RELIGION AND GENDER EQUALITY
IN BRIEFRELIGION AND GENDEREQUALITYPhotos Photo Copyright. Copyright UN Women.The Role of Faith-Based Organizations,Institutions and Actors in Achieving GenderEquality Through the Implementation ofAgenda 2030UN Women collaborated with the World YWCA to convenea discussion on religion and gender equality at the 60thsession of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.Led by UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile MlamboNgcuka, and moderated by the General Secretary of theWorld YWCA, Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda, the discussion,building on the important work being done by faith actorsand feminist faith organizations, sought to identify: (a)entry points for narratives of faith that foster the realizationof gender equality; (b) strategies for building coalitions onfaith and gender equality; and (c) ways to accelerate theimplementation of Agenda 2030.Invited speakers included Bani Dugal, PrincipalRepresentative of the Bahá’í International Community;Margareta Grape, Senior Advisor, Church of Sweden; CrystalLee, Founder and Executive Director of United Natives,Inc.; Sarojini Nadar, Full Professor and Programme Leaderof the Gender and Religion Programme, University ofKwaZulu-Natal; and Marwa Sharafeldin, Musawah BoardMember and Co-Founder of the Network for Women’sRights Organizations in Egypt. Respondents were UlrichNitschke, Head of Sector, Program on Values, Religion,and Development, GIZ and Head of PARD Secretariat, theInternational Partnership on Religion and SustainableDevelopment; and Omair Paul, UN Representative forMuslims for Progressive Values.This document outlines the key issues discussed, thechallenges that remain to be addressed, and puts forwardrecommendations for UN Women’s engagement withfaith-based actors as critical partners in the achievementof Agenda 2030.Setting the Stage for a New ConversationOver two decades have passed since the adoption of theBeijing Platform for Action. Despite legislative, social andeconomic gains for women, no country has achieved genderequality. No country provides the same opportunities toits girls and women as it does to boys and men. As thenations of the world embark on the ambitious task ofimplementing Agenda 2030, an unprecedented body ofresources, both human and material, will be needed to seeit through.“Agenda 2030 is about people and planet: the sum totalof what creation is about. Both are under severe threat.The people are under a lot of stress—in some cases,because of what has been committed, and in others,because of what has been omitted. But in both cases,faith-based organizations and actors are at the center.”-Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director,UN Women
Faith-based organizations are among the oldest providersof social and humanitarian assistance, with networksand resources reaching every corner of the globe.Notwithstanding their long history and impressive record,faith-based actors have not yet succeeded in challengingthe patriarchal structures, beliefs, and practices that haveperpetuated inequality and discrimination against womenand girls. While they have promoted spiritual, social, andphysical wellbeing, faith-based actors have not alwaysfully engaged in the work of structural transformationrequired to secure equity and justice for mmunities have a pivotal role to play in bothinterrogating, challenging and proposing alternativepower structures so that we can work across race, class,and gender so as to leave no one behind.”-Lopa Banerjee, Chief, Civil Society Section, UN WomenToday, a growing number of feminist faith activists areleading the way in re-examining religious teachings andlaws, and advocating for women’s rightful participation in theinterpretation of religious doctrine. They are generating newnarratives about the role of religion and faith in achieving fullequality. UN Women is strategically positioned to facilitateand strengthen the role and contribution of these feministfaith-based actors in the gender responsive implementationof the 2030 Agenda. In collaboration with the UN system andother stakeholders UN women is committed to expandingopportunities for feminist faith-based organizations,institutions and actors to become an integral voice in thesocial justice movement to achieve gender equality.Religion and Gender Equality—The State of PlayThe relationship between religion and gender equality is acomplex one. Religion plays a vital role in shaping cultural,social, economic, and political norms in many parts of theworld. Similarly, gender roles and the status of womenand men in society are deeply tied to the manner in whichreligious texts have been interpreted for centuries by thosein positions of authority—positions held predominantly bymen. Yet, in sharp contrast to their marked absence at thehighest levels of decision-making in religious communities,women play a pivotal role in religious life. Within thefamily and the community, they implement and embodyreligious teachings and traditions, and pass these on tofuture generations.The role of faith-based organizations, institutionsand actors in the gender equality agenda is equallymultifaceted: while often rooted in patriarchal traditions,they are also among the powerful agents of socialchange. The language of faith reaches to the deepestroots of human motivation, mobilizing individuals andcommunities to sacrifice comfort and material wealthin pursuit of higher goals. In addition, faith-basedorganizations and institutions are among the largest,most stable, and well-resourced social networks. Manyof these networks transcend political, ethnic, and socioeconomic boundaries, and have the capacity to coordinateand execute large-scale social action. In many regions ofthe world, faith-based organizations and institutions,by virtue of their long-standing presence and service indiverse communities, have come to command the trustand respect of local populations.Photos Photo Copyright. Copyright UN Women.With its focus on full and timely implementation of thegender equality agenda, UN Women is engaging criticalpartners across all sectors of society, including youth, menand boys, academics, and the media. It is also engagingfaith-based organizations, institutions, and actors—building on a record of fruitful collaboration betweenthese actors and UN agencies over the past two decades.This collaboration is rooted in the understanding thatin today’s world, where 8 out of 10 people identify asmembers of a religious or spiritual community, religionexerts a tremendous influence on women’s and men’sidentity, behavior, and beliefs.
