This year marks a significant milestone for women and girls. Thirty years ago, for the first time in history, 189 governments adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, recognised that women’s rights are human rights and that they should have equal rights in society. Together, they created the most progressive and comprehensive blueprint to achieve gender equality.
TWF’s history is firmly rooted in the Beijing Platform for Action. Our first piece of research utilised the Platform’s focus areas to identify gaps in Hong Kong’s policies, services and structures for women and girls. What resulted from this study informed our first programmes and advocacy.
UN Women recently published a review of progress made to close the gender gap since 1995. Whilst there is marked improvement, six key areas for action have been identified: a digital revolution, freedom from poverty, zero violence, full and equal decision-making power, peace and security, and climate justice.
We have selected three to highlight, recognising that all of these areas are interconnected and progress in one will have positive knock-on effects in another.
Digital Revolution: 70% of countries are investing in STEM skills for women and girls, but slower progress is being made to enable women and girls to reap the associated economic benefits or have access to opportunities and networks.
Zero Violence: 90% of countries have laws to end violence against women and girls; 79% have national action plans to support these laws. Yet, 1 in 3 women experiences physical or sexual violence in her lifetime and 53% of women have experienced some form of online violence.
Freedom from Poverty: Social protection programmes have increased in 79% of countries. At current rates, however, it will take 137 years to end extreme poverty among women and girls. Formal workforce participation is a barrier to this: globally 92% of men are in the labour force compared with 63% of women – and women still perform 2.5x more unpaid care work than men.
These issues all resonate here in Hong Kong. Girls are 4 times less likely than boys to choose STEM degrees and careers, which perhaps contributes to why only 11% of engineers are women.1 in 3 women will experience sexual violence and our current sexual violence laws are decades out of date and do not provide adequate protection or sufficient ability for recourse. With persistent gender pay gaps, career breaks due to caregiving and biases in the workforce, women are financially vulnerable and many live below the poverty line, particularly single mothers and elderly women. Our low female workforce participation rate of 48% reflects and intensifies some of these challenges.
For TWF, we acknowledge the complexity and wide scope of these issues whilst maintaining a firm belief that gender equality is both possible and achievable.
This is why we work to ensure all girls – particularly those from underserved populations—have access to the jobs of the future through our Girls Go Tech Programme and university scholarship scheme. We advocate for law reforms and have run public campaigns to strengthen protections on sexual violence against women and girls. We aim to eliminate barriers preventing women from joining or remaining in the workforce, enabling them to improve their quality of life and that of their families whilst also recognising the financial value of full time informal caregiving.
Solutions to these challenges must include all of us. As we wind down International Women’s Day events and celebrations over the next week, we invite you to challenge yourself to identify an action you can commit to that will accelerate progress for a gender equal Hong Kong.