Gender equality

Oxfam is concerned about gender inequality because the majority of the world’s poor are women: around 70 per cent of the 1.3 billion people who live in extreme poverty, on less than one dollar a day, are women and girls. Gender discrimination, or the denial of women’s basic human rights, is also a major cause of poverty. Men and women experience many aspects of poverty differently and ignoring these differences risks further entrenching poverty and the subordination of women.

Unequal power relations between women and men manifest themselves in many different ways:

Women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, and produce half of the world’s food, yet earn only ten per cent of the world’s income, and own less than one per cent of the world’s property. (UN)
Two-thirds of children denied primary education are girls, and 75 per cent of the world’s 876 million illiterate adults are women. Every extra year a girl spends at school could reduce child mortality by ten per cent. (UN, World’s Women)
More than half a million women die in pregnancy and childbirth every year: of these deaths, 99 per cent are in developing countries. In parts of Africa, maternal mortality rates are 1 in 16. (UN, World’s Women)
Women hold only 14 per cent of parliamentary seats worldwide, and only eight per cent of the world’s cabinet ministers are women. Only eleven countries have met the UN target of 30 per cent female decision-makers. (UNIFEM, Progress of the World’s Women)
Domestic violence is the biggest cause of injury and death to women worldwide. Gender-based violence causes more deaths and disability among women aged 15 to 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war. (World Bank Discussion Paper)

This is why gender mainstreaming, or considering gender issues in every aspect of our work, is one of Oxfam’s corporate priorities. This means ensuring that both women and men are consulted, and their different needs considered in the design and implementation of programmes, to be sure that they benefit equally. Programmes should also ensure that they promote a fairer balance of power between women and men, at household, local, national and global levels. Women should be included in decision-making processes, and civil society organisations should be supported to challenge national policies which make life harder for women and inhibit change.

In some cases Oxfam works with women’s groups, to develop specific actions to help redress women’s historic disadvantage. However, overcoming gender inequality and violence against women means confronting sociological and cultural barriers, and this cannot be done by working solely with women. Programme experience has shown that working with men and women together can have a more lasting impact on beliefs and behaviour, than working with women’s groups alone.

At times men may feel threatened, but promoting gender equality shouldn’t be seen as privileging women and disempowering men. Gender inequality and rigid gender stereotypes can often prevent a household or community from freeing itself from poverty. Ensuring equality and justice, and unlocking women’s potential, is to the benefit of everyone.