Gender inequality undermines development
When half a country’s population is not participating fully in its economic, social and political life it stands to reason that development will be slowed. Women’s subordinate status in most societies has been documented by extensive research. Widespread patterns of male prerogative and power are visible in social discrimination including lower levels of investment in the health, nutrition, and education of girls and women. Institutionalized legal disadvantages for women underpin laws that keep land, money and other economic resources out of women’s hands by foreclosing protection and redress, contribute to violence against women.
Ending Child Marriage
Child marriage lies at the intersection of a broad set of problems facing girls. If we can significantly reduce the global problem of child marriage, we can improve girls’ health and development and that of their families, communities, and nations. GreeneWorks Global is committed through research and advocacy to supporting a global movement to end child marriage.
Recent collaborations, products and resources
- GreeneWorks Global is currently working with The Elders Foundation, which backstops the global leadership of The Elders themselves. The Elders have committed themselves to a campaign to end child marriage, and GreeneWorks Global is currently supporting them through research, partnership development and mobilization. As former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil and Jimmy Carter of the United States stated in September 2010 in an Op-Ed in The Guardian, “Child marriage not only denies the fundamental rights of women and girls worldwide, but has been a major brake on progress towards six of the eight millennium development goals.”
- In an earlier period of consulting, Margaret Greene worked with colleagues at the International Center for Research on Women to write what remains a key reference on child marriage: Too Young To Wed. The Lives, Rights and Health of Married Girls.
Working With Men and Boys To Promote Gender Equality and Improve Health
Men and boys are central to the achievement of gender equality and improved health and development outcomes. Recent years have seen a growing consensus on the need to link sexual and reproductive health outcomes and the gendered values and norms that shape health.
Most sexual and reproductive health programs take men’s power and women’s subordination for granted, and are reluctant to promote women’s rights and to question men’s roles in the context of programs. While working at the Center for Health and Gender Equity, Margaret Greene developed a widely referenced framework that assesses programs involving men in sexual and reproductive health from a gender perspective.
Recent collaborations, products and resources
- Margaret Greene and Peter Pawlak worked with the International Center for Research on Women on the Men and Gender Equality Policy Project, co-authoring a new report on public policies involving men to promote gender equality. Titled “What Men Have to Do With It,” the report identifies describes the diverse policy responses countries have developed to address gender equality as more than a women’s issue.
- GreeneWorks Global is currently working with the United Nations Population Fund to help develop UNFPA’s corporate strategy for their work with men and boys.
- Who gains from involving men in sexual and reproductive health in ways that promote gender equality? Margaret Greene and Peter Pawlak have worked as consultants with ICRW on WHO-funded research that assesses the benefits to men, women and children of engaging men more fully.
- Margaret Greene and Andrew Levack of EngenderHealth have co-authored a paper for the Interagency Gender Working Group on the need to work with both men and women in transforming the gender inequalities that undermine health. The paper, “Synchronizing Gender Strategies: A Cooperative Model for Gender Transformation,” will be launched on October 25th, 2010.
If you would like to learn more about this set of issues, please see the following resources and links (link to full list of gender-related publications).