A/HRC/56/51 patriarchal political, legal and socioeconomic systems and institutions, ignoring the specific experiences and rights of girls and women. 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.47 31. The Working Group has highlighted that the meaningful participation of diverse groups of women and girls in conceptualizing, implementing and monitoring socioeconomic policies, norms and strategies, including by international economic institutions, is vital to realizing the right to be free from poverty, because this right cannot be achieved in isolation from individual and collective rights to substantive equality. The challenge is to move away from non-discrimination as a vehicle for the protection of individual rights towards the implementation of the relational and redistributive obligations that are an integral but, as yet, largely unrealized part of international human rights law.48 32. The Working Group has dedicated special attention to the world of work. Globally, women’s labour force participation rate stood at 47.4 per cent in 2022, compared with 72.3 per cent for men. 49 Women remain concentrated in the lowest-paid jobs and in vulnerable forms of employment, including in the informal sector. The global gender pay gap stands at 20 per cent and is even wider for women who experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. Mothers face a larger pay gap and dramatically lower retirement savings or pension contributions (the “motherhood penalty”). Furthermore, despite the growing number of laws addressing it, sexual harassment at work continues to be pervasive and dramatically unreported.50 33. The major trends affecting the world of work and shaping its future risk aggravating gender inequality and exacerbating the labour discrimination that women currently face, unless a gender perspective is adopted when examining and addressing them. Realizing women’s human rights in the changing world of work requires a fundamental transformation of the structure of work and the economy: current economic models exploit and thrive on women’s unpaid care and domestic work, while depleting their time and economic security. However, there are policy alternatives, which require reimagining the economy to focus on redistributing power and resources, generating decent work and placing value on the well-being and care of people and the planet.51 (c) Family and cultural life 34. The Working Group has noted the persistence of discriminatory prejudices and stereotypes that affect and constrain women’s and girls’ choices and opportunities throughout the life cycle.52 35. Within the home, many societies and ideologies expect women and girls to be governed by men. Several States maintain legal codes requiring married women to obtain their husband’s permission to leave the house or requiring all women to obtain the permission of a male “guardian” to engage in public activity.53 Legal provisions and social practices that restrict women’s agency and mobility on the basis of requirements of male guardianship are inherently discriminatory, humiliating and derogatory. They are blatant violations of women’s and girls’ right to equality and rights to freedom of movement, education, work, access to justice, and privacy and family life. The Working Group has recommended that States repeal all laws that support the patriarchal oppression of women in families. It has also recommended that States ensure that the right to equality has primacy over all religious and 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 GE.24-07559 A/HRC/53/39, paras. 11 and 21. Ibid., para. 48. ILO, World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2023 (Geneva, 2023), p. 12. A/HRC/44/51, paras. 12, 14 and 44. Ibid., para. 58. See A/HRC/41/33. Ibid., paras. 21 and 22. 9