Why we need to recommit to gender equality

This year, as the world celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8 under the theme “For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment,” we also mark the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action—a landmark global commitment to gender equality. This milestone offers an invitation to reflect on progress over the past three decades and also reinforces the urgency of advancing women’s and girls’ rights, challenging systemic inequalities, and reshaping power structures to ensure a more just and equitable world. Thirty years on from Beijing, we are witnessing a growing anti-gender agenda and an alarming backlash against girls’ and women’s rights, what CNN described as a “connected, well-funded and spreading” movement, both in the U.S. and globally.

This commentary shares insights from members of the Echidna Global Scholars Alumni Network working in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Kenya. Long-standing champions of gender equality in and through education, they leverage research grounded in their deep practical experience to inform action from the grassroots to the policy level. The Echidna Scholars highlight progress made, persistent challenges, and the critical actions needed to not only drive meaningful change for girls and women, but to promote more gender equal societies that bring economic, health and social benefits to us all. To ensure all women and girls have equal access to their rights, both in and through education, it is critical to reaffirm a commitment to gender justice and to push back against regressive forces that seek to undermine hard-won gains.

While India has made considerable progress in girls’ education over the past 30 years, gender equality in India is inseparable from caste, class, religion, geographic location, language, and skin color. At the lowest rung of the caste system, girls and young women in Dalit communities face overlapping challenges in exercising their right to quality education. Even when they access schooling, they experience prejudice, stigmatization, hostility, and humiliation from teachers and peers, harming their self-image. They also face corporal punishment, segregation in classroom seating and midday meals, restricted access to drinking water, and are sometimes forced to clean toilets, and sweep classrooms and school grounds–forms of discrimination that other girls and male students do not experience.

These challenges lead to high dropout rates. While Dalit girls’ elementary school enrollment is 99%, nearly two-thirds do not finish. Enrollment in higher education is less than half that of upper-caste women, and Dalit women who have gained access to higher levels of education report discriminatory practices such as segregation of hostels, denial of access to library facilities, and humiliating jokes like “Quote se aye ho ya kothe se” (Have you come via the quota system or a brothel?).

India’s 2011 census reported that Dalit women’s literacy rate, at 56.5%, lagged nearly 10 percentage points behind the national average for women. Until all girls, regardless of their caste, are able to exercise their education rights, their life prospects will continue to be significantly limited.

Similarly, although there have been significant improvements in girls’ education in Nepal over the past decades, challenges persist related to unique social and cultural norms based on geographical and cultural differences. At just 57%, the national literacy rate for women is nearly twenty percentage points behind that of men (75%). However, when we dig deeper, we see that the rate among girls in marginalized communities remains significantly lower, ranging from 14% to 28% in Dom, Mushar, Netuwa, and Champs-Harijan communities. These communities have historically faced caste-based discrimination and socioeconomic exclusion, including the practice of “untouchability,” influenced by the four fold Varna system of Hinduism. 

Although the Government of Nepal legally abolished and criminalized any caste-based discrimination in 1968, these communities continue to face challenges in accessing their right to education. By centering the lived experiences of girls within their social and cultural contexts, it becomes evident that they might be excluded from progressive educational reforms. The National Review Report (2001-2015) by the Ministry of Education acknowledges the significant education gaps among different castes and ethnic groups in Nepal, indicating the need for targeted interventions that address unique barriers related to factors such as class, caste, and cultural, as well as economic context.

Pakistan is one of the few countries where gender parity is not improving, and it ranks near the bottom of the gender parity index. In research we are conducting as part of the Learning and Action Alliance for Girls’ Agency (LAAGA), we’ve found that most girls are not allowed to make decisions about their lives, unlike their brothers or other boys of their age. Even when they aspire to improve their lives, they often lack the agency to do so. Many girls feel unprepared to make decisions or set goals for themselves, believing that they lack the necessary skills, confidence, and exposure to help them understand social issues. Typically the final decisionmakers, fathers, are key to girls’ agency. Although mothers may also influence their daughter’s decisions, girls who report being able to exercise agency often relate this to having support from their fathers.

When it comes to decisions girls can make, traveling and having a public life are among those most often restricted. Parents’ reluctance to allow these decisions typically stems from safety concerns, particularly due to the behavior of men and boys. Girls believe that if men and boys behave more responsibly and respectfully, neither they nor their parents would fear their participation in public life. This highlights how the role of male family members and men in society significantly affect the lives—and rights—of girls and young women in Pakistan. It also underscores how strongly girls’ agency is tied to the behavior of men and boys. Addressing social norms is essential to expanding girls’ autonomy and opportunities and advancing gender equality.

Throughout history, women and girls have borne the brunt of climate catastrophes, disasters, educational challenges, and economic hardships. Women worldwide play a crucial role in rebuilding communities and enhancing resilience, yet their contributions often go unrecognized. Rural women in Bangladesh have transformed the garment industry and economy, where they make up nearly two-thirds of the 4.5 million workers, yet they face barriers to advancement. In Afghanistan, women-led grassroots organizations continue to address vital needs in education, agriculture and enterprise despite significant challenges. In Vietnam, women participate almost equally in agriculture but face barriers to training and resources, limiting their impact. Globally, Indigenous and Afro-descendant women are essential in environmental conservation, yet they often lack legal recognition and funding.

