A/HRC/53/39 human rights framework, the feminist approach adds a critical analysis of the ways in which patriarchal institutions and structures contribute to maintaining discrimination against women and girls.28 A human rights-based approach to poverty and inequality emphasizes that participation, accountability, non-discrimination and equality, empowerment and the implementation of equitable normative frameworks are core principles that must be respected, protected and fulfilled by States and other duty bearers in order to guarantee the full enjoyment of all human rights for all people at all times.29 18. Most mainstream approaches to gender and poverty focus on a small number of economic rights associated with work, financial inclusion and women’s entrepreneurship, and ignore the broader contexts that condition the realization of the many other interrelated and interdependent human rights that are essential to achieving substantive gender equality and to sustainably eradicating poverty. 30 Feminist political economists and civil society movements have emphasized that this one-sided approach to poverty eradication obscures the role of the institutions and structures that benefit from the exploitation of women, girls and marginalized social groups, as well as the natural environment.31 19. Standardized measures of poverty and inequality in global and national development frameworks which focus on household-level data fail to adequately capture sex- and genderbased inequalities in the generation, distribution and consumption of resources. 32 Many of the submissions received by the Working Group highlighted the absence of reliable, multidimensional and multisectoral disaggregated data on poverty and inequalities. 33 The lived experiences and voices of women and girls in poverty are often absent from research, law and policy in the field. 20. In addition to their gender-insensitivity and unawareness, most global poverty indicators are geared towards measuring relative improvements in the situation of those in the bottom 10 per cent of wealth and income scales, rather than looking at the enormous share of income and wealth held by the richest 1 per cent of the population. 34 Common methods for measuring absolute inequalities, such as the Gini coefficient, percentile ratios, the Palma ratio, the World Income Inequality Database and measures of functional income distribution, focus attention on the need for effective policies to redistribute wealth and income both within and between countries.35 21. Many predominant approaches to women’s poverty concentrate on increasing the economic productivity of individual women, rather than analysing the systems of power that generate and reproduce unequal gender relations within families, communities, institutions and markets. These dominant models fail to recognize and value women’s unpaid care, domestic and agricultural work which undergirds the economy. They ignore the vital issues of women’s time poverty and “depletion” through their role as care providers, 36 as well as the draining of care resources from poorer nations, such as migrant domestic or health workers, through globalized care chains.37 They also do not consider the rights of women and 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 GE.23-06173 See, for example, Oxfam, “A feminist approach to the multidimensional inequality framework” (2021). See the Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights; and E/C.12/2001/10. Josephine A. Odera and Judy Mulusa, “SDGs, gender equality and women’s empowerment: what prospects for delivery?”, in Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights, Markus Kaltenborn, Markus Krajewski and Heike Kuhn, eds. (Springer, 2020), pp. 95–118. Submission from SRI, IWRAW AP and AWID to the Working Group; and UNRISD, Crises of Inequality. See A/HRC/44/40. Submission from the Danish Institute for Human Rights; Open Space Association Deep Poverty Network Turkey; Ginette Azcona and Antra Bhatt, “Inequality, gender, and sustainable development: measuring feminist progress”, Gender & Development, vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 337–355. UNRISD, Crises of Inequality. UNU-WIDER, World Income Inequality Database (30 June 2022). Beth Goldblatt and Shirin M. Rai, “Remedying depletion through social reproduction: a critical engagement with the United Nations’ business and human rights framework”, European Journal of Politics and Gender, March 2020. Rosalba Todaro and Irma Arriagada, “Global Care Chains”, in Companion to Women’s and Gender Studies, Nancy A. Naples, ed. (Wiley, 2020). 7