Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Thirty years since the adoption of the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, gender equality remains elusive. Legal barriers persist, restricting women’s employment opportunities and perpetuating child marriage and gender-based violence. The unequal burden of unpaid domestic and care work continues to limit the opportunities available to women, although there are significant regional variations. The political representation of women shows alarmingly slow growth, while decision-making autonomy over sexual and reproductive health remains limited in many regions. Gender gaps in land ownership, legal protections and access to mobile telephones further demonstrate the substantial work that is needed to achieve gender equality by 2030. The United Nations System-wide Gender Equality Acceleration Plan, launched by the Secretary-General, is a course-correcting push to fast-track collective United Nations action for gender equality and the rights of all women and girls.

Target 5.1 - In 61 of the 131 countries for which data are available, there was at least one restriction preventing women from doing the same jobs as men in 2024. Only 38 countries had made 18 the minimum age for marriage, with no exceptions, and only 63 countries had laws on rape that were based on a lack of consent. 

Target 5.3  - At the time of writing, one in five young women between the ages of 20 and 24 years were first married or in a union before the age of 18. Child marriage has become less common worldwide; this trend was largely driven by progress in Southern Asia. The level remains highest in sub-Saharan Africa, at 31 per cent. Around the world, over 230 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation. 

Target 5.4 - By 2023, women and girls were spending an average of 2.5 times more hours per day on domestic and care work than men. 

Target 5.5 - In 2024, the share of parliamentary seats held by women was 27.2 per cent, up from 22.3 per cent in 2015. In local governments, the participation rate was higher, at 35.5 per cent. Since 2015, the representation of women in management has increased by only 2.4 percentage points, reaching 30 per cent in 2023. Given this sluggish progress, it will take almost 100 years to reach gender parity in managerial roles. 

Target 5.6 - Only 56.3 per cent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 who are married or in a union have full decision-making power over their sexual and reproductive health and rights, according to data from 78 countries. The lowest level of autonomy was reported in sub-Saharan Africa, at 36.8 per cent, compared with 87.2 per cent in Europe. 

Target 5.a - In 80 per cent of countries for which data are available, less than half of women have ownership of, or secure rights to, agricultural land. In half of these countries, less than half of men hold such rights. In almost half of these countries, the rate o f landownership among men is at least double the rate among women. A global assessment of legal frameworks protecting women’s land rights across 84 countries reveals that 58 per cent of those countries have inadequate measures in family, inheritance and land laws and policies. 

Target 5.b - Globally, 77 per cent of women and 82 per cent of men owned a mobile telephone in 2024. Women were about 7 per cent less likely to own a mobile telephone than men – down from 9.4 per cent in 2021. Among those not owning mobile telephones, women outnumbered men by 31 per cent.

Progress towards gender equality is clearly off track. Harmful practices like child marriage and female genital mutilation are decreasing, but not fast enough to keep pace with population growth. Gender parity, especially in women's participation in public life and managerial roles, remains distant. At the current rate, achieving gender parity in managerial positions will take 176 years. Many women still lack control over their sexual and reproductive health, and violence against women persists. Urgent action is needed to challenge biased social norms, eliminate harmful practices, and change discriminatory laws. Increasing women's leadership roles and investments in gender equality are crucial at national, regional, and global levels.

Target 5.1: Based on data collected in 2022 in 120 countries, 55% of the countries lacked non-discrimination laws that prohibit direct and indirect discrimination against women and half of the countries continued to lack quotas for women in the national parliament.

Target 5.3: o Globally, around 640 million girls and women were married before age 18, with India accounting for one-third. While progress has reduced child marriage, still, one in five young women (19%) are married before 18, down 22% in 2013. Despite averting 68 million child marriages in this period, the pace isn't sufficient to eliminate the practice by 2030. 

o Over 230 million girls and women worldwide are estimated have undergone female genital mutilation as of 2024, an increase of 30 million compared to the last estimate in 2016.

Target 5.4: On an average day, women spend about 2.5 times as many hours in unpaid domestic and care work as men, according to the latest data between 2000 and 2022.

Target 5.5: Progress in women’s political participation remains slow. As of January 1, 2024, women held 26.9% of seats in national parliaments worldwide, marking a modest increase of 4.6 percentage points since 2015 (22.3%). In local governments, the participation was higher at 35.5% as of 1 January 2023. While global employment sees nearly 40% representation from women, they only held 27.5% of management positions in 2022, a notable decrease from 28.5% in 2021.

