Rights and Realities: a briefing on women and the economy

Our new position paper on women’s economic rights, Rights and Realities: a briefing on women and the economy, sets out our understanding of women’s economic rights as we seek to work in partnership with women’s rights organisations and movements to support the full realisation of women’s rights.

Women’s rights to an adequate standard of living, to health and housing are often not met even when they work for pay. Indeed, women’s cheap labour represents a growth strategy for many countries while their unpaid care work remains invisible in economic policies. Climate change exacerbates the challenges faced by the women who have done the least to cause it.

We are calling for structural changes to our economies to ensure women’s rights are realised for all through decent work, curbing tax dodging and tax evasion, investing in the social infrastructure, holding transnational corporations to account and making sure the transition towards a low carbon world is gender just. These changes are highly feasible and women’s rights organisation are leading the way in demanding, as well as practising, change.