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Families in a Changing World: Progress of the World’s Women 2019-2020
By Raffaella Turner (raffiturner@gmail.com), Graduate Student, Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom
This report provides an extensive and detailed guide for the factors that need to be addressed in order to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment, in regards to the changing landscape of family norms. Policies and laws must be adopted to support these diversities, in particular to hold national governments and international agencies accountable to their obligations in making Human Rights a reality for all.
Despite significant advances in women’s rights and opportunities, reflected by lower birth rates and some degree of economic autonomy, this report recognises the unequal burden women continue to carry, particularly in regards to unpaid household work and caregiving responsibilities. The report focuses on the vital need for women to have personal income and for societies to support families in the face of change, as well as exploring issues around domestic violence.
Looking ahead, UN Women uses this report to outline specific issues that must be targeted in order to create a family friendly policy agenda. These address subjects from family laws which recognise diversity and equality, to those which uphold women’s rights in marriage, divorce and custody (aimingto preventing violence against women in families), to the provision of quality public services which support gender equality such as reproductive healthcare, together with basic services that decrease the burden of household work. The success of these aims will be dictated by political will and resource provision, and supported by investment into gender-sensitive data on families and households which allows appropriate policy design.
The report is available at:http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/library/publications/2019/progress-of-the-worlds-women-2019-2020-en.pdf?la=en&vs=3512
