A/HRC/35/29 that addressed the patriarchal context and women’s historical disenfranchisement and ongoing discrimination. 38. While this good practice has enabled the participation of more than 10 million rural women in local politics, it has not led to greater political participation of women at higher levels of governance. Indeed, the Government has yet to be successful in adopting quotas or parity laws for women at higher levels of government, raising questions regarding the limits and sustainability of continued growth in women’s political participation and access to power. Key lessons 39. The adoption of parity laws or quotas for women is a good practice to combat the manifold barriers to women’s political participation and to ensure immediate representation of women in political bodies. 40. Policies must be implemented in tandem with quotas to mitigate the effects of historical discrimination and to support women’s success and impact in politics, including capacity-building performed in tandem with autonomous women’s organizations as well as regional or international partners. 2. Economic and social life 41. Women’s right to equality in economic and social life as enshrined in multiple human rights treaties is substantive, immediate and enforceable. States are obliged to act with due diligence to prevent discrimination of those rights by any actors and to ensure their fulfilment. Yet women continue to experience discrimination in all areas of economic and social life. The feminization of poverty, particularly in contexts of crisis and austerity, is a well-documented phenomenon. Gender stereotypes perpetuate women’s economic and social marginalization, exclude them from the labour market and place a disproportionate burden on them for unpaid, low paid or informal work. Intersectional discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, age, disability, sexual identity or orientation, among others, disproportionately marginalizes particular groups of women. 42. Good practice in promoting women’s equality and empowerment in economic and social life requires measures that support equal opportunity, accommodation for genderspecific needs and equal enjoyment of benefits. In accordance with international standards, equal opportunities, equal pay for work of equal value, paid maternity leave in accordance with international standards and parental leave for both men and women must be legally mandated in both formal and informal employment sectors. Women must be fully integrated into economic policymaking both at the State level and in financial institutions that determine economic policy in practice. Women and economic crisis 43. The following case study originated in a country in the Western region with a strong commitment to gender equality, owing in large part to a history of organization by women’s that contributed to a wide acceptance of feminism in society and shaped progressive government policies. Nevertheless, inequality included a persistent gender wage gap; high gender segregation of the labour market, including women’s low leadership levels in the private sector; and prevalent gender-based violence. 44. Nonetheless, social awareness of women’s issues in the country was uniquely strong, creating an ameliorating environment for mobilization around feminist analyses of social, political and economic issues. This was evidenced in 2008 when the complete collapse of the country’s banking system led to a major financial crisis. Widespread protests precipitated a change in Government and led to the election of a feminist Government headed by a woman, who appointed women to most cabinet roles, including the Ministries of the Economy and Finance. The new administration commissioned an analysis of the banking crisis to build upon existing feminist critiques of the masculinist financial culture of unfettered risk and neoliberal policies as major causative factors. The research confirmed those critiques and highlighted the effects of increasing privatization of 9