship between women domestic workers and their employers is often based on trust and so involves a higher degree of personal vulnerability. Employers may take advantage of this vulnerability to force domestic servants to work long hours, to withhold pay, to subject them to violence and sexual abuse, and sometimes to hold them in conditions close to slavery (Anderson 2000 , esp. ch. 8; Zarembka 2002 ). Mail-order brides are also often subjected to violence (Narayan 1995 ).

Despite frequently poor conditions for many who work in the global sex and domestic service trades, these industries would not flourish unless many people were benefiting. The global sex industry reportedly provides immense profits, though these accrue disproportionately to those (mainly men) who organize sex work rather than to those (mainly women) who perform the services directly. Nevertheless, sex work also provides some high-priced escorts and call girls with financial rewards that far surpass anything they could hope to earn in other fields, and for many ordinary women sex work creates welcome opportunities for extra income in a new country and (in the case of mail-order brides) for a new family. The global domestic work industry props up gender-structured marriage in receiving countries, but it can undermine oppressive forms of marriage in sending countries, since the savings accumulated by some migrant domestic workers may win them more respect in their communities of origin and enable them to renegotiate their family and work options (Huh 2008 ). The work may even contribute to “undoing gender” (Beneria 2007 ).

A different aspect of gender justice is raised by the specific character of sex and care work. Both of these provide services that are usually regarded as personal and intimate in the sense that much of their quality and meaning is thought to be lost when they are performed in an impersonal assembly-line manner. Although these services are not intrinsically dirty or degrading, it is often thought demeaning to perform them for pay. It may be particularly demeaning for men to provide such services which are widely regarded as women’s work. A growing philosophical literature discusses the commodification of sexual and intimate care services and how this may be related to the subordination of feminized populations. Moral concern has also been raised about injustice to migrant care workers’ family members who remain behind in sending countries, deprived of particular care relations (Parreñas 2002 ; Kittay 2014 ). Arlie Hochschild has spoken of a global “heart transplant” (Hochschild 2003 ).

Finally, the unfavorable work conditions experienced by many women migrants in the transnational sex and domestic service industries have brought into question the agency of these workers. Such questions become especially salient once it is realized that there is nothing natural about women providing sex and domestic services. Women are not naturally suited for domestic work; when they can, they often hire others to do it. Nor do women naturally “pleasure” men for money; indeed, they may buy sexual services when they are in a position to do so. Questions about the agency of service workers in these industries are often framed in terms of trafficking, which refers to the coerced movement of people across state borders. 7 The question of agency raises issues which are difficult to resolve both empirically and conceptually. Empirical information about how women enter these industries and why they stay is often unavailable and the notion of choice is conceptually contested. All choices are made in contexts of limited knowledge, rationality, and options, and it is a matter of judgment as to when these contexts become so constraining as to create offers that cannot be refused. Some women take up sex work as a way of earning a little extra money, while others are deceived, coerced, or seeking to satisfy addictions. Some women enter sex work voluntarily, as they move from rural to urban areas, while others are pressed into sex work by their parents or tricked by being told that a different job awaits them. In addition, exit from sex work is often extremely difficult so that participation in the sex industry creates long-term gendered vulnerabilities. The language of “trafficking,” which conjures up passive victims, fits some cases better than others. Many migrant workers in the sex and domestic service industries may be said to have chosen their employment autonomously as the best options available within a global context of gender-structured constraints. 8

3.4 Two More Examples Undeveloped Here

International travel for procreation. This involves individuals or couples from wealthy countries travelling to poorer countries to buy procreative goods (gametes) or gestational (often called “surrogacy”) services. Since at least the 1980s, philosophers have been discussing whether or not the commercial exchange of body parts and reproductive services is intrinsically objectionable, but increasing travel across borders to buy procreative goods and services has raised questions about whether, even if such market exchanges are not morally problematic in principle, they may be so in practice. One set of problems concerns the sellers’ vulnerability or weak agency; the other concerns the desperation of the buyers (Anderson 1990 ; Satz 2010 ). Both of these have gendered aspects. The supply of procreative goods and services is generated by scarcity of alternative sources of income for women in many poor countries, by frequent lack of regulation, and even by national policies designed to make commercial gestational services a profitable export industry. India is a leader in commercial gestational services, because labor is cheap, doctors are highly qualified, English is spoken, adoptions are closed, and the government has worked aggressively to establish an infrastructure for medical tourism (Bailey 2011 : 3). The demand for commercial procreative services is increased by the fact that many Western women postpone having children until their careers are well established, by which time conception is more difficult. However, assisted procreative services in the West are often difficult to obtain because of regulatory limitations, age restrictions, sexual preference, waiting times, and high cost. For these reasons, women from Western countries frequently travel abroad where they can purchase faster or cheaper services and/or undergo genetic or gender selection (Donchin 2010 : 327).

Gender justice and the environment. A long-established philosophical literature addresses issues of environment and gender justice, and some of it takes a global perspective. Feminist philosophers have discussed supposed parallels between women and non-human nature and the disparately gendered consequences of toxins in weaponry, pesticides, and foods, and toxic dumping in poor communities (Plumwood 1993 ; Mies and Shiva 1993 ). A more recent focus has been the gendered implications of climate change (Terry 2009 ). For example, a new UN study explores how drought in India has gender-differentiated consequences for agricultural wages and work (UNDP 2014 ).

4 Some Cross-Cutting Theoretical Issues

4.1 measuring well-being and gender equity.

In discussing global gender disparities, I have relied on readers’ intuitive recognition that many of these are politically problematic. However, different societies may accept different standards. Many proposed metrics exist for assessing well-being and gender equity, and more are constantly being developed. This short discussion sketches three representative metrics, focusing less on their substantive content than on the methodology used in developing and applying them.

Human rights provide one important transnational standard of political morality. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) aspired to universal cosmopolitan ideals that provide the moral basis for much international law. The UDHR and related body of human rights law include commitments to both sex and race equality. However, feminist critics argued that early human rights documents utilized an understanding of rights which presupposed a fairly rigid public/private distinction (Okin 1998 ). On this model, rights protected individuals against abuses within the public realm of the state but also protected the so-called private realm of family, religion, and culture from external interference, even though this realm was the site of much gender discrimination and abuse of women. In the 1980s and 1990s, a global feminist movement rallied around the slogan, “Women’s rights are human rights.” One notable success of this movement was its influence on the 1993 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, which included a formal declaration of women’s rights as human rights and violence against women as a human rights violation (United Nations 1993 ). In 1995, the Fourth World Conference on Women produced the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which brought culture and religion under critical moral scrutiny and identified many gender-specific practices as rights violations (United Nations Women 1995 ). 9 The movement for women’s rights as human rights has made vital contributions to exposing gender specific rights violations rationalized by appeals to religion and culture traditions, but some scholars and activists have argued that the Beijing documents utilize interpretations of women’s rights that are culturally biased and lend themselves to being deployed in an oppressive and disrespectful way against some communities, particularly in Africa (Nnaemeka 2005 ). Critics argue that there is no culturally neutral interpretation of women’s human rights; they must be interpreted in specific contexts rather than imposed from the top down (Tobin 2009 ).

The capabilities offer a second global standard proposed for assessing well-being and gender equity. The concept was developed originally by Amartya Sen, who defined capabilities as socially available opportunities for valuable functioning (Sen 1984 ). 10 Sen has resisted offering a substantive list of capabilities, but Nussbaum has developed an explicit list which purports to provide a universal standard for assessing local ways of life. Nussbaum’s intention is to provide a concrete alternative to cultural relativism (Nussbaum 2000 ). She also asserts that the list contributes to a theory of justice by identifying the primary goods available for just distribution and setting a threshold that must be reached by all citizens before any society can be considered just (Nussbaum 2000 : 12, 75, 86). The general idea of capabilities has been very influential, but so far there exists no generally accepted methodology for establishing a comprehensive list. Nussbaum’s own justifications for her list face problems of authority and legitimacy (Robeyns 2005 ; Jaggar 2006 ).

Many other existing standards propose to measure human well-being and gender equity on a global scale. The last to be mentioned here is the Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM) (Wisor et al. 2014 ). The team that produced the IDM aimed initially to develop a metric capable of revealing whether or in what ways global poverty might be gendered. 11 They also wanted their metric to minimize cultural narrowness by including values held by many poor people, women and men. 12 Finally, recognizing that human well-being, poverty, and gender equity are value-laden concepts, the team sought to make explicit the values and reasoning incorporated into the metric. The most striking feature of the IDM is the consciously feminist methodology used in developing it. The research was participatory and multidisciplinary, and gender analysis was central. 13 In addition, the team provided an explicit explanation of their reasoning in selecting the indicators they included. The IDM is certainly not an all-purpose metric, but its participatory and gender-sensitive methodology offers a model to be taken very seriously in developing future metrics of well-being and gender equity.

4.2 Causally Explaining Global Gender Disparities

Inequality is not necessarily unjust. Disparities may result from factors that are unpredictable or unavoidable or they may even be deserved. Systematic injustice occurs when groups are linked by structural relations of domination or when distributive disparities are morally arbitrary and produced by social structures whose outcomes are foreseeable and preventable. Investigating the nature and causes of gender disparities is important both for revealing global gender injustices and for assigning political responsibility for addressing them.