Target 5.a: In one in three of the 49 countries with data, less than 50% of women and men have ownership or secure rights over agricultural land. Furthermore, there is a notable disparity between women and men’s agricultural land ownership, with men owning land at least twice as often as women in almost half of the countries. Legal protections for women’s land rights are low or not existent in approximately 58% of the reporting countries.

Target 5.b: In 2023, 78% of the global population aged 10 and above owned a mobile phone. Women were approximately 8% less likely to own a mobile phone than men in 2023, a decrease from 10% in 2020.

Target 5.c: Data from 105 countries and areas for the period 2018–2021 show that 26% of countries globally have comprehensive systems to track and make public allocations for gender equality, 59% have some features of a system, and 15% do not have minimum elements of these systems.

The world is not on track to achieve gender equality by 2030. At the global level, none of the 18 indicators “met or almost met” the targets and only one is “close to target”. At the current rate of progress, it is estimated that it will take up to 286 years to close gaps in leg al protection and remove discriminatory laws, 140 years for women to be represented equally in positions of power and leadership in the workplace, and 47 years to achieve equal representation in national parliaments. Cascading global crises have highlighted and exacerbated existing gender inequalities, such as unequal access to healthcare, education, and economic opportunities. Political leadership and a comprehensive set of policy reforms are needed to dismantle systemic barriers to the achievement of SDG4.

Target 5.1: Based on data collected in 2022 in 119 countries, 55% of the countries lacked laws that prohibit direct and indirect discrimination against women; half of the countries continued to lack quotas for women in the national parliament; 60% of the countries failed to have laws defining rape based on the principle of consent; 45% of countries did not mandate equal remuneration for work of equal value; over a third of countries failed to provide maternity leave in accordance with ILO standards; almost a quarter of countries did not grant women equal rights with men to enter into marriage and initiate divorce; and close to three-quarters of countries failed to stipulate 18 years as the minimum age of marriage for women and men, with no exceptions.

Target 5.3: One in five young women worldwide (19%) were married in childhood in 2022. Globally, the prevalence of child marriage has declined from 21% in 2016. However, the profound effects of COVID-19 are threatening this progress, with up to 10 million additional girls at risk of child marriage over the course of a decade from the onset of the pandemic.

Target 5.5: As of 1 January 2023, women held 26.5% of seats in lower and single chambers of national parliaments, up from 22.3% in 2015. At the local level, women held 35.4% of seats in deliberative bodies, up from 33.9% in 2020. At this pace, parity in such bodies cannot be achieved by 2030. Also, gender parity in political institutions continues to be rare: only six countries had 50% or more women in their lower/single chambers of national parliaments and 3 in local legislatures. Globally, women held only 28.2% of management positions in 2021 (up just 1% since 2015), although they accounted for almost 40% of total employment.

Target 5.6: Based on data from 68 countries for 2007-2022, only 56% of married or in-union women aged 15 to 49 make their own decisions regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights, ranging from an average of 37% in sub-Saharan Africa to over 80% in some countries in Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. Among the 115 countries with data in 2022, countries have in place, on average, 76% of the laws and regulations needed to guarantee full and equal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Target 5.a: Available data from 46 countries for 2009-2020 show that many women and men involved in agricultural production lack ownership and/or secure tenure rights over agricultural land. In one third of the countries, less than 50% of women and men have ownership or secure rights over agricultural land. The share of men having ownership is at least twice that of women in almost half of the countries. Of the 68 countries that reported on women’s rights to land ownership and/or control in legal frameworks, by 2022, about 31% protect women’s land rights considerably (a score of at least 5 out of 6), while 47% poorly protect women’s land rights (a score of 3 out of 6 or below).

Target 5.b: Globally, 73% of the population aged 10 and over owned a mobile phone in 2022, up from 67% in 2019. Women were about 12% less likely to own mobile phones than men— the gap virtually unchanged from 2019.

Target 5.c: Based on data reported by 105 countries and areas for 2018-2021, 26% of countries globally have comprehensive systems in place to track and make public allocations for gender equality, 59% have some features of a system in place, and 15% do not have minimum elements of these systems.