Research also shows that higher female representation in government leads to more inclusive climate policies, though women are frequently excluded from decisionmaking in natural resource management and climate finance. From Leymah Gbowee’s peace movement in Liberia to grassroots resilience efforts in Bosnia, Türkiye, Syria, and Armenia, women have shaped lasting solutions. The UNDP stresses that gender-inclusive leadership results in better social and economic recovery. Studies show that peace agreements involving women are 35% more likely to last at least 15 years.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day 2025 under the theme “For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment,” let us renew our commitment to accelerate action, ensuring that every woman and girl is empowered, recognized, and provided the equal opportunities they deserve to lead and transform the world.

International Women’s Day holds profound significance as a global recognition of women’s achievements and struggles. Though long strides have been made in achieving gender equality, increasing girls enrollment at all levels of school inclusion, and inclusion in paid work and political spaces, there is a much longer road to travel. Our daughters and sisters are still vulnerable─still unsafe, unfree, and, in many cases, unwanted. The ongoing regression in women’s rights in various parts of the world, particularly in countries like the U.S. and Afghanistan, raises pressing concerns about the global commitment to gender equality.

In Afghanistan, the systematic erosion of women’s human right to education, to voluntarily engage in paid work outside the home, to free mobility under Taliban rule has reached alarming levels. While the world is 25 years into the 21st century, the Taliban continues to brazenly violate women’s most fundamental human rights to education, freedom of expression, and free mobility, with great impunity. The lack of global mobilization is deeply troubling, and the silence and inaction of global gender equality actors raises serious questions about commitments to gender equality.

Similarly, the situation in the U.S., a country that claims to be one of the strongest democracies in the world and a leader in human rights, presents another cause for concern.  The Supreme Court has taken away women’s rights to their own bodies, including their reproductive rights, by overturning Roe vs Wade. The Taliban does not pretend to be a democracy, but the US proudly claims to be one. How can they ignore the rights of one half of their population?

On this International Women’s Day, there must be a renewed commitment to standing in solidarity with women worldwide–whether they are fighting authoritarian oppression in Afghanistan or against regressive legal decisions in the United States. The struggle for gender equality is far from over, and this day should remind us that action is required.

Adolescent girls hold the key to prosperity for the African continent. With over 150 million adolescent girls calling Africa home, the potential for transformative change is immense. Africa currently stands at a crossroads, with its future prosperity hinged on the policy and investment decisions it makes today. The challenges adolescent girls face persist; over half of African adolescent girls aged 15-19 are out of school, married, or have children, compared to just 17 percent of boys in the same age range, highlighting the urgent need for action (CGD, 2024).

How can African countries overcome these challenges to ensure adolescent girls participate in school, learn, and achieve their potential, ultimately building human capital to become empowered and thrive?

To succeed, adolescent girls must obtain the skills and resources that will support them to exercise their agency, strengthen their autonomy and promote their prosperity in adulthood. Research in Kenya and Uganda as part of LAAGA (2023/2024) research series, have shown that adolescent girls need safety in and out of school, sanitary pads and necessary clothing, and financial support to cover school fees so they can remain in school and not be left behind in education. Importantly, they need their voices to be listened to and taken into consideration for decision making. Extensive research and consultations with adolescent girls, as well as with policy makers and practitioners, could address evidence and data gaps in programming and policy for adolescent girls’ empowerment through education. Girls look to their support systems—teachers, parents, government and community leaders, educators, and policymakers—to ensure they are not left behind. Let’s listen to them and bring them into the center of our actions and advocacy.

Pakistan’s social environment is marked by inequality, marginalization, and vulnerabilities affecting the majority of its population. With a Gender Parity Index ranking of 135 out of 166 countries, barriers to gender equality are systemic and embedded within interwoven economic, political, and social structures. Women and girls who experience multiple forms of marginalization often belong to lower income households.

Social challenges for adolescent girls and young women include stereotypical and gendered roles and power dynamics within homes and communities, pressure for early marriage, restrictions on mobility, and both real and perceived protection concerns. These challenges are deeply rooted in societal norms and limit opportunities for financially gainful activities for women, creating a cyclical phenomenon that exacerbates their financial woes and social burdens.

Recent conversations with adolescent girls and young women associated with the Aappa Aziz Trust in an urban slum area of Multan, South Punjab, Pakistan as part of LAAGA, confirmed the burden of societal gender norms that restrict the pursuit of their personal goals and aspirations. As explained by these girls, close knit social relations, such as neighbors and close relatives, raise objections to their mobility, influencing parental decisions. Another factor limiting their freedom is street harassment by young boys and men, which leads families to become overly protective. Additionally, financial hardship restricts their ability to pursue further education, develop skills, or start a business. To create opportunities for girls and young women to thrive and achieve their life goals and aspirations, it is imperative to ease restrictive social norms, put an end to gender-based violence in the form of street harassment by men and boys, and provide financial support for them.