Women and Women's Rights

As research definitively establishes a link between gender equality and global prosperity, more countries have sought to remove the economic barriers women face and foster their participation. In the United States, Congress is taking steps to ensure that U.S. trade policies enable opportunities for and do not discriminate against women: Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) recently introduced legislation to strengthen standards for women’s and workers’ rights for countries receiving U.S. trade preferences. Senator Bob Casey, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, and Heather Hurlburt discuss why and how U.S. trade policy should protect and promote women’s rights and opportunities.

COVID-19 responses that ignore the pandemic’s disproportionate effects on women and girls risk exacerbating gender inequities and posing additional social and economic costs around the world. Women are on the frontlines, representing 70 percent of the healthcare workforce, holding more jobs in industries without leave, and carrying the burden of childcare. They are experiencing higher unemployment rates than men, spikes in intimate partner violence, and barriers to accessing necessary healthcare. Elissa Golberg, assistant deputy minister for strategic policy at Global Affairs Canada, and Theo Sowa, chief executive officer of the African Women’s Development Fund, discuss how Canada’s international assistance and local women’s organizations are protecting gender equality during COVID-19.

The international debate on prostitution and sex trafficking continues as COVID-19 spreads, with the United Nations warning that the pandemic has exacerbated the many risks to those harmed in the sex industry. Our speaker Catharine A. MacKinnon, Elizabeth A. Long professor of law at the University of Michigan and James Barr Ames visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School, discusses this debate under current conditions and in the long term.

Last year, the International Labor Organization (ILO) adopted the first-ever global convention on workplace violence and harassment. Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the nature of work, forcing millions of employees to fulfill their jobs remotely, while many others perform essential services on the frontlines, often without recourse when abusive situations arise. Please listen to our speaker Manuela Tomei, director of the workquality department at the ILO, discuss workplace violence and harassment during the COVID-19 pandemic.