Goal 5: Achieve Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls

With this month’s goal being Gender Equality, we wanted to take a moment to recognize an important initiative in our community. #Viz5 is led by Seth Cochran and Helen Davies from Operation Fistula, and Eva Murray from Makeover Monday. The goal of #Viz5 according to their web site, is ” to create a space where data advocacy and insights meet impact. This work intends to ignite a data advocacy effort with the power to not only raise awareness of extreme gender inequality, but also catalyze global action to end it.” Please check out the #Viz 5 site for more information and keep an eye out the first week of every month for your chance to participate

Though there has been some progress towards gender equality over the past few decades (more girls are attending school, fewer girls are being forced into early marriage, lower prevalence of FGM, more women in leadership positions) there has not been nearly enough progress in the areas that stand at the root of gender equality such as; legal discrimination, social norms and attitudes, decision-making on sexual and reproductive issues, and levels of political participation and representation. Without significant progression in these areas, meeting the Sustainable Development Goals for Gender Equality will not be possible by 2030. Here are some frightening statistics on Gender Inequality from the U.N.

1 in 5 women and girls aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by their partner in the past 12 months. In the LDCs (Least Developed Countries), that number is nearly 1 in 4 women and girls (based on recent data from 106 countries).
At least 200 million women and girls have been subjected to female genital mutilation (according to data from 30 countries where the practice is concentrated and where prevalence data is available). Half of these women and girls lived in East Africa.
Women spend an average of 3X as many hours per day on unpaid care and domestic work compared to men (based on recent data from 90 countries).
Women’s representation in National Parliaments ranged from 0% to 61% with the average being just 24% as of January 2019.
Women represent 39% of the Global Workforce, but only 27% of managerial positions, as of 2018.
In 18 countries, husbands can legally prevent their wives from working; in 39 countries, daughters and sons do not have equal inheritance rights; and 49 countries lack laws protecting women from domestic violence
Only 52% of women married or in a union, freely make their own decisions about sexual relations, contraceptive use and health care.
Globally, women make up just 13% of agricultural land holders.
For more statistics related to Gender Equality, please see the Goal 5 Progress site here

Goal 5 Targets:

5.1 End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
5.2 Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation
5.3 Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation
5.4 Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
5.5 Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life
5.6 Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences
5.A Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws
5.B Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women
5.C Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels

This Month’s Challenge:

In June 2020, we are sharing another diverse set of data sources thanks to the amazing people at the Centre for Humanitarian Data. Links to a number of datasets from the Humanitarian Data Exchange related to Gender Equality can be found on our data.world site here. And as always, we are sharing Goal related data from the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal Database, with regional data on all of the targets listed above.

If you would like participate, you can use data from any source, but the overall goal is to focus your analysis on some of the gender equality related topics mentioned in the Targets above. If you come across other interesting datasets, please let us know so we can add them to our page on data.world. The deadline for submission will be June 30, 2020. Make sure to tag us in your submission, add the #TheSDGVizProject hashtag, and add your submission to #TheSDGVizProject tracker.

As we mentioned on our Home page, building a viz is not the only way to participate. Our main goal is to spread awareness, so if you see a viz with #TheSDGVizProject, please share it. And keep an eye out for a post at the end of the month with ways that you can contribute to this month’s goal.