"Women are leaders everywhere you look - from the CEO running a Fortune 500 company to the stay-at-home mom raising her children and running her household. Our country was built by strong women, and we will continue to break down walls and challenge stereotypes", Nancy Pelosi.
Traditionally, we relate the word sustainability to the environmental dimension, and indeed this is one of the basic pillars of the concept. But sustainability also refers to all those actions and relationships that allow life to continue, be they social, political, ecological and economic. It is a process that seeks to develop the living conditions necessary to achieve quality of life and well-being for all populations around the planet, not just human beings. In this way, we can hardly speak of sustainability without mentioning equity.
In a world full of gaps, equity is necessary in many areas, one of the most important of which is gender. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals integrate as a transversal axis and as one of the key objectives equality and empowerment of women. In addition to being a right, guaranteeing gender equity is an opportunity to join ideas, capacities and solutions and to face the challenges that affect all of humanity. As Rosaly Yalow rightly said: "the world cannot afford the loss of the talents of half the people, if we are here to solve the multitude of problems that concern us."
And while we celebrate the differences that allow each gender to have a distinctive and unique role in society, we do not celebrate the lack of equity. The major inequalities between men and women are evident every day in access to education and health, positions of power and the social divide. At the environmental level, women are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, especially in developing countries, such as much of Latin America. At a higher rate than men, women are responsible for ensuring the availability of water, food, heating, health care and protection for their families. In many regions, the effects of climate change and conditions of poverty make it more difficult to ensure the availability of these resources.
Women also spend more time on unpaid domestic work. And although they produce more than half of the food grown in the world, they have less access to resources such as land and credit. In Latin America, women own less than 20% of the land and 1 in 3 women have no income of their own,[1] which limits their decision-making power over monetary resources and creates even more risk for them and their families compared to men. Certainly, the gaps have narrowed and as a society we are still experiencing the consequences of this inequity.
However, and specifically: Why is the involvement of women in sustainability issues considered key? According to the UN[2], it has been shown that women tend to consider the welfare of their families and communities when making decisions. The same is true for political or public investment decisions where there is a strong concern for social development. Ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls is not only a basic human right, but also key to accelerating sustainable development. It has been proven time and again that empowering women and girls has a multiplier effect and helps to promote economic growth and social and environmental development regionally and globally.
Above all, this panorama is worrisome because there is little female representation in debate forums, research, scientific information management, decision-making and investment positions at all levels. The good news is that the dimension of equity has already been integrated into the international political agenda, where governments are called upon to break down legal barriers to women's economic empowerment.
Given this situation, the question then arises: "how to get more women involved in sustainability issues? It is important to promote, support and encourage the creation of educational opportunities and encourage more women to work in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) sector. (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Also, more women are needed in leadership and decision making at the entrepreneurial, committee and at the level of entrepreneurship, business management committees and in government positions. Women need to be given the opportunity to find innovative ways to support the process of adapting to environmental challenges in every facet of their lives.
Therefore, when we talk about sustainability, it is not only about motivating global development that respects the environment, when we speak of sustainability, it is not only a question of motivating global development that respects the environment, but also of equitable development that allows women to participate, without exception, in all social, economic and political environments under equal conditions and with equal rights.without exception, in all social, economic and political environments under equal conditions and with equal rights. Sustainable development will not be possible without gender equity, and as a society we must be clear that as Muhammad Ali said: "no struggle can succeed without women participating side by side with men.".
This article was originally published in INCATRAZ magazine and was written by Priscila Picado Valenzuela, a student of the MBA Latin American Leadership II.
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[1] ECLAC 2012. Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean. Available at https://oig.cepal.org/sites/default/files/nota_para_la_igualdad_4_rio_20....
[2] UN Women. Available at http://www.unwomen.org/es/what-we-do/economic-empowerment/sustainable-de....