The world is not on track to achieve gender equality by 2030 and has been pushed further off track by the socioeconomic fallout of the pandemic. Women and girls remain disproportionately affected, struggling with lost jobs and livelihoods, derailed education, increased burdens of unpaid care work and domestic violence. Over 100 million women aged 25-54 years with small children at home were out of the workforce globally in 2020, including the more than 2 million who left the labour force owing to the increased pressures of unpaid care work. Women's health services faced major disruptions and undermined women's sexual and reproductive health. Moreover, despite women's effective and inclusive leadership in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, they are excluded from decision-making positions. Furthermore, many countries do not have comprehensive systems for tracking budgets for gender equality, limiting the allocation of public resources for implementation of laws and policies. Efforts must be strengthened to ensure that laws, policies, budgets and institutions advance gender equality.

Discriminatory laws and legal gaps continue to prevent women from enjoying their human rights. Based on 2020 data from 95 countries and territories, more than half lacked quotas for women in the national parliament; while 83 per cent included budgetary commitments to implement legislation addressing violence against women, 63 per cent continued to lack laws defining rape based on the principle of consent. Although over 90 per cent mandate non-discrimination based on gender in employment, almost half continued to restrict women from working in certain jobs or industries and almost one quarter of countries did not grant women equal rights with men to enter marriage and initiate divorce.

Violence against women and girls is prevalent across countries and affects women of all ages. In 2018, globally, over 1 in 4 (26 per cent) ever-partnered women aged 15 years or over, or a total of 641 million women, have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence by a husband or intimate partner at least once in their lifetime. Data on violence experienced by older women, including on specific forms such as being restrained, being ostracized or neglected, are urgently needed but remain largely unavailable. Only less than 10 per cent of eligible data on intimate partner violence capture the prevalence of this form of violence against women aged 50 years or over.

One in five young women worldwide (19 per cent) were married in childhood in 2021. Child marriage is most common in sub-Saharan Africa, a region where progress has been modest, followed by South Asia, which has achieved greater declines. Globally, the prevalence of child marriage has declined by about 10 per cent in the past five years. However, the profound effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are threatening this progress, with up to 10 million additional girls at risk of child marriage in the next decade because of the pandemic.

The practice of female genital mutilation has proved remarkably tenacious, despite efforts spanning nearly a century to eliminate it. At least 200 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to female genital mutilation, based on the latest available data from 31 countries, where the practice is concentrated. Nevertheless, several countries have seen some declines in the practice compared with 30 years ago. 

On an average day, women spend about 2.5 times as many hours on unpaid domestic work and care work as men, according to the latest data from 90 countries and areas collected between 2001 and 2019. 

As at 1 January 2022, the global share of women in lower and single houses of national parliaments reached merely 26.2 per cent, up from 25.6 per cent in 2021. Women’s share is slight over one third in local governments (in 135 countries with data). Well-designed legislated gender quotas, zero tolerance for violence against women in politics and gender-sensitive and safer political environments are key to fast-tracking and sustaining women’s equal representation in decision-making. 

Working women have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. They accounted for 39.4 per cent of total employment before the pandemic in 2019 but made up nearly 45 per cent of global employment losses in 2020. The share of women in managerial positions worldwide has shown only a slight improvement over the last two decades, rising from 25.3 per cent in 2000 to 28.3 per cent in 2019, and remained unchanged in 2020.

Based on data from 64 countries for 2007-2020, only 57 per cent of married or in-union women aged 15-49 years make their own decisions regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights. While women seem to have the most autonomy in deciding whether to use contraception, with 92 per cent empowered, only 3 in 4 women can decide on their own health care or say no to sex.

Among the 115 countries with data in 2022, countries have in place, on average, 76 per cent of the laws and regulations needed to guarantee full and equal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights. The strongest enabling laws and regulations concern HIV and human papilloma virus (81 per cent), followed by contraceptive services (76 per cent), maternity care (74 per cent), and sexuality education (65 per cent).

Available data from 36 countries for 2009-2020 show that in 30 countries less than 50 per cent of women have ownership and/or secure tenure rights over agricultural land. In 18 countries, the corresponding share of men was twice as high. In addition, the share of men among landowners reaches over 70 per cent in nine countries and only in eight countries do women have a higher share than men among the landowners.

