Equality Between Women and Men

Equality between women and men or gender equality-promoting the equal participation of women and men in making decisions; supporting women and girls so that they can fully exercise their rights; and reducing the gap between women's and men's access to and control of resources and the benefits of development-is still out of reach for most women worldwide.

Women continue to have fewer rights, lower education and health status, less income, and less access to resources and decision-making than men. Nevertheless, women's critical roles in food production, income generation, management of natural resources, community organization and domestic responsibilities are essential for sustainable development.

If equitable and sustainable progress is to be achieved, women's status must be improved, their rights must be respected, and their contributions must be recognized.

The international community has made important commitments to women's rights and equality between women and men, including:

• the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),
• the Beijing Platform for Action,
• the Millennium Development Goals, and
• the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.

Canada has played an important role in advocating for and implementing these commitments, and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has been a world leader in integrating gender equality analysis into its programming.

Equality between women and men will be a crosscutting theme throughout Canada's development cooperation programming. Gender equality results will be systematically and explicitly integrated across all CIDA programming.

In each area of activity, CIDA promotes women's equal participation in decision-making, full realization of their human rights, and equal access to and control over the resources and benefits of development.