Gender Equality
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SDG 5 – Gender Equality

Gender Equality

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Global scope

Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5), integrated into the United Nations 2030 Agenda, aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Its scope includes eliminating discrimination, violence, and harmful practices; recognizing unpaid domestic and care work; ensuring full participation in economic and public life; and guaranteeing equal access to resources, technology, and rights.

Gender equality is an essential requirement for sustainable development. When legal, social, and economic barriers for women and girls persist, societies’ ability to advance in inclusion, innovation, resilience, and sustainable growth is also limited. For this reason, SDG 5 has a cross-cutting nature and is connected to the whole of the 2030 Agenda.

Gender Equality
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Gender Equality
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Equality, sustainability, and social progress

However, structural obstacles that hinder this progress still remain, ranging from legal restrictions to inequalities in the distribution of care work or access to leadership positions.

In this context, the transition toward more sustainable and circular economies must also be inclusive. Promoting equitable work environments, ensuring opportunities for professional development, and encouraging women’s participation in strategic sectors contributes to a fairer, more innovative, and longer-lasting transformation.

Equal opportunities

Removing barriers and discrimination is essential so that women and girls can participate fully in economic, social, and public life on equal terms.

Shared responsibility and care

Recognizing and redistributing unpaid domestic and care work is a key condition for expanding women’s professional and social opportunities. In 2023, women and girls spent on average 2.5 times more hours on domestic and care work than men.

Leadership and participation

The presence of women in decision-making improves the quality of organizations and fosters more diverse, representative, and resilient models. Even so, progress remains slow in both politics and business management.

Innovation and access to resources

Equality also requires equitable access to technology, economic resources, and rights. Gaps in ownership, connectivity, and autonomy continue to show that there is still a long way to go to achieve truly inclusive progress.

Gender Equality
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The role of businesses

Businesses play a decisive role in achieving SDG 5 by promoting more equal, inclusive, and safe work environments. This means advancing equal opportunities, women’s leadership, work-life balance, training, the prevention of discrimination, and policies that support shared responsibility.

In addition, the private sector can accelerate change by integrating equality throughout the value chain, promoting diverse talent, and encouraging women’s participation in areas linked to innovation, sustainability, and the circular economy. Committing to equality is not only a social responsibility, but also strengthens competitiveness, adaptability, and long-term value creation.

Gender Equality
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Gender equality remains a global challenge

Despite the progress made in recent decades, the world is not on track to fully achieve SDG 5 by 2030. Legal barriers, the unequal distribution of care work, the persistence of harmful practices, and the slow pace of growth in women’s representation show that progress remains insufficient.

2.5
times more hours were spent by women and girls on unpaid domestic and care work than by men in 2023.
27.2%
of seats in national parliaments were held by women in 2024.
1/5
young women aged 20 to 24 were married or in a union before the age of 18.
Gender Equality
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Education to drive the circular economy

The circular economy depends not only on technological innovation, but also on training people capable of applying it. Incorporating sustainability into education and vocational training helps promote skills focused on waste prevention, eco-design, material reuse, and efficient resource management.

In this context, education becomes a strategic tool to accelerate the transition toward more circular and resilient models. Promoting knowledge and skills linked to sustainability helps build a more prepared, innovative, and responsible economy, capable of generating long-term environmental and social value.