“We have ignored faiths in the development world formore than 60 years. We said, ‘Leave your faith outsideif you want to negotiate development with us.’ Nowwe have to shift. We say, ‘We take seriously what yourbeliefs are.” -Ulrich Nitschke, Head of Sector, Programon Values, Religion, and Development, GIZ and Headof PARD Secretariat, the International Partnership onReligion and Sustainable DevelopmentThe World Health Organization estimates that faithbased groups provide as much as 30%-70% of healthcare in Africa. Such groups have been pivotal in theprovision of HIV related services, have been a majorsource of funding and HIV health care and treatment.In humanitarian crises, faith-based organizationshave engaged in reconciliation and peace-buildingactivities, facilitated humanitarian access, supportedrefugee resettlement, and provided legal counseling,among others. In the field of human trafficking, theyhave provided care to survivors and endeavored toraise awareness, including within their own faithcommunities of the scale of modern-day slavery andsexual exploitation.Yet, despite this level of commitment and engagementacross a range of issues related to the wellbeing ofwomen and girls, a number of significant challengesremain. Together, they limit the tremendous potentialof faith-based actors to fully promote the equality ofwomen and men. These challenges include:Failure to adequately challenge the structuraldeterminants of gender inequality: Faith-basedactors have worked predominantly within existing culturaland legal frameworks. While the work of faith-based actorshas expanded beyond service provision to encompassadvocacy efforts, these efforts have not impacted policyand legislation at national and global levels.The absence of women in positions of religiousauthority: Despite the widespread engagement of womenin their religious communities, religious leaders and thoseauthorized to interpret religious doctrine are predominantlymen. As such, the processes of the production of religiousknowledge largely exclude women. Because of lack of will,capacity, and/or confidence, male leaders have not fullyacknowledged or confronted gender inequality and itsmany implications within their faith communities.Alliance between conservative religious forcesand political elites: The proliferation of extremistpolitical ideologies and movements has strengthenedpatriarchal structures and instrumentalized religionto legitimize discrimination against women and girls.Extremist movements have wielded political and culturalinfluence to restrict women’s freedoms and rights includinglegal, property, sexual and reproductive rights, their accessto education and social services, as well as their right to fullparticipation in civic and political life.Photos Photo Copyright. Copyright UN Women.Faith-based actors have, for many years, engaged invarious facets of gender equality work. In the areaof gender-based violence, they have worked to raiseawareness of the scale and wide-reaching implicationsof such violence; they have worked on violenceprevention, and provided survivors with services such ascounseling, shelter, and legal assistance. In their effortsto eliminate harmful practices, including female genitalmutilation and child marriage, they have worked withinstitutional and community-based religious leadersto influence attitudes and behaviors, and to advocatefor girls’ and women’s health and security. In the fieldof maternal and child health, faith-based actors havebeen among the primary providers of basic health careand obstetric services in underserved and remote areas,and in regions facing conflict and humanitarian crises.Reluctance of secular development organizationsto collaborate with feminist faith-based actors:Despite the effective work of faith-based actors, thereis a continuing suspicion and mistrust of these actors by
secular organizations. The highly organized and publicizedefforts of faith-based opponents of women’s sexual healthand reproductive rights, for example, have contributed toa perception of incompatibility between faith and genderequality, and between faith and human rights. Lack ofdocumentation of feminist faith-based interventions hasalso hindered greater awareness of these efforts amongsecular development organizations.“If you bring together those in formal religiousleadership, you will not hear the feminist narrative.But if you invite women who can reflect on theirsituation, you will have a different one.” -MargaretaGrape, Senior Advisor, Church of SwedenLack of integration of human rights anddevelopment processes: Human rights processes anddevelopment processes are not adequately integratedat the level of normative discourse and implementation.As such, human rights standards are not yet an integralpart of the design and implementation of developmentefforts, including the efforts of faith-based and seculardevelopment actors.Charting the Way ForwardKey insights from the panel discussion staged by UN Womenand the World YWCA concerned the role of women in thegeneration of religious knowledge, initial experiences incoalition building, and the formulation of advocacy strategies.Role of women in the generation of religiousknowledge: Throughout much of history, men haveinterpreted and implemented religious teachings. Today,more and more women are generating new readings oftheir scriptures, rooted in reflections on lived experience,informed by a human rights framework, and by legal andconstitutional parameters. Working from within religiousframeworks, women are promoting peace and counteringfundamentalist interpretations of religion. Others arechallenging women’s human rights abuses, such as childmarriage and female genital mutilation, carried out inthe name of religion. Their efforts are giving rise to newinsights about the relationship between sacred text andhuman interpretation, and between religious law