Event Aims to Bring Down Legal Barriers to Gender Equality with Focus on Women, Business and the Rule of Law

(New York, 12 March 2015) – “Women’s participation is a matter of basic human rights and democratic principles. We cannot afford not to include women. This is not simply a question of what benefits women, but of what benefits the whole of society,” Ioana Liana Cazacu, the Romanian Secretary of State for Gender Equality, told participants of a roundtable event on Women, Business and the Rule of Law this week.

The “Bringing Down the Barriers: Women, Business and the Rule of Law” event explored issues of gender, business and law through the lens of the post-2015 development agenda and proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

World Bank Group research, presented at the session, showed that economies in every region of the world impose legal differences based on gender that impede women from achieving their full potential in their role as employees and/or entrepreneurs. Some of the legal barriers faced by women across the world range from restrictions on being a head of household, opening a bank account, or getting a job without permission, to signing a contract or setting up a business, and included obstacles around maternity leave and childcare.

Echoing the view of Ms. Cazacu, Ronnie Goldberg, Senior Counsel at the United States Council for International Business, said the gender gap remains a reality for many: “Women earn less and are less economically productive than men almost everywhere across the world. All too often laws, regulations, and institutions treat women differently, making it more difficult for them to earn an income, make decisions about property or start a business…There can be no development when you ignore 50 % of your human resources.”

Flagging the cross-cutting nature of women’s empowerment and gender equality across the entire post-2015 development agenda, Sarah Iqbal from the World Bank Group emphasised that the issues went way beyond the proposed SDG on gender equality and impacted on a whole range of other goals and targets essential to economic, social and environmental development.

The event was hosted by IDLO, the World Bank Group, the UN Global Compact, the International Chamber of Commerce and the United States Council for International Business, with the support of the Governments of Paraguay and Romania.  Taking place in New York on the margins of the fifty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, other panellists at the event included Cynthia H. Braddon, Vice President of International Affairs at McGraw Hill Financial, and Pilar S. Ramos, Executive Vice President and Associate General Counsel for North America at MasterCard Worldwide, and featured the  participation of the Minister of Women and Human Rights of Somalia, H.E. Ms. Sahra Mohamed Ali Samatar, and the Vice Minister of Women’s Affairs of Paraguay, H.E. Ms. Claudia Garcia, among various other Government delegations.

• Learn more about UN Global Compact’s “Business for the Rule of Law” initiative

Contact

Ursula Wynhoven
Chief, Governance and Social Sustainability and General Counsel
UN Global Compact
wynhoven@un.org