Data available from 52 countries for 2019-2021 reveal that about 46 per cent of legal frameworks offer limited protection of women’s land rights, while nearly 25 per cent offer medium levels of guarantees. Only 29 per cent of reporting countries include enough provisions in their legal frameworks offering good protection of women’s rights to land. The most prominent areas in which positive results have been achieved are succession rights (64 per cent of the countries) and protection of being disposed in land transactions (56 per cent requiring spousal consent). By contrast, joint land registration and protection of women’s land rights when customary law is legally recognized continue to be a concern in many countries.

Ownership of mobile phones has been shown to be an important tool for empowering women. In 30 of 70 countries with data for 2017-2021, gender parity in mobile phone ownership has been achieved and in 13 additional countries, the number of women who own a mobile phone is greater than the number of men.

Socio-economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic requires effective and gender-responsive public finance management systems. Based on data reported by 105 countries and areas for 2018-2021, 26 per cent of countries globally have comprehensive systems in place for tracking and making public allocations for gender equality, 59 per cent have some features of a system in place, and 15 per cent do not have the minimum elements of such systems.

Source: Progress Towards the Sustainable Development Goals- Report of the Secretary-General 

For more information, please, check: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2022/

The socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have adversely affected recent progress on gender equality: violence against women and girls has intensified, child marriage is expected to increase after declining in previous years, and increased care work at home is affecting women disproportionately. The pandemic has highlighted the need for swift action to address the gender inequality that remains pervasive globally and to get back on track for achieving gender equality. Women have played a critical role in the response to the pandemic as front-line health workers, caregivers, and managers and leaders of the response and recovery efforts. However, they remain underrepresented in critical leadership positions, and their rights and priorities are often not explicitly addressed in those efforts. The crisis presents an opportunity to reshape and rebuild systems, laws, policies and institutions in order to advance gender equality.

Discriminatory laws and legal gaps continue to prevent women from fully enjoying their human rights. According to data for 2020 from 95 countries and territories, more than half lacked quotas for women in the national parliament; 83 per cent included budgetary commitments to implement legislation addressing violence against women, although 63 per cent continued to lack rape laws based on the principle of consent; more than 90 per cent prohibited discrimination in employment on the basis of gender, yet almost half continued to restrict women from working in certain jobs or industries; and almost one quarter did not grant women equal rights to men for entering into marriage and initiating divorce proceedings.

New estimates based on surveys from the period 2000–2018 confirm that nearly 736 million women, or one in three, have been subjected to physical violence, sexual violence or both by a husband or intimate partner, or sexual violence by a non-partner, at least once in their lifetime from 15 years of age – a figure that has remained largely unchanged over the past decade. Intimate partner violence starts early, with nearly 24 per cent of adolescent girls 15 to 19 years of age and 26 per cent of young women 20 to 24 years of age who have ever had a partner or been married having experienced such violence already.

Over the past decade, the practice of child marriage has declined significantly, with the global proportion of young women who were married as children decreasing by 15 per cent, from nearly one in four in 2010 to one in five in 2020. As a result of this progress, the child marriages of some 25 million girls have been averted. However, the profound effects of the pandemic are threatening this progress, with up to 10 million additional girls at risk of child marriage in the next decade as a result of the pandemic.

According to data from 31 countries and territories in which the practice is concentrated, at least 200 million women and girls have been subjected to female genital mutilation. Despite some progress, there are still countries and territories in which at least 9 in 10 girls and women ranging from 15 to 49 years of age have been subjected to such mutilation, making the harmful practice almost universal.

The latest data collected on 90 countries and territories between 2001 and 2019 indicate that, on an average day, women spend about 2.5 times as many hours as men on unpaid domestic work and care work.

As at 1 January 2021, data from 135 countries and territories indicated that the global average proportion of women in the single or lower houses of parliaments had reached 25.6 per cent, continuing a slow upward trend that would require 40 years for gender parity to be achieved, while the proportion of women in local deliberative bodies was 36.3 per cent. There are 40 per cent or more women in the lower or single parliamentary houses of only 23 countries and territories and in the local governments of only 22 countries and territories, proportions achieved through the use of gender quotas in most of the countries and territories.

