Gender Equality

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxix

   PDF

2. A

   1. Access to Education and Gender Equality

      • Chhabi Kumar, Varun Pandey

      Pages 1-10

   2. Accessibility/Availability of Nutritious Food

      Pages 11-11

   3. Achieving Sustainable Development Goals Through Women’s Economic Empowerment

      • Fiona Dias

      Pages 11-20

   4. Action

      Pages 20-20

   5. Adolescence Empowerment, Sustainability, and Gender Equality

      • Mohammed Asaduzzaman, Md. Asad Ud-Daula

      Pages 20-31

   6. Adolescent Reproductive Health in South Asia: Issues and Challenges

      • Urmi Nanda Biswas

      Pages 32-41

   7. Affirmative Action Measures and Gender Equality: Review of Evidence, Policies, and Practices

      • Uduak Archibong, Kingsley Udie Utam

      Pages 41-53

   8. Artificial Intelligence, Gender, and Oppression

      • Alison Duncan Kerr

      Pages 54-64

3. B

   1. Bias

      Pages 65-65

   2. Bioethical Principles

      Pages 65-65

   3. Bioethics

      Pages 65-65

   4. Birth Control

      Pages 65-65

   5. Birth Spacing: Achieving Gender Equality Under Sustainable Development Goals

      • S. M. Haider Rizvi, Arpana N. Tirkey

      Pages 65-76

4. C

   1. Care Workers

      Pages 77-77

   2. Caregivers

      Pages 77-77

   3. Caregiving

      Pages 77-77

   4. Carers

      Pages 77-77

   5. Caring

      Pages 77-77

   6. CEDAW

      Pages 77-77

The problems related to the process of industrialisation such as biodiversity depletion, climate change and a worsening of health and living conditions, especially but not only in developing countries, intensify. Therefore, there is an increasing need to search for integrated solutions to make development more sustainable. The United Nations has acknowledged the problem and approved the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. On 1st January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Agenda officially came into force. These goals cover the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection.  

The Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals comprehensively addresses the SDGs in an integrated way. It encompasses 17 volumes, each devoted to one of the 17 SDGs. This volume addresses SDG 5, namely "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls" and contains the description of a range of terms, which allows a better understanding and fosters knowledge. This SDG is considered by many as a pivotal goal since the significant role of women in achieving sustainable development has always been acknowledged in several official UN declarations. Yet gender disparity is still rampant under various guises in various countries. Women’s rights need to be strongly safeguarded through legislation to ensure equal opportunities.

Concretely, the defined targets are:

• End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
• Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation
• Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation
• Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
• Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life
• Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences
• Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws 
• Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women
• Adopt and strengthensound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels

Editorial Board


Katarzyna Cichos, Vijaya Deshmukh, Melissa Haeffner, Sandra Hopkins, Tamara Hunt, Nerise Johnson, Chhabi Kumar, Julia Mambo, Anagha Paul, Andréia Faraoni Freitas Setti, Tony Wall

• Gender Equality
• Gender Stereotypes
• Equal Opportunities
• Economic Security
• Empowerment
• Violence against Women
• Forced Marriage
• Genital Mutilation
• Participation in Parliament
• Reproductive Health Care
• gender, sexuality and law

• European School of Sustainability Science and Research, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany

  Walter Leal Filho

• Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

  Anabela Marisa Azul

• Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, The University of Passo Fundo, Passo Fundo, Brazil

  Luciana Brandli

• The University of Passo Fundo, Passo Fundo, Brazil

  Amanda Lange Salvia

• International Centre for Thriving, University of Chester, Chester, UK

  Tony Wall

Walter Leal Filho (BSc, PhD, DSc, DPhil, DEd, DL, DLitt) is a Senior Professor and Head of the Research and Transfer Centre "Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management” at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany, and Chair of Environment and Technology at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He is the initiator of the Word Sustainable Development Symposia (WSSD-U) series, and chairs the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme. Professor Leal Filho has written, co-written, edited or co-edited more than 400 publications, including books, book chapters and papers in refereed journals.

Anabela Marisa Azul is a Researcher at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC) and the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research of the University of Coimbra (UC, Portugal). She holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences, specializing in Ecology (2002, UC), and pursued her investigation on biology and ecology of fungi to pinpoint the role of mycorrhizal symbiosis for sustainability of Mediterranean forests under different land use scenarios at the Centre for Functional Ecology (CFE-UC), where she became an Associate Researcher (from 2009 to 2014). At CFE-UC, Marisa Azul developed a holistic approach that combined innovation in food production with sustainable development and public scientific awareness to multiple actors. At CNC, from 2014 on, Marisa Azul focuses her investigation on basic research and participatory research dynamics to pinpoint links between metabolism, health/disease, and sustainability. She has broad academic experience as a researcher working in participatory research and interdisciplinary that link biomedical and life/environmental sciences, social sciences, science education, science communication, and artistic forms. Her research interests also lie in bringing together the academy and social/economical players. She has been successful in attracting national and international funding, coordinating projects, and mentoring young researchers on the topics mentioned. She has co-authored over 40 scientific publications and book chapters, co-edited 4 books on Climate Change Management Series and 1 onWorld Sustainability Series published by Springer, co-authored 4 books for children and 2 comics, and co-produced 1 animation.

Luciana Brandli, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the University of Passo Fundo, Brazil, working in the Ph.D. Program in Civil and Environment Engineering. Her current research interests include sustainability in higher education and green campus, management of urban infrastructure and sustainable cities, and the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development. She supervises a number of Master’s and Doctoral students on engineering and environment and sustainability issues and has in excess of 300 publications, including books, book chapters, and papers in refereed journals.



Amanda Lange Salviahas a degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Passo Fundo, Brazil, and graduate studies focused on sustainable cities and universities. Her work focuses on the Sustainable Development Goals, the role of universities towards sustainability and the impacts of climate change. Amanda has experience with international studies assessing aspects related to the 2030 Agenda and sustainability in higher education. She is reviewer of various journals and is also a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. 



Tony Wall (BSc Hons, PGDip, PGCHE, MA, MSc, EdD, MCIPD, NTFHEA) is a Professor, Founder and Director of the International Thriving at Work Research Group in the United Kingdom where he is the institutional lead for the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme. His research impact work has won multiple Santander International Research ExcellenceAwards and a National Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. Apart from being a visiting scholar in the US and Australia, his change work includes co-founding of the Washington Ethical Leadership Summit and the TS Eliot Foundation’s International Creative Practice for Wellbeing Framework.

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