GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN THE UK

GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWERMENT
OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN THE UK:
Meeting the challenge of the Sustainable Development Goals
METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH
The research remit for this report was to gather evidence about progress
on gender equality and good practice in the UK against the UN Sustainable
Development Goals, particularly SDG 5, within five thematic areas reflecting
the core areas of work of the British Council in ‘promoting a friendly knowledge
and understanding’:
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Power,
participation
and leadership
Education
Economy
Justice
and violence
against women
and girls
Cultural
sectors
(including arts, sport
and technology).
Informed by Women and Girls: the British Council
approach, the report also looks to the international
picture and draws comparisons where this is feasible
and meaningful. The report is designed to be an
accessible and informative resource, using hyperlinks
to signpost readers to further evidence.
Any assessment of progress in the field of gender
equality in the UK is potentially vast, and inevitably
constrained by both time and the primary evidence
available. The scope of this study is secondary: a
rapid, non-exhaustive review of existing evidence
that represents an overview of the terrain of gender
equality within each of the four nations of the UK,
and across the UK as a whole, published in the period
2010–16. There are some diversions from this frame
of reference – in particular within the cultural section,
where lack of current data forced the use of research
pre-dating 2010.
This study aims to provide evidence and analysis
using the framing provided by the SDGs and other
international declarations on gender equality and
the empowerment of women and girls, and in relation
solely to the core themes of the British Council’s work.
As a result some areas of inequality, such as women’s
health, are not covered. It is important to note that some
lawmaking, policy and financial powers are controlled
by the UK government and others devolved to the
governments of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
A comprehensive study of the full impact of these
differences is out of the scope of the report, but some
specific examples are drawn upon and illustrate some
of the areas where the freedom to develop different
approaches has resulted in faster progress, such as in
the first elections to the National Assembly for Wales.
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