Gender equality and women’s empowerment

Commission on the Status of Women Ends

The Commission on the Status of Women with its theme of gender equality and women’s empowerment has concluded. There were around 4,100 non-governmental representatives from more than 540 organizations, the “highest number ever for one of the Commission’s regular annual meetings.”

And I was one of the 4,100!

The video opens with scenes of the Beijing conference of nearly 20 years ago. It gets to the 60th Commission on the Status of Women part way through.

“The 60th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women concluded . . with UN Member States committing to the gender-responsive implementation of Agenda 2030,” with its aim to “end poverty, combat inequalities and promote prosperity while protecting the environment by 2030.”

Commission’s Conclusions

The Commission issued, “a set of agreed conclusions [which] called for enhancing the basis for rapid progress, including stronger laws, policies and institutions, better data and scaled-up financing.”

I suspect you won’t want to read the whole 12 pages of the unedited version CSW60 conclusions – but in case you do, here it is. And actually it is easy reading with frequent reference to women’s empowerment and gender equality.

Several statements refer to the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by the UN last year.

Number 7 on the list of 30 statements is: “The Commission welcomes the commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, recognizes that women play a vital role as agents of development and acknowledges that realizing gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls is crucial to progress across all Sustainable Development Goals and targets.”

This statement concludes with these words, which I think is the best part: The Commission stresses that the achievement of full human potential and of sustainable development is not possible if women and girls continue to be denied the full realization of their human rights and opportunities.  Strong words!

Participants speak about gender equality

Indian woman speaks out for gender equality

Nandita Shah. Photo from UN Women/Ryan Brown

More engaging to read are the words of some of the participants.

Nandita Shah, is co-director of Akshara, a non-profit women’s rights organization in Mumbai, India. She is a local and national organizer with more than 30 years of experience.

She says, “There is a lot of potential to challenge inequality of gender, class, and—in the context of South Asia—caste. But we have to also change institutional processes so that deep-rooted inequality is addressed. [For the SDGs to make a difference], an emphasis on implementation, and closely watching that implementation, will be critical…. I want to see a world where there is nothing that a woman feels she cannot do . . ”

Kenyan woman on women's empowerment

Sharon Sabato. Photo from UN Women/Ryan Brown

Sharon Sabato is a Maasai woman, an indigenous women’s rights activist from Kenya. Her comment: “The SDGs matter . . to us indigenous women. We are still [struggling] with high poverty levels; illiteracy is very high in our land. We have [limited] access to water, and many young girls drop out of school due to harmful cultural practices.”

You can probably guess what she is referring to. She says, “A girl for example who undergoes female genital mutilation and is unable to finish school, she is married off (…) and her economic empowerment is negatively affected.”

You can read several other statements from women who were there.

Women’s Soccer and Gender Equality

On Thursday we learned that gender equality is sorely lacking in the sports world of soccer.

ECOC case on equal pay for women soccer plahyers

U.S. Women’s Soccer Team bringing case to EEOC

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Five of the biggest stars on the world champion U.S. women’s national soccer team accused the U.S. Soccer Federation of pay discrimination, despite the women’s team’s superior on-field achievements and higher anticipated revenue.”

They’re taking their case to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

I don’t know if the women who are bringing the action know about the Commission on the Status of Women. They should! In the list of requested actions is guaranteeing equal pay for equal work.

The goal of gender equality and women’s empowerment is not only for other countries. It’s for us!

The five women soccer players say they are paid significantly less than the men, not only in wages but in bonuses.

The WSJ says, “The women’s national team is a three-time World Cup winner and defending Olympic champion. Its victory in the 2015 World Cup final against Japan last summer was the most-watched soccer game of all time in the U.S. with over 26 million viewers.”

The U.S. men’s soccer team? Hasn’t got past the quarter-finals in the World Cup since the 1930’s inaugural match.

Tough on Drugs? It Depends

We watch PBS NewsHour most evenings. On this past Tuesday they had an essay which I have to share with you.

Yeshiva University photo of Ekow Yankah

Ekow Yankah, from Yeshiva University

Ekow Yankah, a Cardozo School of Law professor, reflects on how race affects our national response to drug abuse.

You can watch him speak or you can read the text, or do both! I hope you will do one or the other and let me know what you think.

I’d been thinking about this issue since learning about the opioid addiction epidemic and how communities were responding. At first I thought, “Whatever happened to being tough on drug users?”

But seconds later I knew the answer – these users and addicts are white.  Their families and communities are white.

Thirty years ago the crack addicts and users were black and lived in black communities. What a difference!

Judy Woodruff led into the essay saying, “President Obama today announced plans to expand drug treatment centers and increase the use of drugs that reverse the effect of opioids like heroin, OxyContin and Percocet.”

She continued, “Communities across the country are developing new approaches to this epidemic in an attempt to support addicts, helping them into treatment, instead of arrests.”

Yankah addresses the difference directly. “Back then, when addiction was a black problem, there was no wave of national compassion. Instead, we were warned of super predators, young, faceless black men wearing bandannas and sagging jeans.”

Police and other officials did not see the “offenders” then as people like them. Today they do. They see users and addicts who look like them or their own children.

He says near the end of his essay, “No one laments the violence the crack bomb set off more than African-Americans. But how we respond to the crimes accompanying addiction depends on how much we care about those affected. White heroin addicts get overdose treatment, rehabilitation and reincorporation. Black drug users got jail cells and just say no.”

Yankah doesn’t want similar punishment for today’s young people who face addiction. But he hopes we can stop ignoring racism and learn from our “meanest moments.” I join him in that hope.

Author: Catherine Onyemelukwe

Author, blogger, speaker. Born in New York, grew up in mid west United States, lived in Nigeria for 24 years, back in U.S. since 1986. Advocate for racial justice.

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