andhuman rights. As the pioneering work of movements suchas Musawah demonstrates, human rights and religionneed not be at odds with one another. A new jurisprudenceis necessary and possible.Coalition building: Faith actors, feminists and socialjustice movements are forging new partnerships at alllevels. Efforts are being made to overcome the barriers,misunderstandings, and mutual suspicion between faithand secular actors in order to tap into the rich possibilitiesfor collaboration. The Faith and Feminism Working Groupto the UN, formed with the support of UN Women andUNFPA, has begun a dialogue to forge new avenues for thisdiscussion at the global level. Similarly, the InternationalPartnership on Religion and Sustainable Development,launched in Berlin in February 2016, aims to strengthen andinstitutionalize cooperation among governments, NGOs,academia and religious actors working on development,peace, and humanitarian assistance. A key task foremerging coalitions is to bridge the international agendaand decision-making with the lived reality of millionsof women and girls. Coalitions must also seek to moresystematically engage men and boys, not only as agents ofgender equality but as its co-beneficiaries.Advocacy strategies: There is wide recognition thatcivil society will drive the change needed to shift attitudes,policy, and practice in the direction of gender equality.Efforts to influence intergovernmental processes andtargeted advocacy will need to address local, nationaland international-level normative discourse as well asimplementation measures. Faith actors will need tointerrogate existing power structures and address barriersto gender equality, including poverty, unpaid care work,unequal pay, and social marginalization.“All of our work has a long way to go. How, then, do weallow the giftedness of both perspectives to come tothe table—aware of the history and the scope of thework on both sides?”- Harriet Olson, General Secretary,United Methodist WomenThe Faith and Feminism Working Group to the UN, forexample, is targeting the identification of structural barriersto gender equality. By bringing together feminist andfaith actors, it seeks to expand the space for constructivedialogue and to foster more effective analysis, strategy,and advocacy for the implementation of Agenda 2030. Asthe Executive Director of UN Women noted, “If we have apolicy and an intervention that works for women—it willwork for everybody.”
The Sustainable Development Goals constitute a bold,visionary, and universal agenda for an interconnectedglobal community. Gender equality is an overarching andfoundational element of all of the Goals, and one that willrequire unprecedented social transformation to be fullyrealized. The religions of the world, embodying a rich heritageof values, teachings, and symbols, represent one of themost powerful cultural and motivational resources for theachievement of this transformation. As such, the articulationof the ideal of gender equality from within the frameworksof the world’s diverse religious and faith traditions willbe central to the universal achievement of the SDGs. It isimperative, then, to deepen and broaden the engagementwith faith movements, organizations, and initiatives thatare challenging patriarchal norms and advancing narrativesof gender equality—rooted in the ideals of faith and humanrights.“We need to democratize the process of producingreligious knowledge today. It’s not enough forlawmakers to say ‘This is divine law,’ and then closethe discussion.” -Marwa Sharafeldin, Musawah BoardMember, Co-Founder – Network of Women’s RightsOrganizations in Egyptcreating opportunities for global, regional, and nationalsecular-faith collaboration.Recommendation 4: Strengthen the capacity offeminist faith actors to translate their insights andexperience into policy recommendations that respondto political contexts and realities. Support the uniquecontributions of faith-based youth advocates forgender equality, noting their particular strengths inintergenerational and multi-sectoral coalition building, aswell as their innovative and effective use of social media.Recommendation 5: Build the capacity of feministfaith actors to influence key UN processes such as theHuman Rights Council, CEDAW, the High Level PoliticalForum, and the Universal Periodic Review. Supportfeminist faith actors to build stronger progressiverelationships with Member States and to collaborate withcivil society constituencies in the UN spaces and beyond.Recommendation 6: Convene an official side eventduring annual sessions of the UN Commission on theStatus of Women to share and reflect on efforts andaccomplishments of faith-based actors in the genderresponsive implementation of Agenda 2030.Photos Photo Copyright. Copyright UN Women.Recommendations for ActionRecommendation 1: Identify, document, anddisseminate the work of feminist faith organizations,institutions, and actors who are successfully challengingpatriarchal norms and ideologies, and are generatingnew interpretations of religious beliefs that support theequality of women and men.Recommendation 2: Support knowledge creationand cross-fertilization by bringing together feministfaith actors with secular women’s and social justiceorganizations to share insights from their experience ofchallenging patriarchal norms within cultures and legalframeworks.Recommendation 3: Support the integration ofefforts on critical aspects of the gender equality agendaby facilitating dialogue and collaboration betweenfeminist faith actors and diverse constituencies, and byRecommendation 7: Create a female religiousleadership platform, representative of diverse faithtraditions and geographic regions, and one thatdemonstrates a commitment to the promotion of genderequality. Support the efforts of feminist faith leaders andactivists to engage effectively with traditional and on-linemedia.