By 2019, women accounted for nearly 39 per cent of the global labour force, but held only 28.3 per cent of managerial positions, a rise of 3 percentage points since 2000. The disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women in the workforce, and female entrepreneurs in particular, threatens to roll back the little progress made in reducing the global gender gap in managerial positions.

Data for 2020 from 36 countries and territories on national legal framework guarantees for women’s equal rights to land ownership show that substantial improvement has been achieved in establishing equal inheritance rights (69 per cent) and establishing spousal consent requirements for land transactions (61 per cent), while progress is lagging in areas including land registration, customary law, and women’s representation in land governance.

Empowering more women with mobile telephones has been shown to accelerate social and economic development. However, in the 66 countries and territories with data for the period 2017–2019, average mobile telephone ownership was 8.5 percentage points lower for women than for men.

In 2018, 81 per cent of the 69 countries and territories for which there are data needed to improve their systems for tracking budget allocations for gender equality. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, strengthening these systems through the comprehensive use of gender-budgeting tools will contribute to the better targeting of resources for a gender-responsive recovery.

Source: Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals - E/2021/58

The commitment to advancing gender equality has brought about improvements in some areas, but the promise of a world in which every woman and girl enjoy full gender equality and all legal, social and economic barriers to their empowerment have been removed remains unfulfilled. The current pandemic is also hitting women and girls hard. Globally, women make up three quarters of medical doctors and nursing personnel. Women already spend three times as many hours as men on unpaid care work at home. The closure of school and day-care centres requires parents, women in particular, to care more for children and facilitate their learning at home. Reports from several countries suggest that domestic violence against women and children is also rising during the global lockdown.

In 2019, one in five young women 20 to 24 years of age throughout the world was married in childhood, down from one in four in 2004 and with the highest figure in sub-Saharan Africa, with more than one in three young women.

At least 200 million girls and women have been subjected to female genital mutilation, according to recent data from the 31 countries where the practice is concentrated. The harmful practice is becoming less common, but progress is not fast enough to meet the global target of its elimination by 2030.

As at 1 January 2020, representation by women in single or lower houses of national parliament reached 24.9 per cent, up slightly from 22.3 per cent in 2015. Women have better access to decision-making positions at the local level, holding 36 per cent of elected seats in local deliberative bodies, based on data from 133 countries and areas.

In 2019, 28 per cent of managerial positions in the world were occupied by women, a small increase from 25 per cent in 2000, while women represented 39 per cent of the world’s workers and half of the world’s working-age population.

Based on data from 57 countries for the period 2007–2018, only 55 per cent of married or in-union women 15 to 49 years of age made their own decisions regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights, ranging from less than 40 per cent in Central and Western Africa to nearly 80 per cent in some countries in Europe, South-Eastern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.

In 2019, in the 75 countries with data, on average, 73 per cent of the laws and regulations needed to guarantee full and equal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights were in place. The findings are particularly encouraging with regard to HIV: on average, countries achieved 87 per cent of enabling laws and regulations for HIV counselling and test services, 91 per cent for HIV treatment and care services and 96 per cent for HIV confidentiality.

Empowering women with mobile telephones has been shown to accelerate social and economic development. However, in the 66 countries with data for the 2016–2018 period, the rate of mobile telephone ownership among men was on average 6.8 percentage points higher than the rate among women.

Source: Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, Report of the Secretary-General, https://undocs.org/en/E/2020/57

While some indicators of gender equality are progressing, such as a significant decline in the prevalence of female genital mutilation and early marriage, the overall numbers continue to be high. Moreover, insufficient progress on structural issues at the root of gender inequality, such as legal discrimination, unfair social norms and attitudes, decision-making on sexual and reproductive issues and low levels of political participation, are undermining the ability to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5.

