The New Nation - Internet Edition

Gender equality is central to realizing the Millennium agenda, which risks failure without the full participation of all members of society. Within the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and at the heart of the United Nations itself, is the acknowledgement that the vulnerable, especially children, require special care and attention. Gender equality will not only empower women to overcome poverty, but will also assist their children, families, communities and countries as well. When seen in this light, gender equality is not only morally right - it is pivotal to human progress.

Moreover, gender equality produces a double dividend: It benefits both women and children. Healthy, educated and empowered women have healthy, educated and confident daughters and sons. The amount of influence women have over the decisions in the household has been shown to positively impact the nutrition, health care and education of their children. But the benefits of gender equality go beyond their direct impact on children. Without it, it will be impossible to create a world of equity, tolerance and shared responsibility - a world that is fit for children.

Yet gender discrimination remains pervasive in every region of the world. It appears in the preference for sons over daughters, limited opportunities in education and work for girls and women, and outright gender-based violence in the forms of physical and sexual violence. Other, less obvious, forms of gender discrimination can be equally destructive. Institutional discrimination is harder to identify and rectify. Cultural traditions can perpetuate social exclusion and discrimination from generation to generation, as gender stereotypes remain widely accepted and go unchallenged.

In spite of the ingrained nature of gender inequality, there is hope in the fact that the status of women has improved since the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979. Today, many girls and women have access to opportunities that were previously restricted. Girls are present in increasing numbers in education, and in many regions women's participation in both the labour force and government and politics has risen. Since late 2005, Chile, Jamaica, Liberia and the Republic of Korea have elected or selected women as their Heads of Government, bringing the total number of female Heads of State or Government to 14.

Most importantly, by promoting legal and economic reforms, proponents of gender equality have begun to reshape the social and political landscape. And though gender continues to influence choices, chances and challenges, in many parts of the world a girl born in 2007 will probably have a brighter future than a girl who was born when CEDAW was adopted in 1979.

Building on this progress is critical to achieving not only gender equality and women's empowerment, but also sustainable development. To do so, women's influence in the key decisions that shape their lives and those of children must be enhanced in three distinct arenas: the household, the workplace and the political sphere. A change for the better in any one of these realms influences women's equality in the others, and has a profound and positive impact on children's wellbeing and development.

The State of theWorld's Children 2007 examines the status of women today and analyses the discrimination and disempowerment that many women face throughout their lives. The report discusses how gender equality will move all of the Millennium Development Goals forward, and how investment in women's rights - through education, financing, legislation, legislative quotas, engaging men and boys, women empowering women and improved research and data - will ultimately produce a double dividend: advancing the rights of both women and children.

For children, the most important actors in the world are not political leaders and heads of development agencies, but the parents and caregivers who make crucial household decisions each day. Evidence suggests that men and women frequently have very different roles and priorities when it comes to household decision-making. Women generally place a higher premium on welfare-related goals and are more likely to use their influence and the resources they control to meet the needs of families, particularly children.

A growing body of evidence indicates that household decisions are often made through a bargaining process that is more likely to favour men than women.

According to data from the Demographic and Health Surveys, in only 10 out of the 30 developing countries surveyed did half or more of women participate in all household decisions, including those regarding daily household spending, major household purchases, their own health care and their visits with friends or relatives outside the home.

Factors underlying women's influence in decision-making processes include control of income and assets, age at marriage and level of education. In both industrialized and developing countries, women continue to lag behind men in terms of income-earning opportunities and ownership and management of assets. Evidence from around the world indicates that husbands tend to be older than wives at first marriage, with the age gaps most extreme in the case of child marriage (defined as customary or statutory union where one or both of the partners is under the age of 18). The findings of a study undertaken in 40 developing countries indicate that, on average, men tend to spend more time in education than women.

Levels of education, earnings and asset ownership, and age gaps are key in determining bargaining power between men and women in the household. Arguably of equal importance is the threat of domestic violence. While physical and sexual violence and other forms of abuse occur in different domestic environments and in different guises, there is substantial evidence to suggest that such acts are mainly perpetrated by adult men against women and girls. Domestic violence threatens the physical health and emotional well-being of its victims and often forces them to endure subordinate positions and economic insecurity within households.

The consequences of women's exclusion from household decisions can be as dire for children as they are for women themselves. In families in which women are key decision-makers, the proportion of resources devoted to children is far greater than in those in which women have a less decisive role.

Case studies conducted in the developing world indicate that women who have greater influence in household decisions can significantly improve their children's nutritional status. Educating women also results in multiple benefits for children, improving their survival rates and nutritional status as well as school attendance.

According to a study conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute, if men and women had equal influence in decision-making, the incidence of underweight children less than three years old in South Asia would fall by up to 13 percentage points, resulting in 13.4 million fewer undernourished children in the region; in sub-Saharan Africa, an additional 1.7 million children would be adequately nourished.

Women who have greater influence in decision-making can promote better health-care practices for the family. As evidence from India and Nepal shows, even after accounting for differences in education and wealth among the households surveyed, women's participation in household decisions decreases stunting among children and reduces child mortality.

