Cultural FIT’s Post

This International Women's Day, I can't help but be disappointed by the lack of progress towards gender equity and the extent to which we continue to let women and girls down in the workplace and beyond. It manifests in the pernicious impacts of the motherhood penalty, the escalating levels of burnout and disenfranchisement at all levels, continued levels of harassment, misogynoir and transphobia at work, and too many more to list in full here... All exacerbated by the nexus of performative male allyship and inaction. Too often, organisations pay lip service to gender equity while refusing to listen and take meaningful action to change the status quo, especially when it involves making brave, long-term investments. This IWD, I urge those of my gender to set aside the desire to be perceived as an ally and consider not marking this day in any way unless they intend to make a genuine commitment to listening to the blockers to gender equity in their organisation and taking action to address them. Due to the situation in one of the places I call home, I'm particularly preoccupied with the disproportionate impact wars have on women and girls. To that end, I've donated to Women Wage Peace and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).

A pivotal step toward reducing gender and age inequality is ensuring that youth perspectives and concerns are fully integrated at all levels of an organization’s design and reflected in its monitoring and evaluation efforts. Structural-level inclusion guarantees that young people’s voices are not just heard but are also actively shaping program outcomes, policies, and partnerships.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮 𝗯𝘂𝘇𝘇𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱👩🏻🏅 Because we are ensuring the participation of women✋in all the major agriculture and enterprise development interventions, so they can also have equitable access to economic opportunities. The overall women participation in USAID's Economic Recovery and Development Activity interventions has reached 20%👩🏽💻which demonstrates our commitment🎯and focus🔎on promoting gender inclusive programming and women economic empowerment.💵Here is an infographic on some of our key interventions which were aimed at women empowerment leading to their socioeconomic development.🙌 #𝗨𝗦𝗔𝗜𝗗 | #𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 | #𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 | #𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 | #𝗔𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 | #𝗨𝗦𝗔𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗗𝗔

Combating corruption and achieving gender equality is critical for global stability and prosperity. An academic contribution by our vice president Arianna Briganti,Ph.D. on this crucial issue: “The Intersection between Gender Inequalities and Corruption: OSCE Research Efforts to Understand the Nexus. Corruption has persisted over time, often accompanied by gender inequalities, highlighting the systemic nature of these challenges. It is among the most harmful factors affecting economies worldwide. It weakens institutions, erodes public trust, undermines fair competition, and discourages investment. Corrupt practices also hinder access to basic necessities such as healthcare, education, and clean water, harming subjective factors such as personal well-being and happiness. Corruption’s financial and economic costs are enormous: $1 trillion is paid in bribes per year. “The interconnectedness of these phenomena can be traced back to power imbalances and the misuse of entrusted authority, which impedes progress towards an inclusive and just society. Although the harmful effects of corruption are widespread in society as a whole, certain types of corruption disproportionately affect women.”   #corruption #genderequality Photo: credits Virginio Favale

The gender investment gap in the UK continues to grow - a combination of financial confidence, the gender pay gap, risk aversion, brand awareness, and social norms and expectations of what an investor looks like. The investment industry still has a long way to go to talk to women in a way that engages them, encouraging long-term growth and tapping into the massive opportunity that's sitting in this gap. Boring Money research #genderinvestmentgap #investment

👓🍵#WeekendReading: #FCV countries comprise the 10 worst-performing nations on several indicators that are critical for #genderequality, and the number of people living in fragile, conflict and violence settings is at a record high. Over half of We-Fi funds go to low income (IDA-Eligible) countries, including many facing FCV situations. These contexts often exacerbate barriers to gender equality and increase the risk of gender-based violence (#GBV). Therefore, We-Fi's ecosystem approach to removing barriers to women’s economic empowerment, addressing constraints and opportunities related to finance, market access, capacity and the enabling environment are more critical than ever to empower women and girls in FCV settings. We appreciated being featured in The World Bank's new approach paper, "A Development Approach to Advancing Gender Engagement and Addressing Gender Inequalities in Fragile, Conflict, and Violent Situations," as an example of "Getting Results on the Ground," and encourage everyone to read more on how the WBG is deepening its gender-in-FCV engagement, building partnerships, and more ⬇️ . . . Soukeyna Kane Hana Brixi Doreen Kibuka-Musoke Xavier Devictor Varalakshmi Vemuru

POVERTY IS NOT GENDER-NEUTRAL So neither can be our response to it. — Oliver Röpke 🚺 Here's the 10 actions listed on the European Economic and Social Committee's declaration for United Nations Commission on the 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 👇 #1 Protecting women from all kind of #violence #2 Addressing #poverty among women and girls #3 Ensuring accessible #healthcare service #4 Creating #financial tools to empower institutions to reduce poverty and inequality for women and girls #5 Promoting anti-#discrimination measures and recognising the intersecting factors contributing to inequality #6 Providing women with tools for their fair representation in the #labour market #7 Empowering women to gain cross-sectoral #leadership #8 Reinforcing #social policy at EU level #9 Ensuring equal opportunities through #education #10 Eliminating barriers that obstruct access to #essential services

South Africa showed a slight reduction in gender disparity in 2023, however, South African society still sees women under-represented in decision-making roles as men still made up 67% of those in management positions and of 806 000 employers, nearly 650 000 are men. South Africa needs to remove any barriers to entry into the economy that women face to address the issue of women being underrepresented in leadership and decision-making positions. This means addressing areas such as education, health and economic access. Daniela Ellerbeck, Manager of Constitutional Programmes at the FW de Klerk Foundation, reflects on the above in a Women's Day article: bit.ly/4fxTTOl #fwdeklerkfoundation #womensday #southafrica #womensmonth #gbv #genderbasedviolence

Very interesting how our wrong perceptions can influence our policy interventions

I have been interested in #gendernorms and their influence on economic outcomes for well over a decade. In a paper I co-wrote in 2021 (link in comments), we referenced research that had been done in Saudi Arabia and India about correcting misperceptions as one important 'solution' to improving women's economic outcomes. At the time, this was considered a relatively easy way to shift gender norms. Recent work has looked at this issue across 60 countries, focusing on two perceptions -- whether women should have the right to work outside the home and whether women should be given preferential treatment for leadership positions. Interestingly, most people misperceive the stigma around women working outside the home. In reality, both men and women support women's right to work, but men's support for this is more likely to be misperceived. So correcting this misperception could mean that more women would choose to work if they understood that their spouses, fathers, etc. would not actually oppose it and that men won't be sanctioned by their peers if they let their wives or daughters work. With regard to preferential treatment for leadership, in developed countries, there is over estimation of support whereas in lower-income countries there is an underestimation of men's support. In other words, government policies may not be well tailored to the needs of the specific countries. It would be wise to understand where there are misperceptions before trying to create policies that could have counter productive effects. https://lnkd.in/eWKSvRGg