Gender mainstreaming is the main theme at the side event of the Empowerment of Women WG

Attended by the Minister of Women, Cida Gonçalves, and Brasil's first lady, sociologist Janja Lula da Silva, G20 working and engagement groups met in Brasília to share experiences and present their results and considerations on the gender agenda, focusing on the rights of girls and women. The side event is part of the program of the Women's Empowerment Working Group, which held its first-ever ministerial meeting on October 11th.

Is a fairer world and a more sustainable planet possible without guaranteeing the rights of women and girls? The answer is no, and that's why the Women's Empowerment Working Group (WG) has been working for gender mainstreaming at the G20 throughout the year. “We are not the parallel, we are not what they allowed us to be. We are what we have achieved through our battles. Being here is the result of those battles, the result of the commitment of several movements,” declared Cida Gonçalves, Brasil's Minister of Women, during the opening of the last side event of the Working Group, which focused on this very topic.

With significant participation from other working groups, engagement groups, and international entities, the Ministry of Women, in partnership with the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), organized the side event “Integration of Gender Perspective and Women's Empowerment in the G20”. The meeting preceded the Group's Ministerial Meeting and discussed the intersection of the topics related to women and girls with the other themes of the forum, in order to strengthen the movement for world leaders to address gender issues. 

“Currently, women and girls make up the majority of the population living in poverty and food insecurity. Women face the greatest obstacles to accessing land, drinking water, education, health, work, and financial inclusion. Especially when we consider factors such as race and ethnicity. We all know this: we women are underrepresented in parliaments, executive and judicial branches, as well as in multilateral governance systems, and we need to change that,” explained sociologist Janja Lula da Silva, first lady of Brasil, who also attended the event's opening. Janja also stated that South Africa has already committed to continuing the debates on gender.

A G20 committed to girls and women 

The recent Women's Empowerment Working Group is meeting for the first time in Brasil to ensure that gender issues are included in other declarations and announcements. The group has not hesitated to establish connections with other working and engagement groups. The Ministry of Women has secured important achievements, which were presented during the event.

During the Bioeconomy Initiative in September, it committed to promoting gender equality and the participation of all interested parties by establishing the 10 High-Level Principles on the Bioeconomy;

The Agriculture WG, following five years without consensus, approved a ministerial declaration committed to creating “agricultural policies for small farmers, indigenous peoples, women and young people, integrating new technologies and traditional knowledge to face the challenges of modern agriculture;”

The Employment WG approved a ministerial declaration recognizing the care economy as an important factor in promoting women's financial autonomy;

The Trade and Investment WG carried out a study indicating that the care workload is one of the barriers preventing women from accessing the external labor market;

The Energy Transitions WG addressed energy poverty, which mainly affects women, and at a side event to its Ministerial Meeting, the Ministry of Mines and Energy launched the “National Policy for the Promotion of Clean Cooking”, the first integrated policy for universal access to clean cooking technologies in Brasil;

The Disaster Risk Reduction WG held a side event at Complexo do Alemão to discuss the fight against inequalities and empowerment in favelas and urban communities;

The G20 Finance Track held an unprecedented side event focused on women's equality and empowerment in building a fair world and a sustainable planet.

In the G20 Social, the Women's Empowerment WG conducted debates and made suggestions with the groups W20 (Women); Y20, (Youth); B20 (Business); C20 (Civil Society); among others. Of the 13 G20 engagement groups, 8 were present at the meeting held on October 10th.

In addition to the presentations of the work and achievements related to women's and girls' rights in the debates at the G20 this year, the meeting was also an opportunity for dialogue between women and demands for a greater female presence in the spaces “where the pen is held” for political and economic decisions. The considerations made at the event are the basis for the ministerial meeting at the G20 headquarters in Brasília, on October 11th.

Information from the Ministry of Women

Translated by PGET-UFSC

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