Because some patterns of gender inequality are extremely widespread, many Western philosophers have argued that women are invariably subordinated as a result of inherent sex differences. If this is true, then some gender disparities may not be unjust because they are natural or unalterable. Feminists have debunked many versions of the “naturalness” claim, but new varieties constantly recur, often invoking evolution. Such causal claims typically rely on mistaken understandings of sex as contextually invariant, on speculative “just so” stories about evolution, and on simplistic views about biological determinism (Prinz 2012 ; Jordan-Young 2010 ). They all miss the more general philosophical point that it is social contexts which mainly determine whether, when, and how particular physical or other abilities are advantageous or disadvantageous. For philosophers concerned with gender justice, it is important to assess how social arrangements advantage some gendered groups while disadvantaging others and to explore how these arrangements could be redesigned to be more gender-just.

A second inadequate explanation of global gender disparities is that they result primarily from bad decisions made by poor women out of ignorance, false consciousness, or adaptive preferences. The emphasis placed by some Western philosophers on poor women’s supposedly bad decisions has often been condescending and even victim-blaming, rationalizing Westerners’ taking up the missionary role of “educating” or “raising the consciousness” of women in developing countries (Jaggar 2005 ; Khader 2013 ). It also directs philosophers’ attention away from the proper focus of gender justice, which is less to evaluate individual choices and more to assess the social structures that construct relations of equality or domination and assign costs and benefits to various social options. Women’s decisions to participate in painful, exhausting, or demeaning practices may be rational in so far as they represent the best bargains that those involved are able to strike in situations where their options are highly constrained or even no-win.

Systematic gender domination and disadvantage do not depend exclusively on singular causes, such as sexual biology, cultural norms, individual choices, or social structures; instead, they result from the ways in which these factors interact in particular contexts. I have proposed that structures and policies that are both national and transnational create interlocking cycles of gendered vulnerability which often place feminized populations in especially weak bargaining situations (Jaggar 2014a ). 14 The idea of transnational cycles of gendered vulnerability is an explanatory schema or methodological approach. To explain particular gender disparities, the schema must be filled in by empirical descriptions of ways in which gendered norms and practices interact in specific contexts to enable and constrain people’s possibilities for action. Interactions among national and transnational structures are further complicated by factors such as ethnicity, religion, and class, which may mitigate or multiply the disadvantages of particular gendered groups. The idea of transnational cycles of gendered vulnerability is a conceptual tool for use in figuring out which global gender disparities are unjust, who is causally responsible for those disparities, and how they might be addressed through structural changes.

The idea of transnational cycles of gendered vulnerability allows us to understand why gender disparities often resemble each other across the world without resorting to accounts that are either biologically determinist or victim-blaming. It acknowledges the causal relevance of sexed bodies but considers those bodies in various social contexts, conceptualizing them in a way that is not reductionist or deterministic. It also recognizes the causal influence of conditions that are both local and global without reducing one to the other. Finally, the idea of transnational cycles of gendered vulnerability does not “disappear” individual consciousness and choice but instead shows how women’s and men’s choices are shaped and limited by gendered ideologies and structural constraints.

4.3 Political Responsibility for Global Gender Injustice

Who or what is responsible for global gender injustice? Because global gender injustices come in many varieties and scales, no single account of responsibility can fit them all. This section outlines three feminist accounts of political responsibility in order to illustrate the wide range of possible approaches. The three accounts differ on several dimensions: they focus on different aspects of global gender inequities, explain them in different terms, and offer different accounts of the moral basis of political responsibility.

One view is global feminism, a perspective that descends from the radical feminism of the Western second wave. The radical feminists wished to establish that women were a group subjected to a distinct form of oppression and their earliest writings postulated a worldwide women’s culture existing “beneath the surface” of all national, ethnic, and racial cultures and colonized by these “male” cultures (Burris 1973 ). 15 Global feminism emphasizes physical violence against women and forced sexual and reproductive labor. It attributed these abuses to “patriarchy,” a broad concept covering most, if not all systems of male dominance. From this, it seems to follow that responsibility in the sense of culpability for these injustices belongs to male perpetrators and others complicit with patriarchy. This presumably includes most men and many women. However, global feminists exhort all women everywhere to combat patriarchy on the moral basis of global sisterhood (Morgan 1984 ). This call has something in common with the cosmopolitan/humanitarian spirit of Peter Singer’s early work, in so far as it asks otherwise uninvolved individuals to help others on a moral basis of solidarity (Singer 1972 ). Gendered solidarity continues to be invoked by many women’s NGOs which appeal to better-off women to help worse-off women everywhere.

Postcolonial feminism differs from global feminism on several counts. At the descriptive level, it resists assimilating diverse practices from many continents and time periods to universal misogyny or woman-hating. At the explanatory level, postcolonial feminists reject the idea of an ahistorical and universalistic patriarchy. They see gender injustices as caused by many factors, past as well as present, local as well as global, but they emphasize the causal preeminence of colonialism and neocolonialism (Volpp 2000 ). Accordingly, postcolonial feminists do not place responsibility exclusively on local perpetrators; they also blame functionaries and beneficiaries of colonialism, neocolonialism, and “development.” They contend that even Western feminisms have often been implicated in imperial projects and charge that Western feminist criticisms of Nonwestern cultural traditions are often forms of “imperial feminism” or “feminist orientalism,” patronizing continuations of the “colonialist stance” of former eras (Carby 1982 ; Amos and Parmar 1984 ; Mohanty 1991 ; Narayan 1998 ; Jaggar 2005 ). Although postcolonial feminism is distinct in its specific arguments, it has something in common with the work of philosophers like Thomas Pogge ( 2002/2008 ) or Richard Miller ( 2010 ), who argue that citizens of wealthy countries are culpably liable for suffering in the global South and therefore face moral obligations of justice as well humanity to redress this suffering.

Iris Young has proposed a third account of political responsibility which contrasts with both of the above approaches. She calls this the social connection model (Young 2007 ). Young is concerned primarily with injustices emerging from social processes that extend widely across regions of the world. Her paradigm example is garment sweatshops, which are links in complex transnational chains that produce, distribute, and market clothing. On Young’s analysis, the sufferings of sweatshop workers are produced by densely interlocking social structures reinforced by the decisions of innumerable agents on multiple levels. Young explicitly rejects universalistic humanitarian models of political responsibility because she does not find it morally plausible that all moral agents have exactly the same duties as all other agents; presumably she would reject global sisterhood on similar grounds (Young 2007 : 161). Young also argues that the model of individual liability or culpability is unsuitable for attributing political responsibility for these types of structural injustices because causal connections are hard to trace and many agents involved cannot be regarded as culpable because they lack mens rea or realistic alternatives. As an alternative to both the above accounts of responsibility for global injustice, Young locates the moral basis of her model in people’s social connections with others who share participation in structures of cooperation and competition. Young offers several contrasts between hers and the liability model: the social connection model does not isolate perpetrators; it focuses less on individual actions than on the background conditions of their decisions; it is more forward-looking than backward-looking; its responsibility is essentially shared; and it can be discharged only through working together in collective action.

Critics of Young’s social connection model of responsibility have suggested that it may let individual perpetrators too easily off the moral hook. I cannot consider here how far these various conceptions of responsibility should be regarded as alternatives or complements to each other.

4.4 Repairing Gender Injustices

In this space, it is not possible to trace the contributions made by feminist philosophers to the literatures on reparative and transitional justice. Many have given special attention to gendered violence, including genocidal rape and sexual torture in conflict zones. The causes of this violence are sometimes exclusively local but many conflicts result from interventions by larger players seeking access to resources in the global South (Pogge 2008; Jaggar 2014b ). Feminist philosophers tend to advocate material restitution and compensation where these are appropriate, but they also recognize that much of the damage to lives and dignity is irreparable; people cannot be brought back to life nor their suffering and humiliation erased. Indeed, framing the issue exclusively in material terms can diminish the seriousness or gravity of the harm done (Walker 2015 ). In such circumstances, symbolic reparations such as properly worded apologies or reinventing traditional cleansing rituals may fulfill important restorative functions (Miller 2009 ).

5 How Can We Identify Global Gender Justice?

How to identify global gender justice is a matter of political epistemology. One time-honored methodological approach is ideal theory, which begins by imagining an ideal or “well-ordered” society (Rawls 1971 ). Ingrid Robeyns has referred to this as the “Paradise Island” method (Robeyns 2008 ). Several feminist philosophers have employed versions of ideal theory; for example, Susan Okin followed second-wave androgyny theorists in advocating the abolition of gender, and Martha Nussbaum has generated a universal list of capabilities (Okin 1989 ; Nussbaum 2000 ). In recent years, however, many feminist philosophers have become critical of ideal theory, because idealized models are likely to disregard aspects of the real world that are crucially relevant to assessing the justice of existing institutions and the practical feasibility of proposed alternatives (Anderson 2010 ).

