Project Work on GENDER EQUALITY | class 10 | Social science-EduGrown

Women and girls comprise half of the planet’s population; their empowerment is essential in expanding economic growth and promoting social development in a sustainable way.

Gender inequality remains an everyday reality for the world’s women and girls. It can begin right at the moment of birth and continue throughout the course of a woman’s life.

Despite critical advances over the course of recent history, women in all countries and across all socioeconomic levels in society can face various forms of unfair treatment, including discrimination, harassment, domestic violence and sexual abuse. Other forms of abuse that are particularly prevalent in certain countries or cultural contexts include forced marriage, honor killings, deprivation of education, denial of land and property rights, and lack of access to work and to health care.

An estimated 1 out of every 3 women worldwide has experienced sexual or physical violence at home, in her community, and/or in the workplace

Women may experience human rights abuses at different points in their working lives, including during the recruitment, hiring, promotion and termination processes, as well as in daily interactions with colleagues and supervisors.

Outside of the workplace, women are often particularly vulnerable to business activities’ social and environmental impacts. For example, women and girls are primarily responsible for fetching and hauling water in many developing countries. When company operations contaminate local sources, it is they who carry the burden of walking, often for hours, to the nearest substitute, which can prevent them from working or going to school.

According to the UN ENTITY FOR GENDER EQUALITY AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN (UN Women), gender “refers to the social attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female and the relationships between women and men and girls and boys, as well as the relations between women and those between men. These attributes, opportunities and relationships are socially constructed and are learned through socialization processes.”

Furthermore, GENDER EQUALITY “refers to the equal rights, responsibilities, and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys. Equality does not mean that women and men will become the same but that women’s and men’s rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female.”

Globally, working women still earn 24% less than men on average

Women and girls comprise half of the planet’s population; their empowerment is essential in expanding economic growth and promoting social development in a sustainable way. In many cases, the full participation of women in the workforce would ADD DOUBLE-DIGIT PERCENTAGE POINTS to national growth rates. EVIDENCE FROM AROUND THE WORLD shows that gender equality advancements have a ripple effect on all areas of sustainable development, from reducing poverty, hunger and even carbon emissions to enhancing the health, well-being and education of entire families, communities and countries. In fact, “[e]quality between women and men is seen both as a HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE and as a precondition for, and indicator of, sustainable people-centered development.”

Globally, working women still earn 24% less than men on average.

As illustrated in the figure above, and depending on the specifics of the relevant corporate initiative, addressing gender-related impacts in connection with business may contribute to the achievement of an array of the Global Goals, including:

• Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere [V]
• Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture [VI]
• Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages [VII]
• Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all [VIII]
• Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls [IX]
• Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all [X]
• Goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all [XI]
• Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries [XII]
• Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable [XIII]
• Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts [XIV]
• Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels [XV]

So, how are companies currently supporting a world in which these goals can become a reality – a world in which the rights of women and girls are respected across all areas of business activity?

Examples illustrated by the case studies below include:

• AN INDIVIDUAL CLOTHING BRAND IS PILOTING A PEER EDUCATOR TRAINING PROGRAM: A global apparel company is aiming to address issues around women’s health and equality in the workplace via peer-to-peer training, sensitization among senior management, and accessible complaint channels at the factory level.
• ACTORS ALONG A GLOBAL VALUE CHAIN ARE COLLECTIVELY ADDRESSING THE HUMAN RIGHTS IMPACTS ASSOCIATED WITH A SPECIFIC PRODUCT: The largest supermarkets in the United Kingdom are working together on a product-specific project that engages importers and local civil society groups, government actors, exporters, farmers and workers to promote decent work for strawberry pickers in Morocco who are women.
• BRANDS ARE PLAYING A KEY ROLE IN A WORKER-DRIVEN SOCIAL IMPACT PROGRAM THAT USES MARKET ENFORCEMENT MECHANISMS TO DRIVE POSITIVE CHANGE: The agricultural industry in the United States is seeing real transformation in the lives of women farmworkers who too often face gender discrimination and sexual abuse in the fields.

The case studies explore each of these innovative and evolving models in more detail. Each case study captures publicly available information on the initiative, alongside experiences and opinions from various actors involved.

These summaries do not claim to give a definitive account of a specific initiative or of all perspectives on that case study; instead, they are intended to serve as illustrative examples of how action toward corporate respect for human rights can make a critical contribution to the achievement of various goals and targets under the SDGs.

The challenge 

There are more than 1.5 million workers in Inditex’s supply chain, and the overwhelming majority of them are women. As such, a KEY OBJECTIVE of the global apparel brand is to “promote gender equality and women’s empowerment” across the company’s own staff and throughout its supply chain.

In India, women comprise up to 80% of the workforce in the factories that Inditex sources from. Most of these women are from rural areas with limited economic and educational opportunities. Human rights risks are particularly severe when it comes to their health and well-being. For instance, factory facilities may not be equipped to accommodate the reproductive health needs of women workers; and instances of harassment, abuse and discrimination inside and within the vicinity of factories may run high.