GENDER EQUALITY
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Women and girls account for 70% of people currently living in extreme poverty. (IPPF)
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Women spend at least twice as much time as men on domestic work, and when all work – paid and unpaid – is considered, women work longer hours than men. (Source: The World’s Women 2010: Trends and Statistics)
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Violence against women and girls is a global issue with 1 in 3 women across the world experiencing violence. (Source: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 2013)
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Globally, women make up just 22% of parliamentarians. (Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union 2014)
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Worldwide, 70% of the 900 million illiterate adults are women.
In reality, also men benefit from gender equality as they too face gender-specific issues such as lower life expectancy, bad health, lower education levels and rigid gender norms. It is essential that both women and men are aware of the benefits that gender equality brings to them as individuals and as members of communities and societies. It is also true that we can only succeed through the participation of both women and men.
Therefore it is important to engage more men in standing for gender equality for this is the way to bring about change. To do that it is also necessary to make men understand how gender equality is relevant for them.
