30 Years advancing gender equality: Achievements, setbacks, and the road ahead

In the days leading up to the commemoration on Monday 22 September, UN Women, the agency responsible for overseeing gender equality and women’s empowerment, and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) sounded the alarm: none of the gender equality targets are on track.

Their report, 2025 Gender Snapshot, warns that 10 per cent of women live in extreme poverty and that 351 million women and girls could still be trapped in it by 2030.

Some 708 million women are excluded from the labour market by unpaid care work. Even those who work are pushed into lower paid jobs. Women are excluded from land ownership, financial services, and decent jobs – they are denied the tools necessary to thrive.

And, according to the report, violence against women and girls persists: one in three women will experience physical or sexual violence during her lifetime. Furthermore, 676 million live within 50 kilometers of a conflict zone the highest figure since the 1990s.

In some countries, hard-won gains are being threatened by an unprecedented backlash against women’s rights and a shrinking civic space.

Nevertheless, it is important to be reminded of the breakthrough that the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, represented and why it is considered to be one of the most important turning points in the advancement of gender equality.

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