E/2014/27
E/CN.6/2014/15
and girls and those women and girls who experience multiple forms of
discrimination and inequalities of any kind.
19. The Commission notes and expresses deep concern with regard to
Millennium Development Goal 1 (eradicating extreme poverty and hunger),
that poverty impedes women’s empowerment and progress towards gender
equality, and that the feminization of poverty persists, and recognizes that
significant gender gaps in employment rates and wages persist. The
Commission is concerned that owing to, inter alia, socioeconomic inequalities
and persistent discrimination in labour markets, women are more likely than
men to be in precarious, vulnerable, gender-stereotyped and low paying forms
of employment; bear a disproportionate share of unpaid care work; be engaged
in the informal economy; and have less access to full and productive
employment and decent work, social protection and pensions, which increases
their risk of poverty, relative to men, particularly if they are living in
households without other adult earners. It further notes that discriminatory
norms contribute to women’s and girls’ greater vulnerability to extreme
poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition and that girls and older women each
face different and particular challenges. The Commission notes that current
poverty measures do not adequately reflect women’s vulnerability to poverty,
owing to inadequate data, inter alia, on income distribution within households.
The Commission is further concerned that the targets on hunger also remain
unmet, with adverse consequences for the health, livelihoods and well-being of
women and girls. It notes the importance of food security and nutrition for
achieving goal 1 and the need to address gender gaps in the fight against
hunger, and recognizes that insufficient priority is given to addressing
malnutrition in women and girls.
20. The Commission notes that with regard to Millennium Development
Goal 2 (achieving universal primary education), significant progress has been
made in net primary school enrolments and towards eliminating gender
disparity in primary education enrolment, but expresses concern that the heavy
focus on numbers has resulted in less focus on completion, educational quality
and learning outcomes. The Commission further notes the lack of progress in
closing gender gaps in access to, retention in and completion of secondary
education, which has been shown to contribute more strongly than primary
school attendance to the achievement of gender equality, the empowerment of
women, and the human rights of women and girls and several positive social
and economic outcomes. The majority of youth lacking basic education are
young women. Notwithstanding the progress made more needs to be done
where progress remains uneven within groups and between countries to
achieve the targets by 2015.
21. The Commission notes that with regard to Millennium Development
Goal 3 (promoting gender equality and empowering women), progress has
been slow, with persistent gender disparities in some regions in secondary and
tertiary education enrolment; the lack of economic empowerment, autonomy
and independence for women, including a lack of integration into the formal
economy, unequal access to full and productive employment and decent work,
underrepresentation in non-agricultural wage employment, overrepresentation
in low paid jobs and gender-stereotyped jobs like domestic and care work, and
the lack of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value; the unequal
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