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average earn just half as much income as men overtheir lifetimes. 3 Yet in all regions women work morethan men: on average they do almost two and a halftimes as much unpaid care and domestic work asmen, and if paid and unpaid work are combined,women in almost all countries work longer hours thanmen each day. 4This Report focuses on the economic and socialdimensions of gender equality, including the rightof all women to a good job, with fair pay andsafe working conditions, to an adequate pensionin older age, to health care and to safe waterwithout discrimination based on factors such associo-economic status, geographic location andrace or ethnicity. In doing so, it aims to unravelsome of the current challenges and contradictionsfacing the world today: at a time when womenand girls have almost equal opportunities when itcomes to education, why are only half of womenof working age in the labour force globally, andwhy do women still earn much less than men? Inan era of unprecedented global wealth, why arelarge numbers of women not able to exercise theirright to even basic levels of health care, water andsanitation?As the Report shows, these inequalities are notinevitable. Economic and social policies cancontribute to the creation of stronger economies,and to more sustainable and gender-equalsocieties, if they are designed and implementedwith women’s rights at their centre.Across the world, gender equality advocates incivil society, ministries, parliaments, the mediaand universities have demonstrated how to makewomen’s rights real. And they have won significantvictories: examples include the domestic workeralliance in New York that refused to accept poorconditions, and so mobilized nannies and carersin parks, streets and churches to push throughthe most progressive bill of rights for domesticworkers worldwide; the feminist researchers andpolicy makers in Egypt who joined forces to designan empowering cash transfer programme thatputs money in the hands of women; the feministbureaucrat in Brazil who collaborated with women’sorganizations to provide sugarcane workers with apowerful understanding of their own rights as well asvocational training in non-traditional occupations fora sustainable route out of poverty; the organizationsof unpaid caregivers in Kenya who, after years ofadvocacy, finally have their place at the policy tablewhen it comes to health and welfare decision-makingat the local and national level; and the male policymaker in the Ministry of Finance in Morocco, whoinsisted that his country’s policies would only belegitimate if all budget decisions were assessed fortheir impact on women and girls and has opened upspace for women’s organizations to influence change.These visionary advocates for change have refusedto accept the status quo, have rejected the idea thatpoverty and gender inequality are a fact of life andhave recognized that progress for women and girlsis progress for all.A CHALLENGING GLOBAL CONTEXT FORWOMEN’S RIGHTSThe world has changed significantly since theBeijing conference in 1995. The rise of extremism,escalating violent conflict, recurrent and deepeningeconomic crises, volatile food and energy prices,food insecurity, natural disasters and the effectsof climate change have intensified vulnerabilityand increased inequalities. Financial globalization,trade liberalization, the ongoing privatizationof public services and the ever-expandingrole of corporate interests in the developmentprocess have shifted power relations in ways thatundermine the enjoyment of human rights andthe building of sustainable livelihoods. The worldis both wealthier and more unequal today than atany point since World War II. The richest 1 per centof the world’s population now owns about 40 percent of the world’s assets, while the bottom halfowns no more than 1 per cent. 5The gap between rich and poor women remainshuge both between and within countries. A womanin Sierra Leone is 100 times more likely to die inchildbirth than a woman in Canada. 6 In the leastdeveloped countries, a woman living in a ruralarea is 38 per cent less likely to give birth with a11