Collaborating partners: Danish Institute for Human Rights and OpenGlobalRights.
Despite growing attention to gender equality in business and human rights, women and LGBTI+ individuals continue to be more likely to experience a disproportionate burden of adverse business-related impacts and be less likely to share in the benefits generated by business activities. This is due to the structural discrimination and exclusion that characterise societies, driven by imbalances in power, wealth and resources, often made worse by business models and gender-neutral practices that reproduce inequalities or are complicit in maintaining the status quo. Concerted gender-responsive action by states, businesses, investors, financial institutions civil society and other actors, working in close collaboration with feminist movements, is therefore urgently needed to address such structural discrimination and achieve gender equality.
This blog series, produced in collaboration with Danish Institute for Human Rights and OpenGlobalRights, explores critical topics at the nexus of gender, business and human rights, looking at practical examples that demonstrate why gender justice is necessary and how it might be achieved.
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Blogs
Photo courtesy of CRAAD-OI
The frontline communities resisting destructive development agendas in Madagascar
This women-led movement in Madagascar is resisting extractive development projects on the island, in exchange for alternatives that respect the land and the indigenous Mikea community.
From hardship to hope: women migrant workers in the Indian ready-made garment industry
In order to provide women migrant workers with a life of dignity, security, and a sense of recognition at their workplaces, the three primary stakeholders of the garment sector supply chain need to work quickly and collaboratively.
Why women’s right to health and gender equality should be your business
In order to address existing inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic, companies should make a serious effort in reducing the gender pay gap, upholding maternity provisions, tackling gender bias, and reducing gender-based violence and harassment.
Changing gender realities in MENA: Fostering social entrepreneurship
Social enterprises help change gender realities in MENA to make them more equal.
Special economic zones in Pakistan undermine women’s human rights
Even though special economic zones promote industrial development, such development comes at the expense of land, labour, and human rights.
The #PayUp Campaign is intensifying, but don’t forget the women workers leading the movement
By neglecting the importance of women workers in the Global South as central to systemic change, we risk sustaining a movement focused on the ideals of Northern activists, that in turn fails to address the fundamental solutions needed to effectively challenge exploitation.
Protecting migrant women workers in food supply chains during COVID-19
Spain is paying little heed to the rights of seasonal workers during the pandemic as long as labour needs are met, and the food supply is maintained—what will spur the government to take action?
Business impacts on trans rights demand attention and action
Trans people experience disproportionate rates of violence and socioeconomic exclusion, leading to poverty, homelessness, and food insecurity. What is the role of businesses in addressing these human rights impacts?
Nora Mardirossian, Shift
Twice the work and half the support: COVID-19 and single working mothers
How can businesses help to reduce the pandemic’s unequal burden on single mothers?
Kayla Winarsky Green, Danish Institute for Human Rights
Workplace sexual harassment in Mexico: towards gender-transformative remedies
Can new, non-judicial approaches to gender-based violence and harassment in Mexico effectively supplement judicial avenues?
Paulina Madero Suárez, co-founder of Transforma MyM and strategic engagement and advocacy associate at Project PODER
A feminist vision to address labour exploitation in Ethiopia
Ethiopia needs a stand-alone feminist campaign calling for a new vision of job creation that prioritizes dignified work and decent wages for both men and women.
Sehin Teferra, co-founder of Setaweet
EFE/Saúl Martínez.
The Case of “Lote Ocho”: Indigenous women hold corporations accountable for violence
Indigenous women in Guatemala are using the concept of extraterritorial obligations to hold corporations accountable for violence—and to set important precedents in human rights law.
Andrea Bolaños Vargas & Andrea Suárez Trueba
Creating a feminist alliance for trade justice
Trade liberalisation is incompatible with women’s human rights and gender equality when corporations exploit women’s cheap labour as a source of comparative advantage.
Aishu Balaji, Diyana Yahaya & Michelle R. Maziwisa
Addressing the gender bias in artificial intelligence and automation
If AI and automation are not developed and applied in a gender-responsive way, they are likely to reproduce and reinforce existing gender stereotypes and discriminatory social norms.
Surya Deva, Associate Professor at the School of Law at City University of Hong Kong and member of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights
Can corporations play a role in changing harmful social norms?
A 'gender-neutral' approach to human rights due diligence is insufficient, and corporations should take proactive steps towards addressing systemic gender discrimination.
Cynthia Trigo Paz, Senior Human Rights Adviser at Total
What can national action plans on business and human rights do for women’s rights?
NAPs have failed to adequately address gender and women’s rights. How can they be strengthened to contribute meaningfully towards achieving gender equality?
Nora Götzmann, Danish Institute for Human Rights; Wangui Kimotho, Institute for Business Ethics, University of St. Gallen
Check out our Women's History Month blog series on Women, Business and Human Rights.