Globally, women on average are paid 24% less than men. We are challenging employers in the public and private sectors to take a hard look at their payrolls. Data from France, Germany, Sweden and Turkey suggest that women earn 31% – 75% less than men over their lifetimes. In developing regions, up to 95% of women’s employment is informal, in jobs that are unprotected by labour laws and lack social protection.

Globally, women spend 2.5 times more of their time on unpaid care and domestic work than men. This is a structural cause of gender inequality, along with violence against women, restricted education, limited control over assets and property, and unequal participation in private and public decision making.

Over a lifetime, and all over the world, the combination of these factors adds up to a devastating loss of security, status and rights. These facts are indictments of the current status quo. They are reflections – and reinforcements – of economies and societies that chronically undervalue girls and women.

But the tide is turning. Women’s organizations and civil society more broadly have been key engines for change, and continue to play an essential role in demanding the accountability of all stakeholders for the full implementation of international norms and standards on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Our work on gender-responsive planning and budgeting, undertaken in 73 countries worldwide, confirms that well-targeted spending of increases in domestically mobilized resources and development aid can contribute to the realization of women’s rights.