• Recent data from 106 countries show that 18 per cent of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical and/or sexual partner violence in the previous 12 months. The prevalence is highest in least developed countries, at 24 per cent.
• The practice of child marriage has continued to decline around the world, largely driven by progress in South Asia, where a girl’s risk of marrying in childhood decreased by about one quarter between 2013 and 2018. In sub-Saharan Africa, levels of child marriage have declined at a more modest rate.
• At least 200 million girls and women have been subjected to female genital mutilation, based on data from 30 countries where the practice is concentrated and where nationally representative prevalence data is available. In these countries, the prevalence of this harmful practice declined by one quarter between approximately 2000 and 2018.
• According to recent data from some 90 countries, women devote on average roughly three times more hours a day to unpaid care and domestic work than men, limiting the time available for paid work, education and leisure and further reinforcing gender-based socioeconomic disadvantages.
• Women continue to be underrepresented at all levels of political leadership. As at 1 January 2019, women’s representation in national Parliaments ranged from 0 to 61.3 per cent, with the average standing at 24.2 per cent, an increase from 19 per cent in 2010. At the local level, data from 99 countries and areas show that women’s representation in elected deliberative bodies varies from less than 1 per cent to 48 per cent, with the median of the distribution at 26 per cent. When legislated gender quotas are adopted, significantly higher proportions of women are elected at both national and local levels.
• While women represented 39 per cent of world employment, only 27 per cent of managerial positions in the world were occupied by women in 2018, up only marginally from 26 per cent in 2015. The proportion of women in management has increased since 2000 in all regions except in least developed countries.
• In 51 countries with data on the subject, only 57 per cent of women aged 15 to 49, married or in union, make their own decisions about sexual relations and the use of contraceptives and health services.
• Over the past 25 years, there has been progress in reforming laws towards improving gender equality, yet discriminatory laws and gaps in legal protection remain in many countries. On the basis of data collected across four areas of law in 2018 from 53 countries, almost a third have legal gaps in the area of overarching legal frameworks and public life (e.g., constitutions, antidiscrimination laws, quotas, legal aid); more than a quarter have legal gaps in the area of violence against women; and 29 per cent and 24 per cent have legal gaps in the employment and economic benefits area and in the marriage and family area, respectively.
• Despite progress in implementing gender-responsive budgeting globally, gaps remain in country efforts to establish comprehensive and transparent tracking systems. Based on 2018 data from 69 countries, 13 countries fully met the criteria of having in place a tracking system that measures and makes publicly available gender budget data, and 41 countries approached the requirements.

Source: Report of the Secretary-General, Special edition: progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals

While some forms of discrimination against women and girls are diminishing, gender inequality continues to hold women back and deprives them of basic rights and opportunities. Empowering women requires addressing structural issues such as unfair social norms and attitudes as well as developing progressive legal frameworks that promote equality between women and men.

• Based on 2005–2016 data from 56 countries, 20 per cent of adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 who have ever been in a sexual relationship experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner in the 12 months prior to the survey.
• Globally, around 2017, an estimated 21 per cent of women between 20 and 24 years of age reported that they were married or in an informal union before age 18. This means that an estimated 650 million girls and women today were married in childhood. Rates of child marriage have continued to decline around the world. In Southern Asia, a girl’s risk of marrying in childhood has dropped by over 40 per cent since around 2000.
• Around 2017, one in three girls aged 15 to 19 had been subjected to female genital mutilation in the 30 countries where the practice is concentrated, compared to nearly one in two around 2000.
• Based on data between 2000 and 2016 from about 90 countries, women spend roughly three times as many hours in unpaid domestic and care work as men.
• Globally, the percentage of women in single or lower houses of national parliament has increased from 19 per cent in 2010 to around 23 per cent in 2018.

Source: Report of the Secretary-General, The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2018

Gender inequality persists worldwide, depriving women and girls of their basic rights and opportunities. Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls will require more vigorous efforts, including legal frameworks, to counter deeply rooted gender-based discrimination that often results from patriarchal attitudes and related social norms.

