Education for Empowerment and Leadership
Some Key Resources
Access to affordable quality education for all women and girls
IFUW believes that access to affordable quality education for all women and girls is the key to making women independent, with an equal role in leadership and decision-making both in public and in private life.
- Report of the UN Secretary-General on access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work (2011)
The report, prepared for the 55th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), highlights the importance of science, technology and innovation in relation to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. It particularly draws attention to the challenges faced by women regarding their (1) participation in science and technology education; (2) participation in science and technology employment and production; and (3) access to gender responsive science and technology.
Report in English (pdf) Other languages
- 55th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), 2011 - Agreed Conclusions
The 55th CSW Session had as its priority theme "Access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work". The Agreed Conclusions provide an analysis and a set of concrete recommendations for Governments, intergovernmental bodies and other institutions, civil society actors and other relevant stakeholders, to be implemented at the international, national, regional and local level.
Agreed conclusions in English (pdf) Other languages
- Beijing Platform for Action (1995)
The Platform for Action, adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women, sets an agenda for women's empowerment. It aims at removing all the obstacles to women's active participation in all spheres of public and private life through a full and equal share in economic, social, cultural and political decision-making.
Platform for Action
- IFUW Education Advocacy Handbook - The Multi-faceted Right to Education: A Guide to Implementation & Monitoring
The handbook has been written to highlight the importance of the right to education and give practical advice in the day-to-day work of education management professionals, interested members of the public, and the various public organizations. It gives concrete examples based on current views and practices on rights-based approaches in the education of girl children.
Education Advocacy Handbook
- World Education: Girls' and Women's Education Initiative
The Girls' & Women's Education Initiative seeds new initiatives and supports the expansion of proven programmes including: Helping Girls Stay in School; Integrated Health and Literacy; Using Education to Combat Human Trafficking, Exploitation, and Child Labor; Reducing Girls' and Women's Vulnerability to HIV; and Helping Women Go To College.
Girls' and Women's Education Initiative
Education and advocacy for women’s human rights and gender equality
Gender equality can be defined in terms of human rights, especially women’s rights, and economic development. Gender inequality and discrimination deny women their rights to information and rob them of decision-making power and leadership roles.
- Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC): Ministerial Declaration on Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to gender equality and empowerment of women (2010)
The 2010 ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Review held from 30 June – 2 July in New York discussed progress made towards the implementation of the UN development agenda with a special focus on the goals and targets related to gender equality and empowerment of women. The Outcome Document reaffirmed the commitment to gender equality and highlighted specific areas where action is still needed.
Ministerial Declaration (pdf)
- UN World Survey on the Role of Women in Development
The World Survey on the Role of Women provides, at five-yearly intervals, an in-depth analysis of development issues. The theme for the 2009 survey was “Women’s control over economic resources and access to financial resources, including microfinance”.
UN World Survey
- UN Women: Progress of the Worlds’ Women 2008/2009 - "Who Answers to Women? Gender & Accountability"
Launched in June 2000 by UNIFEM, Progress of the World’s Women is UN Women’s biennial investigation of progress made towards a world where women live free from violence, poverty and inequality. Progress of the World’s Women 2008/2009 - "Who Answers to Women? Gender & Accountability" provides examples of how women are demanding accountability for action on commitments to promote gender equality and women’s rights from national governments, justice and law enforcement systems, employers and service providers, as well as international institutions.
Progress of the Worlds' Women
- UNIFEM (now part of UN Women) and UN Global Compact: Women’s Empowerment Principles - "Equality Means Business" (2010)
The Women’s Empowerment Principles provide a set of considerations to help the private sector focus on key elements integral to promoting gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and community. Enhancing openness and inclusion throughout corporate policies and operations requires techniques, tools and practices that bring results.
Women's Empowerment Principles
- UN Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE)
Womenwatch is the central gateway to information and resources on the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women throughout the United Nations system, including UN Women the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, the United Nations Secretariat, regional commissions, funds, programmes, specialized agencies, and academic and research institutions. The directory of UN Resources on Gender and Women's Issues provides information on:
Education and Training of Women Human Rights of Women
- World Economic Forum: The Global Gender Gap Report 2010
The Global Gender Gap Report, produced annually, provides a framework for capturing the magnitude of gender disparities around the world and aims to serve as a tool for benchmarking and tracking gender inequalities. The Global Gender Gap Report’s index assesses 134 countries on how well they divide resources and opportunities amongst male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources. The report measures the size of the gender inequality gap in four areas: 1) Economic participation and opportunity – outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment; 2) Educational attainment – outcomes on access to basic and higher level education; 3) Health and survival – outcomes on life expectancy and sex ratio; and 4) Political empowerment – outcomes on representation in decision-making structures
The Global Gender Gap Report 2010
- Women's Empowerment Principles
TThe Women's Empowerment Principles are a set of Principles for business offering guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. They are the result of a collaboration between the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), now part of UN Women, and the United Nations Global Compact. The Principles emphasize the business case for corporate action to promote gender equality and women's empowerment and are informed y real-life business practices and input gathered from acoss the globe. As well as being a useful guide for business, it is hoped that the Principles will inform other stakeholders, including governments in their engagement with business.
Women's Empowerment Booklet
Women and Leadership
Women remain under-represented in most areas of decision-making in politics, management, and other areas of leadership yet they are usually the leaders and the initiators of change in their communities.
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is the international human rights treaty that defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination. The Convention consists of a preamble and 30 articles.
Articles 7 and 8 address participation of women in the political and public life, and representation of women in Governments and international organizations.
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
- UN Women: Women's Democratic Governance
One of the pillars of UN Women’s work is advancing women’s political participation and good governance, to ensure that decision-making processes are participatory, responsive, equitable and inclusive. Efforts are focused through strategic entry points that can advance the status of women by catalysing wide-ranging, long-term impacts.
Facts and figures Materials
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): Advocacy for Women's Political Empowerment
UNDP strives to ensure that women have a real voice in all governance institutions so that women can participate equally with men in public dialogue and decision-making.
Section on Women's Empowerment
- The University Women of Europe (UWE): European Mentoring Programme
The University Women of Europe (UWE) run a European Mentoring Programme for University Women. The project included workshops on the subjects: "Role and Intention of a Mentor", "Organizational View of Mentorship", "Evaluation and Mentees", "How to Support Women via Non-profit Organization", and "Items for Best Cases". As a result of the project the partner organization have prepared a handbook on mentoring, which is based on the participating organizations' experiences during the project. The handbook is intended as a supporting tool for other associations within University Women of Europe that are considering starting or will start mentoring activities.
UWE's European Mentoring Programme
- Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership
The Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership is a website that provides information on women leaders throughout history (State leaders, ministers and heads of government, local leaders,…).
Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership Website
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