A second approach to identifying global gender justice has been offered by the tradition of care ethics. Since the 1980s, this has been developed as a feminine or feminist approach to morality. Sometimes care ethics is presented as a contrast with the “justice” approach, but sometimes it is seen as complementary to justice or an alternative way of thinking about it. Different philosophers have used “care” to refer to different things, including a distinct emotional attitude, a type of personal caretaking labor, a moral methodology, and an epistemic virtue. Philosophers who advocate a care approach to global gender justice include Virginia Held ( 2006 ) and Fiona Robinson ( 2011 ).

Many feminist philosophers recommend a methodological approach to global justice that they call nonideal or “critical” theory. In nonideal theory, normative ideals do not function as unquestioned standards of assessment but rather as hypotheses to be tested in experience; for example, the British abolition of slavery is seen as initiating a worldwide experiment in free labor (Anderson 2014 .) Nonideal theory starts “from a diagnosis of injustices in our actual world, rather than from a picture of an ideal world” (Anderson 2010 : 3). However, even diagnosing injustices is far from simple in a world where the moral resources available are extremely diverse and where people are profoundly unequal in terms of epistemic credibility. Some feminist philosophers are seeking ways to address the global epistemic injustices that hamper cross-cultural expression and uptake of multiple points of view (Jaggar and Tobin 2013 ; Tobin and Jaggar 2013 ). Better understandings of global gender justice can emerge only from discussions that are epistemically more gender-just.

Further Reading

Aragon, Corwin , and Alison M. Jaggar ( 2018 ) “ Agency, Complicity, and the Responsibility to Resist Structural Injustice, ” Journal of Social Philosophy 49(3): 439–46.

Google Scholar

Farris, Sara R. ( 2017 ) In the Name of Women’s Rights: The Rise of Femonationalism . Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Google Preview

Higgins, Peter ( 2017 ) “ A Feminist Approach to Immigrant Admissions, ” Hypatia 32(3): 506–22.

Khader, Serene J. ( 2019 ) Decolonizing Universalism: A Transnational Feminist Ethic . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

McLaren, Margaret A. (ed.) ( 2017 ) Decolonizing Feminism: Transnational Feminism and Globalization . London: Rowman and Littlefield International.

Scott, Joan ( 2017 ) Sex and Secularism . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Human sex is not dichotomous: Fausto-Sterling ( 2000 ) reports that individuals born as mixtures of male and female exist as one of five natural human variants, and she criticizes the arbitrariness and coercion that often characterize social processes of sex assignment. Humans’ physical sex characteristics are shaped by social factors at both phenotypical and genotypical levels.

For example, masculine privilege is usually substantial but masculinity can also carry considerable costs for people who are disadvantaged on other dimensions. In the United States, men of African descent are far more likely than any other demographic group to be incarcerated and/or to die by violence. Making sense of the recently publicized, though longstanding phenomenon of unarmed young African American men being killed by police officers in the US requires understanding gender intersectionally. It is salient that the victims are black but also that they are masculine; it is equally salient that their killers are usually, though not always, both white and masculine. African American women also suffer gendered and racialized street harassment from the police but they are often taken to be sex workers and not killed by the police at such a high rate as African American men.

The word “culture” was mostly used in this way in the philosophical debate about “multiculturalism.” For example, Nancy Fraser contrasts concerns about cultural recognition with concerns about economic redistribution (Fraser 1997 ).

In Kenya, “clitoridectomy became a political issue between the Kikuyu and Kenya’s white settlers and missionaries, as well as a symbol of the struggle between African nationalists and British colonial power” (Brown 1991 :262).

More recently, the economic rise of China and emergence of middle-income countries, such as Brazil and India, have blurred the sharp North/South division.

In both urban and rural settings around the world, in both poor and rich communities, the social norms for what makes a good wife are remarkably similar … Above all, the good wife adeptly handles her domestic responsibilities and is caring and understanding toward others … Being a good wife also systematically involves respecting one’s husband—being faithful, supportive, respectful, and submissive. (World Bank 2011 :172 Box 4.5)

By contrast, “Across diverse contexts, what defines a good husband, over and above all, is the ability to provide” (ibid.).

Almost 21 million people are victims of forced labour —11.4 million women and girls and 9.5 million men and boys. Forced labour takes different forms, including debt bondage, trafficking and other forms of modern slavery. The victims are the most vulnerable—women and girls forced into prostitution, migrants trapped in debt bondage, and sweatshop or farm workers kept there by clearly illegal tactics and paid little or nothing. Of those exploited by individuals or enterprises, 4.5 million are victims of forced sexual exploitation. Migrant workers and indigenous people are particularly vulnerable to forced labour. (ILO 2015 )

For example, in the republics of the former Soviet Union, where the implementation of market policies led to unemployment rates as high as 70% and 80% among women (Sassen 2002 : 268), many women enter sex work and dream of marriage to a foreign man who will provide protection and economic security.

This document was revised in 2005 and again in 2010 (UN 2010 ).

In the 1990s, the idea was adopted by numerous international agencies and nongovernmental organizations, including the United Nations Development Program, whose Human Development Index used a capability metric developed in collaboration with Amartya Sen.

Existing metrics were suspected of being gender-biased because they took households as their units of assessment, thereby obscuring intra-household disparities, and also because they used indicators of poverty that seemed to fit better with men’s than women’s lives.

The team was aware that people in some societies understand wealth and poverty not in terms of money but rather in terms of items such as land or cows or social relationships.

Researchers asked poor people in six poor countries what poverty meant to them. They worked with people situated differently, investigating how their social locations influenced their understandings of poverty. Although the research project used ethnographic methods, it was not anthropological in the sense of simply investigating what poor people in various societies believe poverty to be; instead, it drew on poor people’s ideas to inform the metrics used by academics and experts. In an effort to determine whether and to what extent women and men might systematically disagree about the constituents of poverty, the researchers interviewed not ungendered “poor people,” but rather poor women and poor men. They asked explicit questions about aspects of poverty found by other researchers to be especially important to women, such as free time, sexual autonomy, and family planning. They employed female researchers to interview women and usually interviewed people in gender-separated groups, hoping this would encourage women participants to speak more freely. In addition, they took individuals rather than households as their units of assessment.

My work builds on Okin’s idea that the division of labor in heterosexual Western marriage created a gendered cycle of vulnerability for women. She argued that “a cycle of power relations and decisions pervades both family and workplace, each reinforcing the inequalities between the sexes that already exist within the other” (Okin 1989 : 4). Iris Marion Young utilized Okin’s explanatory model to analyze the situation of women in some less-developed countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. She asserted that the division of family labor, which assigns women primary responsibility for care of the household, “operates as a strong and enforced norm among many newly urbanized women (and) produces and reproduces a (specifically gendered) vulnerability to domination and exploitation in wage employment” (Young 2009 : 230).

For example, Mary Daly asserted that women worldwide were subjected to male violence, through such practices as witch burning, sati, foot-binding, and “female genital mutilation” (Daly 1978 : 109–12).

Altman, Meryl , and Kerry Pannell ( 2012 ) “ Policy Gaps and Theory Gaps: Women and Migrant Domestic Labor, ” Feminist Economics 18(2): 291–315.

Amos, Valerie , and Pratibha Parmar ( 1984 ) “ Challenging Imperial Feminism, ” Feminist Review 17: 3–19.

Anderson, Bridget ( 2000 ) Doing the Dirty Work? The Global Politics of Domestic Labour . London and New York: Zed Books.

Anderson, Elizabeth ( 1990 ) “ Is Women’s Labor a Commodity? ” Philosophy and Public Affairs 19: 71–92.

Anderson, Elizabeth ( 2010 ) The Imperative of Integration . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Anderson, Elizabeth ( 2014 ) Social Movements, Experiments in Living, and Moral Progress: Case Studies from Britain’s Abolition of Slavery . Lawrence, KS: Department of Philosophy, University of Kansas.

Bailey, Alison ( 2011 ) “ Reconceiving Surrogacy: Toward a Reproductive Justice Account of Indian Surrogacy, ” Hypatia 26(4): 715–41.

Balakrishnan, Radhika ( 2002 ) The Hidden Assembly Line: Gender Dynamics of Subcontracted Work in a Global Economy . Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press.

Beneria, Lourdes ( 2003 ) Gender, Development, and Globalization: Economics as if All People Mattered . New York and London: Routledge.

Beneria, Lourdes ( 2007 ) “ Globalization, Gender and the Transformation of Women’s Roles, ” Revista Catalana de Geografia 61: 305–24.

Brown, Dallas L. ( 1991 ) “Christian Missionaries, Western Feminists, and the Kikuyu Clitoridectomy Controversy.” In Brett Williams (ed.), The Politics of Culture . Washington DC and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 243–72.

Burris, Barbara ( 1973 ) “The Fourth World Manifesto.” In Anne Koedt , Ellen Levine , and Anita Rapone (eds.), Radical Feminism . New York: Quadrangle/New York Times Book Co., 322–57.

Carby, Hazel ( 1982 ) “White Woman Listen! Black Feminism and the Boundaries of Sisterhood.” In Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (eds), The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in Seventies Britain . London: Hutchinson, 212–35.

