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SDG 5: Gender Equality

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
SDG Goal

SDG 5 aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Despite progress, gender disparities persist in many areas, including political representation, workplace opportunities, and education, limiting the potential of women and girls.

How engineering can make it happen

Ensuring women’s access to technology and engineering will close many gender gaps, ensuring that women benefit from and participate in the technology revolution, which is critical to achieving the SDGs. Diversity of thought is vital for innovation and the development of solutions that reflect community standards, values, and aspirations. New technologies developed by engineers are increasingly empowering female users in work and entrepreneurship, including mobile communications and the internet, which facilitate women’s access to banking and financial and information services.

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Film courtesy of the Royal Academy of Engineers

Global progress

  • Three decades after the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, gender equality remains elusive. Despite progress, discriminatory laws and gender-based norms continue to hinder gender equality. Women remain underrepresented in decision-making and leadership roles and often lack autonomy over sexual and reproductive health, land rights, and technology access. Women’s disproportionate share of unpaid domestic and care work continues to limit their access to education, career opportunities, and political engagement, while harmful practices, such as child marriage and female genital mutilation, persist globally.
  • Well-designed public finance systems are essential for financing gender equality commitments. However, only 26% of 121 countries and areas have comprehensive systems to track resource allocations for gender equality – unchanged since 2021 – highlighting persistent capacity gaps in accurately costing, allocating, and spending resources to implement national gender equality laws and policies.
  • Achieving gender equality requires integrated, comprehensive, and gender-responsive policy packages that strengthen legal frameworks, reduce economic and structural barriers, and scale up investment in gender equality at all levels.

Source: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2025/

Key Stats

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