My Voice, Our Equal Future
In 2021 we commemorate the Generation Equality Forum (GEF), launching 5-year commitments from civil society leaders, governments, corporations and change makers from around the world for bold gender equality impacts. At the same time, we are in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has accelerated digital platforms for learning, earning and connecting, while also highlighting girls’ diverse digital realities.
The gender digital divide in connectivity, devices and use, skills and jobs is real. It is an inequity and exclusion gap across geographies and generations that is our challenge to address if the digital revolution is to be for all, with all, by all. Let’s seize the momentum to drive action and accountability of GEF commitments made, for and with girls to achieve a bold vision of bridging the digital gender divide.
Digital generation. Our generation.
Girls know their digital realities and the solutions they need to excel on their diverse pathways as technologists for freedom of expression, joy, and boundless potential. Let’s amplify the diversity of these tech trailblazers while simultaneously widening the pathways so that every girl, this generation of girls – regardless of race, gender, language, ability, economic status and geographic origin – lives their full potential.
Ways to get involved
- Share stories / blogs / videos of inspiring adolescent girls who are tech trailblazers while collectively amplifying our call to action to expand these pathways for every girl, everywhere.
- Amplify your GEF and other commitments to address the gender digital divide experienced by today’s generation of girls, illustrating that we must take a strong generational gender lens to the digital divide if we are to achieve meaningful and sustainable change for a digital revolution by, with and for all.
Investing in the pathways to employment: For adolescent girls and young women in low and middle-income countries
Nearly 1 in 4 girls aged 15–19 globally are not in education, employment or training, compared to 1 in 10 boys. The analysis presented in this report lays out six core investment themes and examples of investable opportunities and calls on commercial organizations and investors, with an eye on social and economic impact, to adopt bold investment approaches across these themes.
Background
In 1995 at the World Conference on Women in Beijing countries unanimously adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – the most progressive blueprint ever for advancing the rights of not only women but girls. The Beijing Declaration is the first to specifically call out girls’ rights.
On December 19, 2011, United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.
The International Day of the Girl Child focuses attention on the need to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfilment of their human rights.
Adolescent girls have the right to a safe, educated, and healthy life, not only during these critical formative years, but also as they mature into women. If effectively supported during the adolescent years, girls have the potential to change the world – both as the empowered girls of today and as tomorrow’s workers, mothers, entrepreneurs, mentors, household heads, and political leaders. An investment in realising the power of adolescent girls upholds their rights today and promises a more equitable and prosperous future, one in which half of humanity is an equal partner in solving the problems of climate change, political conflict, economic growth, disease prevention, and global sustainability.
Girls are breaking boundaries and barriers posed by stereotypes and exclusion, including those directed at children with disabilities and those living in marginalized communities. As entrepreneurs, innovators and initiators of global movements, girls are creating a world that is relevant for them and future generations.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by world leaders in 2015, embody a roadmap for progress that is sustainable and leaves no one behind.
Achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment is integral to each of the 17 goals. Only by ensuring the rights of women and girls across all the goals will we get to justice and inclusion, economies that work for all, and sustaining our shared environment now and for future generations.
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Empowering women and girls and promoting gender equality is crucial to accelerating sustainable development. Ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls is not only a basic human right, but it also has a multiplier effect across all other development areas.
Did you know?
- The global internet user gender gap is growing, from 11 per cent in 2013 to 17 per cent in 2019, and widest in the world’s least developed countries at 43 per cent.
- 2.2 billion people below the age of 25 do not have internet access at home, with girls more likely to be cut off.
- Globally, the percentage of females among Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates is below 15 per cent in over two-thirds of countries.
- And in middle and higher-income countries, only 14 per cent of girls who were top performers in science or mathematics expected to work in science and engineering compared to 26 per cent of top-performing boys.
A New Era For Girls
Today’s more than 1.1 billion girls are poised to take on the future. Every day, girls are breaking boundaries and barriers, tackling issues like child marriage, education inequality, violence, climate justice, and inequitable access to healthcare. Girls are proving they are unstoppable. Learn more.
Resources
Key Documents
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
- Convention on The Rights of Child
- Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
- Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action: Beijing+5 Political Declaration and Outcome
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Publications
- From insights to action: Gender equality in the wake of COVID-19
- #MeToo: Headlines from a global movement
- Empowering Girls and Women to Lead Change Annual Report 2019
- Funding for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in humanitarian programming
- Marrying too Young: End Child Marriage
- A framework to underpin action to prevent violence against women
- A Statistical Snapshot of Violence against Adolescent Girls
Useful Links
- UNICEF: International Day of the Girl Child
- UN Women: International Day of the Girl Child
- UNESCO: International Day of the Girl Child
- UN Secretary-General's Campaign UNiTE to End Violence Against Women
- The Spotlight Initiative
- HeForShe
- World Bank: Girls' Education
- UN Women Special Focus compilation on the Girl Child
- United Nations Girls' Education Initiative
- International Labour Organization: Gender and child labour in agriculture
- UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage
Related Observances
- International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation
- International Day of Women and Girls in Science
- International Women's Day
- International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression
- World Day Against Child Labour
- International Youth Day
- International Literacy Day
- World Children’s Day
- UN Decade for Women