EXCERPTS from Executive Summary
We, the Gender Equality Advisory Council, know that everyone benefits when girls and women are safe, healthy, educated, heard, and empowered to make decisions about their own lives. But gender inequality persists in every society, and progress for girls and women remains too slow, uneven, and subject to reversal. Today, G7 leaders have a unique opportunity to respond to the growing movements of girls and women raising their voices around the world with concrete commitments, new investments and measurable targets to advance gender equality. We call on G7 leaders to adopt and implement the recommendations in our full report, including those set out in the following pages.
Thirteen years ago, responding to massive mobilization and activism, the leaders of the largest advanced economies delivered a bold promise to “Make Poverty History”. Since then, thanks to leadership and investment, life for the world’s poorest people has improved by almost every measure. But violence, insecurity, poverty, and inequality still hold back billions of people and humanity as a whole, risking long-term instability and slowing global growth. At the core of each of these challenges are the undervalued – but powerful – lives of girls and women.
Yet around the world, girls and women are rising. They have come forward to denounce the discrimination, harassment and violence that they experience in their everyday lives. They are determined to claim their rights, show what a more gender equal world would look like, and how all of humanity would benefit. Alongside public and private sector actors, women are joined by growing movements of gender diverse communities, pushing for the same human rights afforded to all.
Never before have the campaigns and voices of girls and women been so visible, so loud, in so many parts of the globe. In communities around the world, grassroots movements like #metoo, #BalanceTonPorc, #MyDressMyChoice and #Cuéntalo signal a new wave of citizen-led activism, shining a spotlight on gender inequality and demanding accountability for all.