UN Women introduces new policy brief series to pave the way for gender equality and women’s rights

What kinds of policies are needed to advance gender equality? How can we ensure policies are designed to promote and not constrain the realization of women’s rights?

It is through robust comparative policy analysis that we are able to understand what is needed to advance gender equality and women’s rights, and provide answers on how to get there. Although there are no “one-size-fits all” solutions, it is through policymaking that we can change the “rules of the game” for women and girls around the world.

The UN Women policy brief series synthesizes research findings, analysis and policy recommendations on gender equality and women’s rights in an accessible format. The series aims to bridge the research and policy divide by identifying areas that require urgent policy attention and propose a set of suitable measures to address them.

The series offers a carefully considered collection of concise, high-quality policy-oriented documents on issues that are current and timely, which can be used to enrich and inform policy debates and influence policymaking processes.

We kick off this series with four briefs that draw on some policy areas identified in Progress of the World’s Women 2015–2016: Transforming economies, realizing rights. The briefs prescribe key policy measures on increasing access to social protection and services and shaping macroeconomic policies that are rights-based and gender-responsive.

• Policy brief no. 1:  Making national social protection floors work for women
  This brief highlights promising ways to make social protection floors work for women through integrating gender into the design and implementation of programmes that promote income security across the life cycle.
• Policy brief no. 2: Gender equality, child development and job creation
  This brief shows how to reap the “triple dividend” from early childhood education and care services, in terms of facilitating women’s labour force participation, enhancing children’s capabilities and creating decent jobs in the paid care sector.
• Policy brief no. 3: Protecting women’s income security in old age
  Women not only live longer than men but are also less likely to enjoy income security and economic independence in old age. This brief shows how pension systems can be transformed to reduce gender gaps and protect women’s income security in old age.
• Policy brief no. 4: Why macroeconomic policy matters for gender equality
  This brief lays out the key problems with current macroeconomic policies, which ignore the differential impact of economic policy choices on women and men and provides building blocks for an alternative macroeconomic agenda that is rights-based and gender-responsive.