Photos Photo Copyright. Copyright UN Women.Spotlight on practiceBOX 1Faith and Feminism Working Group to theUnited NationsPhotos Photo Copyright. Copyright UN Women.The Faith and Feminism Working Group to the UNbrings together feminist and faith-based civil societyorganizations in order to foster a new discourse—informed by faith and secular perspectives—aboutthe means for the transformation of structuresand attitudes that sustain gender inequality. Thegroup grew out of a series of discussions about theintersection between religion and gender equality,which began in 2014 as a joint effort of UNFPA, UNWomen, World YWCA and the Bahá’í InternationalCommunity. The group, formed in 2015 with thesupport of UN Women and UNFPA, seeks to expandthe space for constructive and collaborative discourseamong faith-based, feminist, secular, academic andsocial justice organizations on how to advance thegender equality goals of Agenda 2030. Members ofthe Working Group represent national, regional, aswell as religious and cultural diversity. They supportrelevant international human rights institutionsand agreements and have a track record of work inthe area of gender equality. At CSW 60, the WorkingGroup organized parallel events addressing thefaith-feminism divide, faith and feminist advocacyat the UN, women in social media, and reflectionon bringing faith and feminist advocacy at CSW60. For further information, please see the WorkingGroup’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/faithfemworkgroup and Twitter hashtag #Faith
social justice movement to achieve gender equality. Religion and Gender Equality— The State of Play The relationship between religion and gender equality is a complex one. Religion plays a vital role in shaping cultural, social, economic, and political norms in many parts of the world. Similarly, gender roles and the status of women
public sector equality duty came into force on 5 April 2011. There are five England/GB guides giving advice on the duty: 1. The essential guide to the public sector equality duty 2. Equality objectives and the equality duty 3. Equality information and the equality duty 4. Meeting the equality duty in policy and decision-making 5.
accessible and diverse gender information. It is one of a family of knowledge services based at IDS . Other recent publications in the Cutting Edge Pack series: Gender and Care, 2009 Gender and Indicators, 2007 Gender and Sexuality, 2007 Gender and Trade, 2006 Gender and Migration, 2005 Gender and ICTs, 2004 . 6.3.1 Gender mainstreaming .
to the development of an institutional gender equality plan. The template guides partners through the main stages of a gender equality plan and provides a template for the creation of an action plan based on the SAGE wheel model. The gender equality plan template
8 2018 : Gender Equality and Womens Voice Guidance Note Our theory of change is based on CARE’s experience that achieving gender equality and women’s voice requires transformative change. CARE’s theory of change for gender equality and women’s voice work is outlined in the Gender Equality Framework (GEF) above and the graphic below. 7
GENDER EQUALITY GLOBAL REPORT & RANKING - 2022 EDITION 5 INTRODUCTION I am proud to publish our 2022 Gender Equality Global Report and Ranking. As the first organisation anywhere to formally measure gender equality in the global workplace, our fifth year is a good moment to reflect on progress but also to call out how much further there is to go.
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CARE International in Mali is pleased to share research conducted on men, gender equality and gender relations in Mali. This report provides a summary of key findings using the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES). !! For the past 38 years, CARE has been contributing to national
American Revolution American colonies broke away from Great Britain Followed the ideas of John Locke –they believed Britain wasn’t protecting the citizen’s rights 1st time in modern history ended a monarchy’s control and created a republic Became a model for others French Revolution Peasants tired of King Louis XVI taxing them and not the rich nobles Revolted and .
