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‘ensuring that they do not maintain, but ratheralleviate, the inherent disadvantage that particulargroups experience’. 13This Report uses international human rightsstandards to assess laws and policies fortheir actual effect on women and girls on theground. From this perspective, the achievementof substantive equality requires action in threeinterrelated areas: redressing women’s socioeconomicdisadvantage; addressing stereotyping,stigma and violence; and strengthening women’sagency, voice and participation (see Figure 1.4).Coordinated public action across all three of thesedimensions has the potential to trigger lastingtransformations in structures and institutions thatconstrain women’s enjoyment of their rights.More of the same will not do for women and girls.While numerical parity in access to education,employment or social protection is an importantgoal, it does not mean concrete enjoyment of rightsor substantive equality. Rather than simply absorbingmore girls into fragile and underfunded educationalsystems, schools must provide a safe learningenvironment for girls and boys, should aim to providequality education and should contribute to thepromotion of equality through progressive curriculaand well trained teachers. Rather than incorporatingmore women into increasingly precarious andunrewarding forms of employment, labour marketsmust be transformed in ways that work for bothwomen and men and benefit society at large. Ratherthan simply adding paid work or poverty reductionto women’s already long ‘to-do’ lists, responsibilitiesfor income-earning, caregiving and domestic workneed to be redistributed more equally, both betweenwomen and men and between households andsociety more broadly. Substantive equality requiresfundamental transformation of economic and socialinstitutions, including the beliefs, norms and attitudesthat shape them, at every level of society, fromhouseholds to labour markets and from communitiesto local, national and global governance institutions.Progress towards substantive equality should bemeasured against how inclusive it is of the rightsof poor and marginalized women and girls. It istherefore important to look beyond the ‘averages’,to make sure that all women are able to enjoy theirrights. Rights are also indivisible: how can womenclaim the rights to quality health care, to decentworking conditions or to own land on which togrow food without having the rights to informationabout laws, policies and government budgetallocations and the right to organize to claimtheir rights? The right to organize and scrutinizepublic budgets often drives efforts to ensure publicservices meet women’s needs better; and havingaccess to a range of high quality services canin turn support women’s right to work, creatingpowerful synergies.TRANSFORMING ECONOMIES, REALIZINGRIGHTS: AN AGENDA FOR ACTIONTo support substantive equality, economic andsocial policies need to work in tandem. Typically,the role of economic policies is seen primarily interms of promoting economic growth, while socialpolicies are supposed to address its ‘casualties’ byredressing poverty and disadvantage and reducinginequality. But macroeconomic policies can pursuea broader set of goals, including gender equalityand social justice. Conversely, well-designed socialpolicies can enhance macroeconomic growthand post-crisis recovery through redistributivemeasures that increase employment, productivityand aggregate demand.The specific policy package to achieve substantiveequality will differ from context to context. Ultimately,the aim is to create a virtuous cycle through thegeneration of decent work, gender-responsive socialprotection and social services, alongside enablingmacroeconomic policies that prioritize investment inhuman beings and the fulfilment of social objectives.Action is needed in the following three priority areasto transform economies and realize women’s socialand economic rights.1. Decent work for womenPaid work that is compatible with women’s andmen’s shared responsibility for unpaid care anddomestic work as well as leisure and learning,where earnings are sufficient to maintain an13