08 Mar Our Pledge For Parity this International Women’s Day
With young women at the heart of the EQWIP HUBs sustainable livelihoods model, we are excited to announce our #PledgeForParity this International Women’s Day!
Although great advancements have been made to realize equal opportunities, treatment and compensation for women - there is a still a long way to go. At the current rate, the world is not expected to experience gender parity until 2133!(1) We can’t wait that long.
Our pledge means that EQWIP HUBs stands behind helping young women use their assets to realize their ambitions and encourage equal economic participation. More than that, our pledge means that we aim to encourage greater gender-balance in economic leadership, and challenging conscious and unconscious biases towards women.
It’s imperative for young women and men to have the ability to achieve a sustainable livelihood, and EQWIP HUBs has set a target to help propel 100,000 #YouthForward by 2020. We hope that a large proportion of those youth will be women.
Why are young women a priority for EQWIP HUBs?
The Gender Gap. Statistics sourced from UN Women
The numbers say it all.(2)
- Globally, only half of the world’s women participate in the labour force compared to more than 75% of men. This gap is much larger for youth.
- The female labour force tends to earn 24% less than men.
- 75% of women who participate in the economy do so in the informal sector, which lacks social security and reliability.
- Women spend 2.5 times as much time as men on unpaid domestic work.
These numbers present a great opportunity for improvement, and as young women are key to supporting their families and communities, it’s only fair that they have an equal chance to access a sustainable livelihood.
Become part of the #PledgeForParity and explore our 2016-2017 Gender Advisor volunteer opportunities starting this May!
Stay tuned for Acting On the EQWIP HUBs #PledgeForParity, coming Tuesday March 15th.