Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

The world is not on track to achieve gender equality by 2030. At the global level, none of the 18 indicators “met or almost met” the targets and only one is “close to target”. At the current rate of progress, it is estimated that it will take up to 286 years to close gaps in legal protection and remove discriminatory laws, 140 years for women to be represented equally in positions of power and leadership in the workplace, and 47 years to achieve equal representation in national parliaments. Cascading global crises have highlighted and exacerbated existing gender inequalities, such as unequal access to healthcare, education, and economic opportunities. Political leadership and a comprehensive set of policy reforms are needed to dismantle systemic barriers to the achievement of SDG4.

Those targets include:

• end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere;
• eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation;
• eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation;
• recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate;
• ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life;
• ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights;
• undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws;
• enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women;
• adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels.

Source: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal5