GGCA Gender and Climate Change Training Manual - Women's ...

esource rights, possibilities for advancement at work, salaries and opportunities
to participate in and influence decision-making processes. The reality is that
inequality between men and women is ingrained in social norms and values
around the world.
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Box 1 Gender differences/gaps
According to the best available data approximately 70% of those who live on less than
a dollar each day are women.
Women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours yet receive only 10% of the
world’s income.
Women own only 1% of the world’s property.
Women members of parliament globally average only 17% of all seats.
Only 8% of the world’s cabinet ministers are women.
Seventy-five percent of the world’s 876 million illiterate adults are women.
Worldwide women received 78% of the wages received by men for the same work,
although in some regions, they have a better educational background. In some parts
of the world, the wage gap between women and men is close to 40%.
Of the 550 million low-paid workers in the world, 330 million or 60% are women.
In a sample of 141 countries over the period 1981–2002, it was found that natural
disasters (and their subsequent impact) on average kill more women than men or kill
women at an earlier age than men.
Sources: Social Watch, 2007 and 2008; Oxfam, 2007; Neumayer and Plümper, 2007; and ILO, 2008.
Overcoming these inequalities is one of the principal focuses of the
international community. To the extent that gender-based analysis seeks
to highlight inequalities and promote revision of law and policy, and most
importantly of the process of their development, it will of necessity tend to
focus primarily on women’s issues (see Box 2). In doing so, it does not seek
to invert inequalities but rather to eliminate them in an attempt to eradicate
inefficiencies which undermine development and hamper the realization of
global human rights.