Besides being a fundamental human right, gender equality is a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. Although progress has been made over the past decades, the world has fallen off track to achieve gender equality by 2030.

Women and girls represent half of the world's population, and therefore half of its potential. But gender inequality persists everywhere and stagnates social progress.
On average, women in the labor market are still paid 23 percent less than men globally, and spend about three times as many hours as men in unpaid care and domestic work.

Sexual violence and exploitation, the unequal division of unpaid household and care work, and discrimination in public office continue to pose serious barriers. All of these areas of inequality have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic: reports of sexual violence have increased, women have taken on more care work due to school closures, and 70% of health and social services workers globally are women.

At the current rate, it will take an estimated 300 years to end child marriage, 286 years to close gaps in legal protections and remove discriminatory laws, 140 years to represent women equally in positions of power and leadership in the workplace, and 47 years to achieve equal representation in national parliaments.

Removing systemic barriers to achieving Goal 5 requires political leadership, investment, and policy reforms