Daly, Mary ( 1978 ) Gyn/Ecology: the Metaethics of Radical Feminism . Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Donchin, Anne ( 2010 ) “ Reproductive Tourism and the Quest for Global Gender Justice, ” Bioethics 24(7): 323–32.

Elson, Diane ( 2002 ) “Gender Justice, Human Rights, and Neo-Liberal Economic Policies.” In Maxine Molyneux and Shahra Razavi (eds.), Gender Justice, Development, and Rights . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 78–114.

Fausto-Sterling, Anne ( 2000 ) Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality, New York: Basic Books.

Fraser, Nancy ( 1997 ) “From Redistribution to Recognition? Dilemmas of Justice in a ‘Postsocialist’ Age.” In Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the “Postsocialist” Condition . New York and London: Routledge, 11–40.

Held, Virginia ( 2006 ) The Ethics of Care . New York: Oxford University Press.

Hochschild, Arlie Russell ( 2003 ) The Commercialization of Intimate Life: Notes from Home and Work. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Hochschild, Arlie Russell ( 2002 ) “Love and Gold.” In Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild (eds.), Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy . New York: Henry Holt, 15–30.

Hughes, Donna M. ( 2000 ) “ The ‘Natasha’ Trade: The Transnational Shadow Market of Trafficking in Women, ” Journal of International Affairs 53(2): 625–51.

Hughes, Donna M. ( 2004 ) “ The Role of ‘Marriage Agencies’ in the Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of Women from the Former Soviet Union,   International Review of Victimology 11: 49–71.

Huh, Ra-Keum ( 2008 ) “ The Politics of Meaning: Care Work and Migrant Women, ” Asian Journal of Women’s Studies 13(3): 37–60.

International Labour Organization (2015) “Forced Labour, Human Trafficking and Slavery,” http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/lang—en/index.htm , accessed February 16, 2015.

International Organization for Migration (IOM) (2012) “Facts & Figures: Global Estimates and Trends,” http://www.iom.int/cms/en/sites/iom/home/about-migration/facts—figures-1.html , accessed May 28, 2013.

Jaggar, Alison M. ( 2002 ) “ A Feminist Critique of the Alleged Southern Debt, ” Hypatia , 17(4): 119–42.

Jaggar, Alison M. ( 2005 ) “‘ Saving Amina?’ Global Justice for Women and Intercultural Dialogue, ” Ethics and International Affairs 19(3): 85–105.

Jaggar, Alison M. ( 2006 ) “ Reasoning about Well-Being: Nussbaum’s Methods of Justifying the Capabilities, ” Journal of Political Philosophy 14( 4): 301–22.

Jaggar, Alison M. ( 2013 ) “ We Fight for Roses Too: Time Use and Global Gender Justice, ” Journal of Global Ethics 9(2): 115–29.

Jaggar, Alison M. ( 2014 a) “Transnational Cycles of Vulnerability: A Prologue to a Theory of Global Gender Justice.” In Alison M. Jaggar (ed.), Gender and Global Justice . Cambridge: Polity Press, 18–39.

Jaggar, Alison M. ( 2014 b) “‘Are My Hands Clean?’ Responsibility for Global Gender Disparities” in Diana Meyers (ed.), Poverty, Agency, and Human Rights . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 170–94.

Jaggar, Alison M. , and Theresa Tobin ( 2013 ) “ Situating Moral Justification: Rethinking the Mission of Moral Epistemology, ” Metaphilosophy 44( 4): 383–408.

Jordan-Young, Rebecca ( 2010 ) Brain Storm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Differences. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kang, Hye-Ryoung ( 2014 ) “Transnational Women’s Collectivities and Global Justice.” In Alison M. Jaggar (ed.), Gender and Global Justice . Cambridge: Polity Press, 40–61.

Khader, Serene J. ( 2013 ) “ Identifying Adaptive Preferences in Practice: Lessons from Postcolonial Feminisms, ” Journal of Global Ethics, 9(3): 311–27.

Khattak, Saba Gul ( 2002 ) “Subcontracted Work and Gender Relations: The Case of Pakistan.” In Radhika Balakrishnan (ed.), The Hidden Assembly Line: Gender Dynamics of Subcontracted Work in a Global Economy . Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 35–62.

Kittay, Eva Feder ( 2014 ) “The Moral Harm of Migrant Carework: Realizing a Global Right to Care.” In Alison M. Jaggar (ed.), Gender and Global Justice . Cambridge: Polity Press, 62–84.

Lutz, Helma ( 2002 ) “ At Your Service Madam! The Globalization of Domestic Service, ” Feminist Review 70: 89–103.

Mies, Maria , and Vandana Shiva ( 1993 ) Ecofeminism . London: Zed Books.

Miller, Richard ( 2010 ) Globalizing Justice: The Ethics of Poverty and Power . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Miller, Sarah Clark ( 2009 ) “Atrocity, Harm, and Resistance: A Situated Understanding of Genocidal Rape.” In Andrea Veltman and Kathryn J. Norlock (eds.), Evil, Political Violence, and Forgiveness: Essays in Honor of Claudia Card . Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 53–76.

Moeller-Leimkuhler, Anna Maria ( 2003 ) “ The Gender Gap in Suicide and Premature Death: Or, Why Are Men So Vulnerable?   European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 252 (1): 1–8.

Mohanty, Chandra ( 1991 ) “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourse.” In Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo and Lourdes Torres (eds.), Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism . Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 51–80.

Morgan, Robin (ed.) ( 1984 ) Sisterhood is Global , Garden City, NY:Anchor Press/Doubleday.

Narayan, Uma ( 1995 ) “‘ Male-Order’ Brides: Immigrant Women, Domestic Violence, and Immigration Law, ” Hypatia 10(1): 101–19.

Narayan, Uma ( 1998 ) “ Essence of Culture and a Sense of History: A Feminist Critique of Cultural Essentialism, ” Hypatia 13(2): 86–106.

Nnaemeka, Obioma ( 2005 ) “African Women, Colonial Discourses, and Imperialist Interventions: Female Circumcision as Impetus.” In Obioma Nnaemeka (ed.), Female Circumcision and the Politics of Knowledge: African Women in Imperialist Discourses. Westport, CT: Praeger, 27–46.

Nussbaum, Martha C. ( 1992 ) Human Functioning and Social Justice: In Defense of Aristotelian Essentialism, ” Political Theory 20: 202–46.

Nussbaum, Martha C. ( 2000 ) Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Okin, Susan Moller ( 1989 ) Justice, Gender and the Family . New York: Basic Books.

Okin, Susan Moller ( 1994 ) “ Gender Inequality and Cultural Differences, ” Political Theory 22(1): 5–24.

Okin, Susan Moller ( 1998 ) “ Feminism, Women’s Human Rights, and Cultural Differences, ” Hypatia 13(2): 32–52.

Okin, Susan Moller (with respondents) ( 1999 ) Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? , ed. Joshua Cohen , Matthew Howard , and Martha C. Nussbaum . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Parreñas, Rhacel Salazar ( 2001 ) Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic Work . Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Parreñas, Rhacel Salazar ( 2002 ) “The Care Crisis in the Philippines: Children and Transnational Families in the New Global Economy.” In Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild (eds.), Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy, New York: Henry Holt, 39–54.

Plumwood, Val ( 1993 ) Feminism and the Mastery of Nature . New York: Routledge.

Pogge, Thomas ( 2002 /2008) World Poverty and Human Rights . Cambridge: Polity Press.

Prinz, Jesse (2012) “Why Are Men So Violent?” Psychology Today, http://www.psychologytoday.com , accessed February 10, 2012.

Rawls, John ( 1971 ) A Theory of Justice . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Razavi, Shahra ( 2011 ) World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development, An Opportunity both Welcome and Missed (An Extended Commentary) . New York: UNRISD.

Robeyns, Ingrid ( 2005 ) “ Selecting Capabilities for Quality of Life Measurement, ” Social Indicators Research 74: 191–215.

Robeyns, Ingrid ( 2008 ) “ Ideal Theory in Theory and Practice, ” Social Theory and Practice 34(3): 341–62.

Robinson, Fiona ( 2011 ) The Ethics of Care: A Feminist Approach to Human Security . Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Sassen, Saskia ( 2002 ) “ Women’s Burden: Counter-Geographies of Globalization and the Feminization of Survival, ” Nordic Journal of International Law 71: 255–74.

Satz, Debra ( 2010 ) Why Some Things Should Not Be for Sale: The Moral Limits of Markets . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sen, Amartya ( 1984 ) Resources, Values and Development. Oxford: Blackwell.

Singer, Peter ( 1972 ) “ Famine, Affluence, and Morality, ” Philosophy and Public Affairs 1(1): 229–43.

Standing, Guy ( 1999 ) “ Global Feminization through Flexible Labor: A Theme Revisited, ” World Development 27(3): 583–602.

Standing, Guy ( 2011 ) The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class . London and New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Terry, Geraldine ( 2009 ) Climate Change and Gender Justice . Rugby: Practical Action Publishing.

Tobin, Theresa W. ( 2009 ) “ Using Rights to Counter ‘Gender-Specific’ Wrongs, ” Human Rights Review 10: 521–30.

