Gender equality

As the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting draws to a close in Davos, ActionAid reveals the shocking cost of gender inequality in work.

What are the barriers to women’s equal participation in the labour market? This has been the question on the agendas for global decision-makers this month as the G20 and the World Bank consider how to economically empower women. We at ActionAid are asking the same question, but we may have different answers.

Following the cabinet reshuffle in the UK this week and the promotion of 10 women the UK media has been awash with stories of the ‘male, pale, stale’ backlash of disgruntled ousted male ministers and (depressingly) the fashion sense of newly appointed women ministers.What was, as always, underreported was a meaningful analysis of the barriers to women’s political participation that prevent them from rising to political leadership positions.

Life inside Cambodia textiles factories has been in the spotlight since 40 garment workers were shot at a protest in January (five of them fatally). So what happens when the people who make our clothes, get dressed up in the items they produce – and demand their rights? ActionAid UK's Rachel Noble visited Cambodia's capital to find out.

The 58th meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW58) is still in session at the United Nations' Headquarters in New York.While negotiations on the outcome document will last at least until 21 March, the new - already third - draft of the agreed conclusions was released on 17 March.

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) convenes every March in the UN headquarters in New York and is a special date in every feminist and women’s rights calendar.