Gender equality

Gender equality
Chapter
E

Region countries have Instruments on Gender equality

Policies and instruments

Autonomy for women (economic, physical and in decision-making) constitutes an essential prerequisite not only for guaranteeing the full exercise of their rights but also for achieving sustainable development. While the region has made progress in implementing the Plan of Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995), such progress has for the most part been mixed and uneven, and there remain important challenges that call for ongoing investments and government policies with respect to gender discrimination in the labour market, the sexual division of labour, violence against women, their social protection, and their sexual and reproductive health, among other matters.

This is the chapter of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development that contains the greatest number of priority measures (19), reflecting in part the great preoccupation with the issue and the intense discussion it attracts in specialized forums at the global and regional levels, such as the meetings held in follow-up to the World Conference on Women and the sessions of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Priority Measures

  • Institutional mechanisms for women's autonomy and gender equality

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    Fulfil the commitment to strengthen institutional machineries in order to build development policies with equality that will guarantee the autonomy of women and gender equality, and give these machineries the autonomy and the necessary human and financial resources to enable them to have a cross-cutting impact on the structure of the State, recognizing the strategic role that they play and establishing them at the highest level.

  • Public policies with a gender perspective

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    Fulfil the commitment to promote and ensure gender mainstreaming and its intersection with perspectives on race, ethnicity, age, social class and disability status in all public policies, especially in economic and cultural policies, and coordination between branches of government and social stakeholders, including organizations of young, Afro-descendent or indigenous women, to ensure gender equality.

  • Policies and care services

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    Develop and strengthen policies and universal care services based on the highest human rights standards, from a gender equality and intergenerational perspective, in order to share the delivery of services between the State, the private sector, civil society, families and households and between men and women and facilitate dialogue and coordination between all the parties involved.

  • Labor equality

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    Promote legislation and design and strengthen public policies on equality in the labour market in order to eliminate gender discrimination and asymmetries in relation to access to decent employment, job security, wages and decision-making on labour issues, as well as to recognize the productive value of unpaid domestic work and care work.

  • Protection against harassment and sexual harassment

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    Establish mechanisms for preventing sexual and other forms of harassment and violence against women and men, especially in the workplace and educational settings, as well as for filing relevant complaints and punishing such practices.

  • Eradication of all forms of violence

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    Enforce existing policies and adopt, on the one hand, preventative and punitive measures, and on the other measures for protecting and caring for women in order to eradicate all forms of violence, including forced sterilization and stigma against women in public and private spheres and especially the gender-motivated violent murder of girls and women, and ensure effective and universal access to fundamental services for all victims and survivors of gender-based violence, with special attention to women in high-risk situations, such as older women, pregnant women, women with disabilities, culturally diverse groups, sex workers, women living with HIV/AIDS, lesbian, bisexual and transgender women, Afro-descendent, indigenous and migrant women, women living in border areas, asylum-seekers and victims of trafficking.

  • Justice with a gender perspective

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    Reaffirm the commitment and political will of Latin America and the Caribbean, at the highest level, to combat and eliminate all forms of discrimination and violence against women, including domestic violence and femicide/feminicide, and actively promote awareness-raising regarding gender mainstreaming among law enforcement personnel.

  • New masculinity

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    Broaden the access available to men, including boys, adolescents and young men, to sexual and reproductive health-related information, counselling and services and promote the equal participation of men in care work through programmes for raising men’s awareness of gender equality, and foster the development of new masculinities.

  • Domestic work

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    Ensure the sharing of responsibility between the State, the private sector, the community, families, women and men for unpaid domestic and care work, incorporating care into social protection systems through allowances, services and benefits that maximize women’s autonomy and guarantee their rights, dignity, well-being and enjoyment of free time.

  • Gender statistics

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    Strengthen the capacity of countries to prepare and disseminate the gender statistics needed for the formulation of public policies on gender equality and the empowerment of women.

  • Unpaid work in systems of national accounts

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    Consider measuring the care economy using specialized accounts and the creation of satellite accounts on unpaid work, and the incorporation of such accounts in the system of national accounts.

  • Specialized care in cases of violence

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    Implement, with the support of available technologies, multisectoral, comprehensive, integrated, coordinated, interdisciplinary and accessible services, programmes and actions targeting women that are sustainable at all levels, include specialized and confidential care in cases of violence, have sufficient resources available and that bring together sectors such as the police, the judiciary, medical and psychological services and evaluation, including sexual and reproductive health services, as well as opportunities for training and generating earnings, with a view to promoting women’s autonomy in all its forms.

Instruments

SDG

Indicators

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