Tobin, Theresa W. , and Alison M. Jaggar ( 2013 ) “ Naturalizing Moral Justification: Rethinking the Method of Moral Epistemology, ” Metaphilosophy 44(4): 409–39.

United Nations (1993) Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action , http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/Vienna.aspx , accessed February 13, 2015.

United Nations ( 1999 ) 1999 World Survey on the Role of Women in Development: Globalization, Gender and Work . New York: United Nations.

United Nations (2010) Report on the Fifty-Fourth Session , http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N10/305/76/PDF/N1030576.pdf , accessed January 30, 2015.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (2014) “Blame it on the Rain?: Gender Differentiated Impacts of Drought on Agricultural Wage and Work in India,” http://www.asia-pacific.undp.org/content/dam/rbap/docs/Research%20&%20Publications/poverty/RBAP-PR-2014-Blame-It-on-the-Rain.pdf , accessed January 30, 2015.

United Nations Women (1995) “Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women: Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action,” http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/ , accessed January 30, 2015.

Volpp, Leti ( 2000 ) “ Blaming Culture for Bad Behavior,   Yale Journal of Law and Humanities 12: 89–116.

Walker, Margaret Urban ( 2015 ) “Making Reparations Possible: Theorizing Reparative Justice.” In Claudio Corradetti , Nir Eisikovits , and Jack Volpe Rotondi (eds.), Theorizing Transitional Justice . Farnham: Ashgate Press, 211–24.

Wisor, Scott , Sharon Bessell , Fatima Castillo , Joanne Crawford , Kieran Donaghue , Janet Hunt , Alison Jaggar , Amy Liu , and Thomas Pogge (2014) “The Individual Deprivation Measure: A Gender Sensitive Approach to Poverty Measurement,” http://www.iwda.org.au/research/individual-deprivation-measure/ , accessed February 1, 2015.

World Bank ( 2011 ) World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development, Washington, DC: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/ World Bank.

Young, Iris M. ( 2007 ) “Responsibility, Social Connection, and Global Labor Justice,” In Global Challenges: War, Self-Determination and Responsibility for Justice, Cambridge: Polity Press, 159–86.

Young, Iris M. ( 2009 ) “The Gendered Cycle of Vulnerability in the Less Developed World.” In Debra Satz and Rob Reich (eds.), Toward a Humanist Justice: The Philosophy of Susan Moller Okin . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 223–38.

Zarembka, Joy M. ( 2002 ) “America’s Dirty Work: Migrant Maids and Modern Day Slavery.” In Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild (eds.), Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy . New York: Holt, 142–53.

• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Institutional account management
• Rights and permissions
• Get help with access
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Gender Justice

Human rights violations can have unique consequences for women and others targeted because of their gender or sexual identity. ICTJ helps victims to fulfill their rights to justice, truth, and reparation and affirm their dignity by providing accompaniment, support, and tailored responses. We stand with victims in seeking acknowledgment and accountability for sexual and gender-based violations committed in situations of systemic abuse.

      “Why should a fight be played out on my body?”

      — Jacqueline Mutere, Founder of Grace Agenda, Kenya

In periods of conflict or authoritarianism, women often become targets of human rights violations because of their gender and the marginalization they suffer in many societies. They may be subjected to physical and sexual violence, as well as other violations that affect them in unique ways, such as enforced disappearance of their loved ones, displacement, and socioeconomic discrimination.

For example, women whose husbands are forcibly disappeared in conflict can suffer prolonged psychological trauma, unjust legal barriers, and other forms of discrimination because of their ambiguous status as neither married nor officially widowed. They endure a higher risk of exploitation due to poverty worsened by the loss of a primary breadwinner and ostracization by their families and other close social networks.

Compounding these harms, women’s ability to seek recourse is often severely limited, due to structural inequalities. Even transitional justice mechanisms themselves can be blind to the particular needs of women if badly designed, and responses can mirror the gendered power imbalances in society at large.

While women are often among the most marginalized in society, requiring specific attention and targeted transitional justice responses, gender justice is not only concerned with women. All victims’ experiences need to be assessed for gendered implications. A gender-sensitive approach to transitional justice examines and address the full range of experiences, including of male victims in special contexts as well as LGBTQI victims.

Can Transitional Justice Help Promote Justice for Victims of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence?

Transitional justice responses to gender-based violations during conflict and authoritarian rule are essential for ensuring justice for victims, combating women’s marginalization, and preventing future violations against women and other groups targeted for their gender. Of equal importance is ensuring that transitional justice measures meaningfully address the causes and consequences of all abuses against women—even those that are not inherently gender based.

The past few decades have seen considerable progress in terms of public acknowledgment of gender inequality, gender discrimination, and gender-based human rights violations. Too often, however, these acknowledgments do not translate into effective implementation. Much of this failure comes from a lack of technical knowledge on how to implement measures in ways that encourages women’s participation and adequately addresses the gendered nature of human rights violations.

This shortcoming is compounded when women are also excluded from the decision-making process. Women must play a central role in the design and implementation of transitional justice measures if policy is to adequately respond to their needs. This is especially true when attempting to implement policy amid ongoing sexual and gender-based violence, where the will and capacity of authorities to investigate falls short.

ICTJ’s Approach

ICTJ’s goal is to ensure that victims of gender-based violations meaningfully engage in transitional justice measures and that these measures effectively address the causes and consequences of gendered experiences of human rights violations. 

ICTJ’s main approach is to provide technical assistance in particular contexts, including by partnering with victims’ groups, activists, and officials to develop gender-sensitive and gender-responsive policies and processes that are informed by the priorities of all victims. ICTJ works to ensure that these efforts  promote meaningful justice for sexual and gender-based violations, address the gendered implications of human rights violations more broadly, and proactively create safe and accessible spaces for the most vulnerable and marginalized victims. 

ICTJ’s Gender and Transitional Justice curriculum , which draws on ICTJ’s decades of work, is intended to help civil society actors and practitioners incorporate this foundational and technical knowledge into their work and trainings. 

In addition to context-specific assistance, ICTJ also provides new insights into how transitional justice can address the gender dynamics of violence, and contributes to global policy debates on the issue. Through groundbreaking research on topics that have often received scant prior attention, such as the impact of enforced disappearance on women or sexual violence against men and boys, ICTJ seeks to push boundaries and ensure that existing norms and best practices appropriately match the day-to-day realities of victims. ICTJ also works closely with victims and civil society groups to this end. For example, ICTJ assisted Colombia Diversa with its project to explore systematic crimes committed against LGBT people during the country’s armed conflict, which resulted in submissions to the Truth Commission and Special Jurisdiction for Peace. 

We work side by side with victims to obtain acknowledgment and redress for massive human rights violations, hold those responsible to account, reform and build democratic institutions, and prevent the recurrence of violence or repression.

Speech: Gender equality – just, prudent, and essential for everything we all aspire to

Closing remarks by un under-secretary-general and un women executive director sima bahous to the 68th session of the commission on the status of women, un headquarters, 27 march 2024..

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to LinkedIn
• Share to E-mail

[As delivered.]

You have arrived at Agreed Conclusions for CSW68 [the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women] —congratulations! As the world was watching, you showed the very best of the multilateral system, and you came together to advance critical normative work for women and girls everywhere. You have recognized the inequalities that impact the lives of women and girls living in poverty and the solutions we have and we need to address them.

And you agreed that these inequalities do not define us, but that we are defined by wanting to urgently overcome them.

You adopted robust Agreed Conclusions [advance unedited version] , a blueprint that envisages a world with greater financial inclusion, increased spending on social protection, increased stability, equal opportunities, and great hope, rights, and freedoms for women and girls everywhere. A world that will no longer accept that one in ten women lives in poverty. A world that will accelerate the investment in women and girls and that urgently pursues the realization of the fundamental rights of all women and girls to live in peace and prosperity everywhere.

This is a special moment. I thank you all for your dedication and determination to bring this CSW68 to a successful close.

I thank His Excellency Ambassador Antonio Manuel Revilla Lagdameo of the Philippines for his able leadership as Chair of the Commission, together with the very able Vice Chairs, their Excellencies Ms. Yoka Brandt of the Netherlands, Ms. María Florencia González of Argentina, Mr. Māris Burbergs of Latvia, and Ms. Dúnia Eloisa Pires do Canto from Cabo Verde.

A special deep appreciation goes to Her Excellency Ms. Yoka Brandt of the Netherlands for her most skilful facilitation. Her Excellency, you would agree, shepherded you with grace and determination to reach the Agreed Conclusions. I also would like to thank her able team, in particular Robin De Vogel, for their support.

The Agreed Conclusions will only have value in as much as their implementation in countries makes a difference in the lives of women and girls, and in as much as they contribute to accelerating progress on the SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals] . We are a mere six years away from 2030. Gender equality remains our best chance to reach them.

I hope that you will use the Agreed Conclusions as you discuss the Pact for the Future , and that you will be bold and ambitious in advancing them, as we head to the Summit of the Future in September, to the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in 2025, and, of course, the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action next year.

