According to the UN, around 60% of women around the world work in the informal sector (higher poverty risk), receive around 23% less income than their male counterparts and occupy just 24% of parliamentary seats. Furthermore, 1 in 3 women has experienced physical or sexual violence and 200 million girls and women have suffered genital mutilation.

As regards access to education, there are more girls out of school than boys -16 million girls will never go to school according to the UNESCO- and women represent two-thirds of the 750 million adults that lack basic literacy skills.

Therefore, we want to echo the UN campaign “Generation Equality” that stands for the right of women to make decisions in all spheres of life, equal pay, fair distribution of unpaid domestic work and care services, the end of all forms of violence against women and girls and healthcare services that respond to women’s needs.

As educating cities we wish to join our voice as cities committed to equal oportunities for all, as set out in the Charter of Educating Cities. For this reason, we encourage you to share your good practices, as some other member cities have done already. You can check these experiences here.

Check out the following articles published in IAEC Monographs to learn more:

• “Inclusion and the Right to the City: Exercising Women’s Citizen Rights”, by Ana Falú. (pg. 60)
• “Sport and Gender Equality. Girls in focus“, de Gertrud Pfister. (pg 31)