• On the basis of data from 2005 to 2016 for 87 countries, 19 per cent of women between 15 and 49 years of age said they had experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner in the 12 months prior to the survey. In the most extreme cases, such violence can lead to death. In 2012, almost half of all women who were victims of intentional homicide worldwide were killed by an intimate partner or family member, compared to 6 per cent of male victims.
• Child marriage is declining, but not fast enough. Around 2000, nearly 1 in 3 women between 20 and 24 years of age reported that they were married before 18 years of age. Around 2015, the ratio was just over 1 in 4. The decline is driven by an even steeper reduction in the marriage rate among girls under 15 years of age during that period.
• The harmful practice of female genital mutilation/cutting has declined by 24 per cent since around 2000. Nevertheless, prevalence remains high in some of the 30 countries with representative data. In those countries, survey data from around 2015 indicate that more than 1 in 3 girls between 15 and 19 years of age have undergone the procedure compared to nearly 1 in 2 girls around 2000.
• The average amount of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work is more than threefold higher for women than men, according to survey data from 83 countries and areas. Available data indicate that time spent on domestic chores accounts for a large proportion of the gender gap in unpaid work.
• Globally, women’s participation in single or lower houses of national parliaments reached 23.4 per cent in 2017, just 10 percentage points higher than in 2000. Such slow progress suggests that stronger political commitment and more ambitious measures and quotas are needed to boost women’s political participation and empowerment.
• Women are still underrepresented in managerial positions. In the majority of the 67 countries with data from 2009 to 2015, fewer than a third of senior- and middle-management positions were held by women.
• Just over half (52 per cent) of women between 15 and 49 years of age who are married or in union make their own decisions about consensual sexual relations and use of contraceptives and health services. That statistic is based on available data from around 2012 for 45 countries, 43 of which are in developing regions.

Source: Report of the Secretary-General, "Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals", E/2017/66

• Gender equality and women’s empowerment have advanced in recent decades. Girls’ access to education has improved, the rate of child marriage declined and progress was made in the area of sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, including fewer maternal deaths. Nevertheless, gender equality remains a persistent challenge for countries worldwide and the lack of such equality is a major obstacle to sustainable development.
• Assuring women’s rights through legal frameworks is a first step in addressing discrimination against them. As of 2014, 143 countries guaranteed equality between men and women in their constitutions; another 52 countries have yet to make this important commitment. In 132 countries, the statutory legal age of marriage is equal for women and men, while in another 63 countries, the legal age of marriage is lower for women than for men.
• Violence against women and girls violates their human rights and hinders development. Most such violence is perpetrated by intimate partners, with available data from surveys conducted between 2005 and 2015, in 52 countries, (including only one country from the developed regions) indicating that 21 per cent of girls and women aged between 15 and 49 experienced physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner in the previous 12 months. Estimates on the risks of violence experienced by women with disabilities, women from ethnic minorities and among women above the age of 50 are not yet included, owing to data limitations. Additionally, human trafficking disproportionately affects women and girls, since 70 per cent of all victims detected worldwide are female.
• Globally, the proportion of women aged between 20 and 24 who reported that they were married before their eighteenth birthday dropped from 32 per cent around 1990 to 26 per cent around 2015. Child marriage is most common in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, with 44 per cent of women married before their eighteenth birthday in Southern Asia and 37 per cent of women married before their eighteenth birthday in sub-Saharan Africa. The marriage of girls under the age 15 is also highest in those two regions, at 16 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively. Social norms can and do change, however, with the rate of marriage of girls under the age of 15 declining globally from 12 per cent around 1990 to 7 per cent around 2015, although disparities are found across regions and countries. The most rapid reduction in child marriage overall was recorded in Northern Africa, where the percentage of women married before the age of 18 dropped by more than half, from 29 per cent to 13 per cent, over the past 25 years.
• The harmful practice of female genital mutilation/cutting is another human rights violation that affects girls and women worldwide. While the exact number of girls and women globally who have undergone the procedure is unknown, at least 200 million have been subjected to the procedure in 30 countries with representative prevalence data. Overall, rates of female genital mutilation/cutting have been declining over the past three decades. However, not all countries have made progress and the pace of decline has been uneven. Today, in the 30 countries, for which data were available, around 1 in 3 girls aged 15 to 19 have undergone the practice, versus 1 in 2 in the mid-1980s.
• In every region, women and girls do the bulk of unpaid work, including caregiving and such household tasks as cooking and cleaning. On average, women report that they spend 19 per cent of their time each day in unpaid activities, versus 8 per cent for men. The responsibilities of unpaid care and domestic work, combined with paid work, means greater total work burdens for women and girls and less time for rest, self-care, learning and other activities.
• Globally, women’s participation in parliament rose to 23 per cent in 2016, representing an increase by 6 percentage points over a decade. Slow progress in this area is in contrast with more women in parliamentary leadership positions. In 2016, the number of women speakers of national parliaments jumped from 43 to 49 (out of the 273 posts globally); women accounted for 18 per cent of all speakers of parliament in January 2016.

Source: Report of the Secretary-General, "Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals", E/2016/75