This year’s CSW had two heads of state, three vice-presidents, and more than 100 ministers in attendance. Nearly 4,000 delegates in total contributed to the different deliberations.

We had a record number of close to 5,000 civil society representatives, the second highest number we have ever recorded. We saw more than 1,000 side events and parallel events. Partners came together to share experiences and dreams, and also to recommit.

And we benefitted from the creativity, energy, and substantive contributions from the youth delegates, including adolescent girls, who brought a fresh perspective to this year’s CSW . Upholding the Youth Forum and youth space is integral to our work here, which should be strengthened as part of the official Programme of Work of this Commission.

We also welcomed the adoption of the Resolution on women, the girl child, and HIV and AIDS , led by SADC [the Southern African Development Community], and commend Member States’ commitment to increase investment in gender equality and the empowerment of women in the HIV response.

It is not my wish to dampen this moment. Yet, in a world of cascading crises, de-democratization, gender equality backlash, and restricted civic spaces, women and girls will continue to be disproportionately impacted.

It makes the work you have done here all the more important.

I opened this CSW calling for a ceasefire in Gaza . I close it by reiterating this call and the call of the Security Council two days ago, for an immediate ceasefire, unhindered access to humanitarian assistance, the release of all hostages, and for peace. Sustainable, just peace for all women and girls everywhere must be our collective priority. In Gaza, in Sudan, in Haiti, in Ukraine, and elsewhere in the world.

UN Women stands with every woman and girl everywhere who is facing the scourge and the consequences of war and conflict.

We stand with all women peacebuilders, negotiators, human rights defenders who continue to pursue justice for women and girls—often at high personal cost.

As we close this session, we begin to turn our attention to next year when you will discuss 30 years since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action .

The scale of our ambitions, your ambitions for Beijing plus 30, must match the scale of our and your responsibility to achieve equality for every woman and girl, in all their diversity, not in 300 years, not in 100 years, not in 50 years, but urgently—now. There is much work to be done and much reward in doing it.

I look forward to working with the new CSW Bureau who will take this forward.

So, let us leave this room as collective champions for gender equality. Let us find new ways to do more, together, to accelerate progress and strengthen our partnerships.

And let us make the case, powerfully, for equality. Let the world hear what we have asserted over the past two weeks: that gender equality is just and prudent, and essential for everything we all aspire to.

I thank you.

• 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
• Executive Director
• Commission on the Status of Women
• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Financing for gender equality
• Women’s rights
• Economic empowerment
• Gender equality and women’s empowerment
• Governance and national planning
• Human rights
• Intergovernmental processes
• UN Women administration

Related content

Pushing forward for gender equality: CSW68 event showcases strategies for countering pushback and advancing women’s rights around the world

UN Women welcomes the adoption of robust blueprint to end women’s poverty

Op-ed: How conflict drives hunger for women and girls

[email protected]

555 (22) 456 789

Vision 2024

Press Releases

Civic Innovations

Join the Team

Essay Contest

Branden Center

Connect with us

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Policy briefs

Criminal Justice

Equal Justice for All? An Impartial Look at Gender Disparities within the Criminal Justice System

This brief aims to analyze gender disparities in the criminal justice system and propose legislation to enforce equality. We find that sexism in criminal justice is an expansive issue affecting all gender identities and that policy solutions should target reproductive health, mental health, and intersectional disparities between LGBTQ+ and BIPOC individuals.

Published by ‍

Aarya Chowdhry

Anagha nagesh.

Alayna Hassan

Suchir Paruchuri

September 15, 2023

At YIP, nuanced policy briefs emerge from the collaboration of six diverse, nonpartisan students.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet conse adipiscing elit

This brief will examine the causes and impacts of gender inequality in the United States criminal justice system. It examines the effects of gender-based persecution across various gender identities and proposes legislation to combat sexist systems and conduct.

A. Pointed Summary

• Sexism affects those of all gender identities
• Both men and women are discouraged from reporting assault due to gender-based stigmas
• While men are generally more likely to go to prison, female incarceration has been increasing
• Transgender individuals face unique struggles regarding hormone therapy and unfair prejudice

B. Relevance

Sexism in law enforcement impacts all gender identities, specifically in cases of sexual assault. According to Meghan Stroshine, Chair and Associate Professor of Cultural Sciences at Marquette University, “Males are far less likely to report their victimization and therefore far less likely to seek or obtain help.” She attributes this to a stigma around victimization, pushing that victims are weak and helpless, conflicting with the portrayal of masculinity in American culture. Stroshine also cites the fear that society will not believe them — a fear that men and women have in common.

According to the Department of Justice , only 20% of female college students report sexual assault. The most commonly cited reasons were a fear of retaliation from the perpetrator, belief that the crime was a “personal matter,” or a feeling that the crime was unimportant. Additionally, many women fear the blame will be placed on them, most commonly for “asking for it” by wearing revealing clothing. According to a study conducted by Jane E. Workman and Elizabeth W. Freeburg, which analyzes the impact of dressing on the perception of a sexual crime, “Both men and women who viewed a photograph of a victim in a short skirt attributed more responsibility to the victim than those who viewed a photograph of a victim in a moderate or long skirt.” This shift in responsibility for the crime (from perpetrator to victim) causes many women to stay silent and thus not receive justice.

Studies by the Department of Justice show that men are generally eight times more likely to go to jail than women. Authors of the paper “From Initial Appearance to Sentencing: Do Female Defendants Experience Disparate Treatment?” hypothesize that judges may give leniency to women who embody a “housewife” archetype and that they subconsciously identify female defendants with women in their lives. Despite this theory, however, female incarceration is on the rise. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, women’s state prison populations have grown over two times faster than men’s over the last 30 years. Additionally, the The National Resource Center on Justice Involved Women states that the number of female offenders since 1980 has increased by 700%, leading to women becoming one of the fastest-growing populations within the system and being the most significant minority that faces gender inequalities. T he Sentencing Project believes this change results from “more expansive law enforcement efforts, stiffer drug sentencing laws, and post-conviction barriers to reentry that uniquely affect women.”

Transgender individuals also face unique challenges within the prison system. Many trans people opt to use hormonal therapy as part of their transition; however, once incarcerated, the abrupt termination of this therapy can cause side effects and emotional dysregulation. Transgender identity could also “affect decisions to arrest, influence jury verdict decision-making and could lead to disproportionate sentences exceeding what is typical for the crime committed,” according to the American Psychological Organization. An individual’s gender identity can impact their likelihood of incarceration, treatment in prisons, and ability to receive justice.

The history of gender inequality within the criminal justice system is a complex and long-standing tale that has spanned well over a couple centuries, both in the United States and other countries. During the 19th century, women were systematically marginalized throughout all branches of the justice system. They often faced limited access to legal services while being sentenced to higher terms than their male counterparts for similar crimes. However, vast progress has been made within the realm of this crucial issue, which is further supported by a rise in women’s rights movements and an increase in widespread legal reforms addressing this discrepancy within the criminal justice system. Nevertheless, these inequities have continued to persist over the past decades, as gender disparities within the justice system have continued to negatively affect women of color, especially those within historically marginalized communities.

A. Current Stances ‍

There is not much research available on public opinion surrounding gender disparities in criminal justice. However, most Americans believe that criminal justice reform is needed. Most Americans would rather attack the underlying causes of criminal activities rather than impose harsh sentences, says the Open Society Foundations.

B. Tried Policy

Various federal and state-level legislation and initiatives have been implemented over the past decades to decrease the prevalence of gender disparities within the justice system. An example of this is the Texas House Bill 650 , which implements requirements such as gender-responsive training for correctional officers, the prohibition of solitary confinement and shackling for specific time periods after birth, and the expansion of access to numerous feminine hygiene products. All of these measures have been written into their law as part of extensive efforts to improve conditions for incarcerated women within the prison system. Other states, such as California, have also passed or are considering the implementation of laws to substantially address the systematic gender inequity issues that incarcerated women face on a constant basis.

Gender-based policing is a critical issue, preventing thousands of women who have been victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, and other serious crimes from seeking justice due to stereotypes and biases held by police officers. Numerous major police departments in places such as Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New Orleans have been shown to systematically oppress female victims of aforementioned crimes while also failing to act against officers who have conducted these sorts of misconduct. In order to combat this issue, federal laws such as the Violence Against Women Act and Safe Streets Act contain statutes that forbid actions of sex/gender discrimination by law enforcement officials. Legislation such as these have shown to be crucial towards ensuring equitable treatment for women in the criminal justice system, and it is vital that laws like these continue to be debated and implemented across the nation in order to significantly decrease gender discrimination and disparity outcomes throughout our justice system.

Policy Problem

A. Stakeholders

Gender is prevalent in the criminal justice system, and it is crucial to discuss the inequalities faced by gender minorities that prevent the justice system from being fair. The prominent gender minority affected by gender bias within the justice system is cis-women, who make up around 9.8% of the federal prison population in the United States. When discussing gender inequalities, it is also essential to take female legal professionals and law enforcement into the equation, as they face many disparities.