A woman's empowerment within the household increases the likelihood that her children, particularly girls, will attend school. A UNICEF survey of selected countries across the developing world found that, on average, children with uneducated mothers are at least twice as likely to be out of school as children whose mothers attended primary school.

Men play a vital role in promoting egalitarian decision-making. Through simple and direct strategies, such as sharing responsibility for household chores and childcare, men can help combat gender discrimination in households and communities.

Women themselves are the most important catalysts for change. By challenging and defying discriminatory attitudes in their communities, women's groups can advance the rights of girls and women for generations to come.

While there has been great progress in recent decades in engaging women in the labour force, there has been considerably less advance on improving the conditions under which they work, recognizing their unpaid work, eliminating discriminatory practices and laws related to property and inheritance rights, and providing support for childcare. Ensuring that women and men have equal opportunities to generate and manage income is an important step towards realizing women's rights. Moreover, children's rights are more likely to be fulfilled when women fully enjoy their social and economic rights.

For many women, unpaid work in and for the household takes up the majority of their working hours, with much less time spent in remunerative employment. Even when they participate in the labour market for paid employment, women still undertake the majority of the housework. In Mexico, for example, women in paid employment also perform household tasks that absorb 33 hours of their time each week; in contrast, men's contribution to domestic chores amounts to just 6 hours per week.

When women work outside the household, they earn, on average, far less than men. Although disaggregated data on nominal wages are scarce, the available evidence shows that, across regions, women's nominal wages are roughly 20 per cent lower than men's. Women are also more likely to work in more precarious forms of employment with low earnings, little financial security and few or no social benefits.

Women not only earn less than men but also tend to own fewer assets. Smaller salaries and less control over household income constrain their ability to accumulate capital. Gender biases in property and inheritance laws and in other at greater risk of poverty. Where women work matters for children, as paid employment for women does not automatically lead to better outcomes for children.

Factors such as the amount of time women spend working outside the household, the conditions under which they are employed, who controls the income they generate, and the costs and quality of childcare determine how the work undertaken by women in the labour market affects their own well-being and that of children.

In many countries, high-quality childcare remains prohibitively expensive for low-income families in the absence of state provision or subsidies. Parents often rely on extended family members or older children - most often girls - to provide childcare while they work, often at the expense of children's education.

Challenging attitudes towards women at work requires a multifaceted approach. Governments should undertake legislative, financial and administrative measures to create a strong and enabling environment for women's entrepreneurship and participation in the labour market. Social policies should be promoted to tackle discrimination in the workplace and to enable women and men to reconcile their work and family responsibilities. For children, the most important strategies for ensuring that girls and boys will have equal income-earning opportunities as adults is to give them equal access to education.

Women's political participation is a Millennium objective in its own right. Empowering women in the political arena has the potential to change societies. Their involvement in governing bodies at the national and local levels leads to policies and legislation that are focused on women, children and families.

A growing body of evidence from industrialized and developing countries alike suggests that women in politics have been especially effective advocates for children at all levels, sponsoring legislation and fostering tangible changes in policy outcomes that reflect the rights, priorities, experiences and contributions of women, children and families.

Parliamentary advocacy on behalf of children and families can also bridge party and ideological lines. Countries where cross-party alliances of women parliamentarians have successfully advanced the rights of women and children include Egypt, France, the Netherlands, the Russian Federation, Rwanda, South Africa and Sweden.

Though women's parliamentary representation has steadily increased in the past decade, they remain under-represented in almost all national legislatures - accounting for just under 17 per cent of parliamentarians worldwide. Moreover, their presence in government is even more limited; only 14 per cent of ministers and just 6 per cent of the world's Heads of Government are women.

Many of the pernicious effects of gender discrimination, from lower levels of education to prevailing social attitudes that challenge women's competence as decision makers, as well as women's greater work burden, continue to hinder their participation in politics.

Women's participation at the local level has been growing rapidly, particularly in South Asia, partly due to the use of quotas. Although evidence about the behaviour of local politicians is limited, a number of studies from both industrialized and developing countries indicate that women in local government tend to prioritize social issues. The participation of women in local politics can have an immediate impact on outcomes for women and children, particularly in the distribution of community resources and in promoting provisions for childcare.

Women's participation in peace negotiations and post-conflict reconstruction is vital to ensure the safety and protection of children and other vulnerable populations. Yet women's participation in most peace processes across the developing world is, at best, informal. While governments and other political actors appear content to encourage engagement between women's groups that often cut across conflict lines, women rarely make it to the peace table.

Despite limited participation in national and local politics and in post-conflict reconstruction, women in politics and government are helping change the political environment. Their influence is not just being felt in stronger legislation for children and women; they are also helping decision-making bodies become more democratic and gender-sensitive.

Eliminating gender discrimination will produce a double dividend, fulfilling the rights of women and going a long way towards realizing those of children as well. With concerted efforts, real progress, based on respect, universal human rights and equal opportunities, can be made towards transforming discriminatory attitudes, behaviours, customs, laws, institutions and practices in society. Effective partnerships, involving governments, donors and international agencies, can support this process through the design and implementation of human rights-based development strategies. For women, men, and for children, the time to refocus our efforts is now.