GENDER EQUALITY IS CRUCIAL FOR SOUND GOVERNMENT

Empowering and encouraging women to participate more fully in the public sphere is essential. Gender diversity in public institutions is particularly crucial, given that these decision making bodies create the rules that affect people’s rights, behaviours and life choices.

An increase of women in public life results in lower levels of inequality and increased confidence in national governments. Figures show that the increased presence of women cabinet ministers is associated with a rise in public health spending across many countries.

Ensuring that governments reflect the diversity of the societies they represent guarantees a balanced perspective which enables an inclusive approach to policy making and service delivery.

WHAT ARE THE OBSTACLES?

There are major structural, legal and social barriers to women’s empowerment in public life.  Lack of visibility and uneven work-life balance arrangements make it especially hard for women to be active in economic and political life. Women also face a lack of political encouragement to run for public office.

HOW TO ADDRESS THESE CHALLENGES

A whole-of-government approach is crucial to advancing the role of women in government. Holistic policy making will not only help bring more women into public light, but will ensure that gender considerations are more systematically embedded in all policies.

To empower women and fully leverage their skills in the global economy, we need to

• improve our public institutions to ensure they have robust accountability mechanisms;
• create clearly defined roles for implementing a gender equality agenda; and
• break down our data by gender in order to measure progress on gender equality.

The OECD is contributing to the worldwide effort to advance gender equality by helping to feed and stir public policy debate and generate benchmarks for member countries. We are strengthening our ability to identify good practices, build databases and provide opportunities for policy dialogue on the global and regional levels.

STATISTICS
 

• Women in politics
• Employment rate
• All governance indicators

MORE INFORMATION

• Gender Equality in Public Life in the MENA Region
• More OECD work on Gender
  
• WikiGender

EVENTS

• Launch of Gender Equality in Canada: Mainstreaming, Governance & BudgetingWhistler, Canada 2 June 2018
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• Gender Equality in Public Life: An Exchange of Good Practices between Italy, Jordan and MoroccoRome, Italy 8-11 May 2018
• 
• Launch of the Gender ToolkitParis, France 8 March 2018
• Launch of the Gender Balance GuideUnited Arab Emirates, 19 September 2017
• Roundtable on Better Governance for Gender EqualityReykjavík, Iceland 17-18 May 2017
• Towards Gender Equality before the LawParis, France 10 March 2017
• International Women's Day: Economic EmpowermentBrussels, Belgium 8 March 2017
• Dubai World Government SummitDubai, UAE, 12-14 February 2017
• Women in Parliaments Global ForumAmman, Jordan, 4-6 May 2016
• Conference: Improving Women's Access to LeadershipParis, France 8 March 2016
• Women in Public Life in the MENA regionMadrid, Spain 5 March 2015

OECD RECOMMENDATION 

• Report on the Implementation of the OECD Gender Recommendations08 June 2017
• • Recommendation on Gender Equality in Public Life14 December 2015

PUBLICATIONS

• La place des femmes dans la vie politique locale en Tunisie
• La participation des femmes à la prise de décision dans l’administration publique en Tunisie
• Women’s Political Participation in Egypt
• Women’s Political Participation in Jordan
• OECD Gender Policy Delivery Review Kazakhstan

• Building an Inclusive Mexico: Policies and Good Governance for Gender Equality
• CONTENT FOR DELETION
• Women in Public Life: Gender, Law and Public Policy in the MENA Region