Gender, Innovation & Research

Last week the European Commission published its ‘She Figures 2021’ report, which monitors progress towards gender equality in research and innovation, both key factors in the green transition.

It shows that the gender gap in education is shrinking, but that women are still under-represented in research and innovation career, particularly when it comes to decision-making positions.

For example, in the EU in 2018, women represented more than 40% of academic staff on average. However, going up in the academic ladder, women make up only one-fourth (26.2%) of grade A positions (equivalent for full professorship position).

The pandemic has exacerbated the risks for women and girls across the region. Yet women have taken up essential roles in the response as front-line health care workers as well as in their homes. Many of the hard-fought gains have been reversed, and existing inequalities deepened. Even before the pandemic, women and girls in Asia and the Pacific spent up to 11 hours a day on unpaid care and domestic work – four times more than men.

How can we better address these vulnerabilities? Read the report to learn more about the unpaid care economy and how it has impacted women and girls during the pandemic:

There can be no just transition without gender justice.

Indeed, the pandemic has drawn attention to a trio of interlocking crises that systematically undermine gender equality: jobs, care and climate.

In response, UN Women’s new “Feminist plan” provides a visionary but practical roadmap for putting gender equality, social justice, and sustainability at the centre of the recovery and transformation.

Visit the webpage to find our more.

New SSE Gender Equality Database

The United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) new Gender Equality Database tracks and ranks stock exchanges of the G20 by the gender balance of issuer's boards. The monitoring tool represents a step forward in examining the contribution exchanges can make toward SDG target 5.5: ensure women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic, and public life.

Financing, Gender in NDCs Highlighted at COP 26 Side Events

While gender is increasingly being acknowledged by and incorporated into NDCs, challenges remain for developing best practices for integrating gender into future NDCs.

The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) organized several discussions on the sidelines of COP26 to share ways to integrate gender into countries' NDCs under the Paris Agreement.

Prime minister Narendra Modi has big plans to expand palm oil production in the region, saying it can be a “gamechanger” for the economy and boost the nation’s self-reliance. But in areas that have pioneered palm oil production, it has brought little wealth at a heavy cost for the environment and workers.

Experts warn that the policy is likely to drive deforestation, putting India’s wildlife and climate goals at risk, while disempowering women.

“In monoculture farming women are the ones who are at loss, primarily because it takes place in big chunks of lands which are mostly entitled to the male’s name. The cash which comes from monoculture farming comes in bulk and goes to the men in the family, so there is less petty cash left for the woman in the house.”

Leaders and campaigners warned that the climate crisis could not be ended without the empowerment of women.
Women and girls around the world suffer disproportionately from the impacts of climate breakdown, as they are on average poorer, less educated and more dependent on subsistence farming. A UN report found 80% of those displaced by the climate emergency are women.

New analysis details how trade policy affects women's participation in the economy. Learn more about the possible policy solutions we can adopt to develop inclusive growth through diversified trade.

UNDP, in partnership with UN Women, OECD and other members of a consortium of global organisations, are collaborating on a new tool:
the COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker, with a green lens.

Set to launch at the 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2022, the new tool builds on the success of two existing policy databases to help identify the level of alignment between countries’ COVID-19 recovery measures and their SDG commitments.