There is not as much information regarding other gender minorities. However, there still is recognition that minorities, such as transgender women, are discriminated against based on their background and gender. It has also been shown that women of color are more prone to be convicted, as “black women are overrepresented within the justice system”. (U.S Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs)

B. Risks of Indifference ‍

Gender disparities and inequalities are important to discuss to tackle all kinds of discrimination and inequity within criminal justice to make a better system that is fair to all. Gender minorities within the legal system suffer from deep-rooted discrimination. Therefore, it is vital to address them. For example, women legal professionals are often billed at a lower rate or given a lower pay rate than equally qualified men. In addition to the low pay rates, women are more likely to be interrupted and have to do more of the office “housework,” which means that they automatically have to do more of the non-legal work within the office. The  character of women is also often demeaned and penalized if they possess more substantial characteristics, such as assertiveness, even though these characteristics are crucial for lawyers and legal professionals. For the criminal justice system to be fair, it is necessary that the discrimination faced by female judges, prosecutors, attorneys, support staff, and more is addressed and resolved so that it becomes a healthy environment for all.

Other than within legal professions, it is also imperative to discuss gender inequalities and how gender plays a role when dealing with female offenders and their rehabilitation. Women often have different pathways into prisons and crime compared to men. According to the US Department of Justice and the Office of Justice Programs, women offenders or at-risk girls and women are more likely to have a history of different abuses like sexual abuse and emotional or physical trauma, which often leads them to crime as well as recidivism; they usually have an unstable mental status which affects their ability to think and act rationally. Their previous history is vital to consider when talking about rehabilitation, as only after taking their experiences into account would we be able to find better solutions that genuinely help incarcerated individuals and their reentry into society. The conditions in the jails and prisons are also different compared to male prisons; women are said to experience high rates of mental health problems in prisons. The National Resource Center on Justice Involved Women also states that “Substance abuse among justice-involved women is at least as prevalent, if not more so, than men, with 65-80% of women in prisons or jails reporting at least some drug involvement. A particular concern for women is that they are twice as likely as men to have co-occurring substance abuse disorders and mental illness (40.5 percent for women vs. 22.9 percent for men).” Therefore, the approach needs to be varied, and new programs and reform ways are to be implemented. Addressing these gender minorities are various ways we can reduce crime and try to give holistic reform options to gender minorities that cater to them and their needs. 

That being said, if these disparities are not addressed, an unequal system will continue to remain, which gives unequal access to justice to minorities and impacts rehabilitation and the potential to have a well-functioning society.

Policy Options

For criminal justice to be more inclusive and incorporative of different gender and sexes, efforts must be made toward restitutional and incriminatory policies. One of the major problems that women and non-binary people face in restitutional processes is accessing legal justice services. This involves a lack of financial resources to initiate legal processes and socio-psychological support, specifically in cases of sexual offenses. Furthermore, it includes the insufficiencies in the incriminatory processes, such as lack of gender diversity amongst the judicial officials, and a basic understanding of issues related to women and non-binary people, alongside personal biases and loosely defined laws.   ‍

The Bangkok Laws or the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Female Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders were voted on by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, laid down guidelines for the participant states to reform non-custodial measures and provided further gender-focused guidelines. This was in response to the Tokyo rules (adopted in 1990) which lay down ground rules for non-custodial justice measures and alternatives to imprisonment. They also focus on larger community management of offenses, such as a greater responsibility toward society, implementation of restorative justice, and protection. They lay an even greater emphasis on gender-based imprisonment policies such as local allocation and medical and mental health services to be provided for women prisoners. This includes the responsibility of the state to allocate women offenders to prisons close to their place of residence, access to gender-specific medical care, state-sponsored treatment for diseases like HIV/AIDS, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and self-harm prevention. 

Reforms for handling female prisoners and invasive screening procedures are suggested to be scrapped. More liberty has been allocated in terms of familial and maternal communication alongside specific guidelines for juvenile female offenders. Although the US agreed to the Bangkok Laws, many of the guidelines have not been taken as seriously and are either superficially implemented or not at all. The geographical location, demographics like ethnicity and race, and state-wise budgetary allocations are some of the deciding factors in the implementation of the suggested reforms. 

Healthcare necessities remain an ongoing issue for incarcerated women in the United States prisons as well. From mental health resources to support for pregnant women, the United States prison system, created with the needs of men in mind, fails to encapsulate the essentials of imprisoned women effectively. Lack of access to healthcare, sanitary products, and other supportive resources for menstruation negatively impacts women’s mental health and sanitation in these prisons. Therefore, to decrease anxiety over access, it remains crucial to address the basic needs of women. With a healthy emotional prison environment, rehabilitation in prison systems becomes a relatively more straightforward job, eventually leading to lower recidivism rates and prison numbers. 

Another aspect of women’s health care that the current prison system fails to consider is reproductive health care (contraceptives, abortion, sex education, adequate wages). Almost 5% of women in jails, 4% of women in state prisons, and 3% of women in federal prisons are pregnant when incarcerated. Given the number of pregnant incarcerated women, the lack of health care standards for pregnancy care in prisons even today reflects the urgency for policies supporting investment in educational and adequate medical resources for these women. Even though organizations and institutions are working toward pregnancy care in prisons in the United States, several institutions rely heavily on donations that are irregular and unequally distributed throughout the country. Therefore, community-based programs supported by state and federal governments could help eliminate the disparities in allocating these resources. 

Furthermore, according to the National Institute of Justice , in order to maximize the effectiveness of reentry programs for women and to decrease recidivism rates, rehabilitation and reentry programs should be gender-informed. Gender-informed reentry programs could ensure that the specific needs, patterns, and healthcare resources for specific genders and sexualities are catered accordingly.  

In addition to homophobia and transphobia, disparities in arrests and treatment of the LGBTQ+ communities in prisons are other examples of gender disparities observed in the criminal justice system. Due to high rates of contact with the criminal justice system, lesbian and bisexual women are four times as likely to be arrested than straight women. In addition, several transgender people in prisons report feeling unsafe in the prison environment due to their gender orientation, and BIPOC LGBTQ + people are twice as likely to be put in solitary confinement under the illusion of being protected from discrimination behind bars. 

To address these direct and indirect disparities in the treatment of LGBTQ+ communities in the criminal justice system, it remains necessary to bring about policy reform both in and out of prisons. Homophobia and transphobia in societies, in general, contribute to homophobic and transphobic environments within prisons. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, the first steps toward reducing discrimination at any level are increasing support for LGBTQ+ youth and advocating for equality and education on equity among genders and sexualities. 

A current threat to the treatment of LGBTQ+ communities within the criminal justice system remains Sodomy Laws. Although struck down 20 years ago by the United States Supreme Court under the decision of Lawrence v. Texas, specific legal codes inherited from the British Common Laws against sodomy within the LGBTQ+ communities remain in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas. As long as these legal codes remain, according to Amanda Holpuch in the New York Times, these laws can still be used to discriminate. Therefore, now more than ever, after the overturn of Roe v Wade, it remains essential to remove such laws from every state. It is imperative to look deeper into the contributing factors that have prevented the reforms from being impartially implemented. The suggestions act as a guiding light for the rectification of criminal justice policies in relation to gender disparities and allow for a more significant space to be created both in terms of discourse and practice for just, equitable, and inclusive justice policies.

The pervasive gender disparities within the criminal justice system necessitate immediate attention and policy reform. The effects of gender-based discrimination extend across various gender identities, affecting reporting, sentencing, and rehabilitation. To address systemic unfairness, lawmakers must craft policies aimed at remedying disparities confronted by gender-diverse groups and sexual minorities such as cisgender women, transgender people, and LGBTQ+ collectives facing inequity. The Bangkok Laws and United Nations Rules provide a blueprint for gender-focused reform, but their effective implementation remains inconsistent. By addressing reproductive and mental health needs, removing biases, and providing comprehensive rehabilitation programs, the criminal justice system can evolve into an inclusive and equitable framework. The imperative lies in dismantling discriminatory practices, advocating for policy change, and championing the rights of all genders within the criminal justice landscape.

Acknowledgment

The Institute for Youth in Policy wishes to acknowledge Ahad Khan, Donovan Zagorin, Nolan Ezzet, and other contributors for developing and maintaining the Policy Department within the Institute

Works Cited

• “86(R) HB 650 - Senate Committee Report Version - Bill Text,” n.d. https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/86R/billtext/html/HB00650S.htm
• Asquith, Christina. 2016. “Recruiting More Women Could Help Solve Many of the Problems With American Policing.” The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/08/police-departments-women-officers/497963/.
• California, State of. “Taking on Historic Homophobia in Justice System, California Governor Newsom Launches Process for Pardoning People Prosecuted for Being Gay.” California Governor, February 5, 2020. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/02/05/taking-on-historic-homophobia-in-justice-system-california-governor-newsom-launches-process-for-pardoning-people-prosecuted-for-being-gay/  
• “Changing Public Attitudes toward the Criminal Justice System.” Open Society Foundations, February 2002. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/changing-public-attitudes-toward-criminal-justice-system. 
• “Crime Prevention & Criminal Justice Module 9 Key Issues: Topic 1 - Gender-based discrimination and women in conflict with the law.” n.d. UNODC. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.unodc.org/e4j/en/crime-prevention-criminal-justice/module-9/key-issues/1--gender-based-discrimination-and-women-in-conflict-with-the-law.html.
• Miller, Holly Ventura, Female Reentry and Gender-Responsive Programming.” National Institute of Justice. Accessed August 29, 2023. https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/female-reentry-and-gender-responsive-programming  
• Geppert, Katharina. n.d. “Explaining the Gender Gap in the Criminal Justice System: How Family-Based Gender Roles Shape Perceptions of Defendants in Criminal Court.” Inquiries Journal. Accessed August 28, 2023. http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1936/explaining-the-gender-gap-in-the-criminal-justice-system-how-family-based-gender-roles-shape-perceptions-of-defendants-in-criminal-court.
• Gordon, Eleanor. n.d. “Justice and Gender.” OSCE. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/8/9/442525.pdf.
• Goulette, Natalie, John Wooldredge, James Frank, and Lawrence Travis. “From Initial Appearance to Sentencing: Do Female Defendants Experience Disparate Treatment?” Journal of Criminal Justice, August 29, 2015. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047235215000665#preview-section-snippets . 
• “History of VAWA | Legal Momentum,” n.d. https://www.legalmomentum.org/history-vawa .
• Holpuch, Amanda. “The Supreme Court Struck down Sodomy Laws 20 Years Ago. Some Still Remain.” The New York Times, July 21, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/21/us/politics/state-anti-sodomy-laws.html . 
• “Identifying and Preventing Gender Bias.” n.d. Department of Justice. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.justice.gov/crt/file/799316/download.
• “Incarcerated Women and Girls - the Sentencing Project.” The Sentencing Project. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.sentencingproject.org/app/uploads/2023/05/Incarcerated-Women-and-Girls-1.pdf . 
• Initiative, Prison Policy. “Visualizing the Unequal Treatment of LGBTQ People in the Criminal Justice System.” Prison Policy Initiative. Accessed August 29, 2023. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2021/03/02/lgbtq/  
• “Judicial Notebook: Incarcerated Transgender People.” Monitor on Psychology. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.apa.org/monitor/mar06/jn . 
• Kim Elsesser. 2021. “Female Lawyers Face Widespread Gender Bias, According To New Study.” Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2018/10/01/female-lawyers-face-widespread-gender-bias-according-to-new-study/?sh=6bbb4794b55e.
• “Lifetime Likelihood of Going to State or Federal Prison.” Department of Justice. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/Llgsfp.pdf . 
• “Majority of Americans Think U.S. Criminal Justice System Is Broken, Ineffective; See Need for Change.” Open Society Foundations, February 12, 2002. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/newsroom/majority-americans-think-us-criminal-justice-system-broken-ineffective-see-need. 
• Mannerfelt, Caroline, and Anders Håkansson. “Substance Use, Criminal Recidivism, and Mortality in Criminal Justice Clients: A Comparison between Men and Women.” Journal of addiction, March 11, 2018. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5866866/  
• Martinez, Matthew. “Underreporting among Males Likely Due to Gender-Based Stigma.” Marquette Wire, February 27, 2018. https://marquettewire.org/3988006/news/underreporting-among-males-likely-due-to-gender-based-stigma /. 
• Monazzam, Niki, and Kristen M. Budd. 2023. “Incarcerated Women and Girls – The Sentencing Project.” The Sentencing Project. https://www.sentencingproject.org/fact-sheet/incarcerated-women-and-girls/.
• Marfin, Catherine. “Texas Senate Passes Bill to Improve Conditions for Women in Prison.” The Texas Tribune, May 10, 2019. https://www.texastribune.org/2019/05/10/lawmakers-pass-bill-that-addresses-conditions-of-women-in-prison/.
• Ohsumi, Tomohiro, and Maurice Chammah. 2016. “Two Parties, Two Platforms on Criminal Justice.” The Marshall Project. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/07/18/two-parties-two-platforms-on-criminal-justice.
• “Opinion Asking for it.” n.d. Morning Star. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/asking-it.
• “Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 | Office of Justice Programs,” n.d. https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/omnibus-crime-control-and-safe-streets-act-1968#:~:text=The%20Omnibus%20Crime%20Control%20and,at%20all%20levels%20of%20government .
• “Patriarchy on trial: double standards in the criminal justice...” 2023. Revolving Doors. https://revolving-doors.org.uk/women-criminal-justice-double-standards/ .
• “Rape and Sexual Assault Victimization among College-Age Females, 1995–2013.” US Department of Justice, December 2014. https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/rsavcaf9513.pdf.  
• “Reentry Considerations for Justice Involved Women.” n.d. National Resource Center On Justice-Involved Women. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://cjinvolvedwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Reentry-Considerations-for-Justice-Involved-Women-FINAL.pdf.
• “The Gender Divide: Tracking Women’s State Prison Growth.” Prison Policy Initiative. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/women_overtime.html . 
• “The mission of the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession is to secure full and equal participation of women in the ABA, the profession and the justice system.” n.d. American Bar Association. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.americanbar.org/groups/diversity/women/ .
• Villa, Manuel. “The Mental Health Crisis Facing Women in Prison.” The Marshall Project, June 22, 2017. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/06/22/the-mental-health-crisis-facing-women-in-prison  
• “Women and Girls in the Justice System | Overview.” 2020. Office of Justice Programs. https://www.ojp.gov/feature/women-and-girls-justice-system/overview.
• “Women and the Criminal Justice System.” American Civil Liberties Union. Accessed August 29, 2023. https://www.aclu.org/women-and-criminal-justice-system#:~:text=Women%20and%20Girls%20Behind%20Bars&text=Certain%20practices%20such%20as%20strip,and%20other%20mental%20health%20issues  
• “Women in Criminal Justice & Law Enforcement: Career Advice & Resources.” 2020. Public Service Degrees. https://www.publicservicedegrees.org/college-resources/women-in-criminal-justice/.
• “Women’s Healthcare in the Criminal Justice System.” Womens Healthcare in the Criminal Justice System Comments. Accessed August 29, 2023. https://sites.lafayette.edu/trianoj/  
• Workman, Jane E., and Elizabeth W. Freeburg. “An Examination of Date Rape, Victim Dress, and Perceiver Variables within the Context of Attribution Theory - Sex Roles.” SpringerLink. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1018858313267 . 
• “World Female Imprisonment List.” 2022. World Prison Brief. https://www.prisonstudies.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/world_female_imprisonment_list_5th_edition.pdf.
• “Understanding Gender-Biased Policing: Police Misconduct, Domestic Violence, and Sexual Assault.” American Civil Liberties Union. American Civil Liberties Union, May 2016. https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/aclu_memo-understanding_gender_biased_policing-2016_0.pdf .
•  “United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (The Tokyo Rules)”, 1990, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/tokyorules.pdf  
• “The Bangkok Rules”, 2011, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. https://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/Bangkok_Rules_ENG_22032015.pdf  

Criminal Justice Team Lead

Aarya currently co-leads Criminal Justice Policy in the Policy department and is an Outreach Intern in the Education department at YIP. Fortunate to call Kanpur, India, her hometown, she is an avid reader, learner and poet.

Anagha is a current student at John P. Stevens High School in New Jersey. She joined YIP in the Spring 2023 fellowship and now co-leads the Criminal Justice policy team. She hopes to pursue political science or policy in college. In her free time, she likes to sing, act, and travel.

Alayna is studying natural sciences with a specialization in English, in Sweden. She is very passionate about health, public policy and social justice (among many other topics). In the future, she aspires to merge these interests to help create change for good. In her free time, she love to read, binge-watch sitcoms and doing anything creative.

Policy Analyst

Emily is a passionate and inquisitive individual who finds joy in the simple act of reading. As a current junior, she has cultivated her fervor within the realm of gender rights, criminal justice, and public policy.

Similar Policy Briefs

Economic Implications of Evergrande Collapse

Economic Policy

Nikhil Daniel

The Evergrande company, a massive Chinese property developer once listed as the world's most valuable real estate company, defaulted and has now been ordered to liquidate, posing both short- and long-term impacts on the Chinese economy. The real estate sector, which has been one of the most important drivers of Chinese growth for years, has started to collapse, with the Evergrande serving as only the first domino. Both the economy and the citizens of China will now suffer due to the damaged real estate industry.

Housing Market Recovery

Following a continued slowdown in the housing market characterized by low inventory and dwindling activity, there is renewed optimism for 2024. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) predicts that the housing market will experience a revival in 2024, with housing construction and demand presenting signs of improvement. This brief will explore the broader implications of the US housing market recovery predictions for 2024.

Freedom and Fairness of the 2024 Bangladeshi Parliamentary Election

Foreign Policy

Iniya Karimanal

In early January, increasingly autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League won her fifth term in office as Prime Minister. For months preceding the election, violence and protests broke out as a result of controversy surrounding Hasina’s rule. These protests were repressed as Hasina became notorious for cracking down on free speech. The main opposition party, Bangladesh National Party (BNP) declined to participate in the election, calling for an interim caretaker government, which Hasina refused. Her victory was highly controversial among BNP members and has been recognized as an unfree and unfair election by several countries.