20th March 2026
10 mins
South Africa’s Marriage Bill must truly protect women and girls
Across many legal systems, discriminatory family laws, gaps in economic rights, barriers to education, and weak protections against exploitation continue to undermine women’s independence and long-term financial security.
Economic justice is foundational to gender equality. Women and adolescent girls can only achieve economic independence and long-term financial security when they are legally recognised as equal economic actors – able to own property, access land and credit, inherit and manage wealth, and work without discrimination or coercion.
By working to achieve equality in personal and marital status laws and economic rights frameworks, we are helping to create a world in which women and girls are empowered to build sustainable livelihoods and claim their rights – such that they are less vulnerable to violence and exploitation, and more able to flourish as part of strong and vibrant communities.
A world where women’s and girls’ economic rights, means of sustainable livelihoods, and economic independence are protected in the law.
Governments to reform or adopt 20 laws and policies that eliminate barriers to women’s and girls’ economic agency.
100m women and girls will stand to benefit from increased legal protection and access to justice under international law with regard to economic agency.
“It’s a strategy for the hundreds of millions of women and girls who don’t have the same economic freedom or agency as men. To work, to learn, to own property… to thrive.”
Discriminatory family laws
We will advance economic justice for women and girls by addressing family laws rooted in patriarchal norms that restrict women’s access to assets, income, and equal participation in society – including those governing personal status, marital wealth, divorce, inheritance, property and land ownership, contracting, parental care/leave, and child custody.
Discriminatory nationality laws
We will also continue to advocate for the reform of laws that prevent women from passing their nationality to their children or spouses, perpetuate statelessness, restrict access to public services, and create barriers to education and employment, to ensure that women and their families can enjoy full civic and economic inclusion.
Child, early and forced marriage and unions (CEFMU)
In addition to advocating for laws to ban child and forced marriage, the closure of legal loopholes that enable CEFMU, and an end to laws that ban girls from education due to pregnancy or motherhood, we will continue to push for policies that aim to address the root causes and drivers of CEFMU as well as policies and programmes designed to dismantle practical barriers to girls accessing education.
Importance of worldwide collective action
With our work on economic justice spanning diverse legal systems, it is essential that we collaborate closely with organisations around the world, with critical partnerships including the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law, the Hurra Coalition in MENA, and the Africa Family Law Network.
Campaigns with specific outcomes relating to this priority are:
Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law (GCEFL), Equality in Family Law (MENA), Equality in Family Law (Africa)
Ensuring that egalitarian family laws are passed, implemented, and secured, with discriminatory family laws and practices reformed and repealed across the world.
End Child Marriage (Africa)
Ensuring that the legal ecosystem in Africa encompasses mechanisms to prevent and address child or forced marriage, and that survivors have access to justice and adequate services.
End Child Marriage (US)
Ensuring that every state sets the minimum age of marriage at 18 with no exceptions, and all legal loopholes are removed from federal laws.
End Child, Early, and Forced Marriage and Unions (global)
Ensuring that protection against CEFMU and the need for strong, comprehensive laws and policies, with an ecosystem approach to addressing CEFMU, are prioritised as part of a global agenda.
End Child, Early, and Forced Marriage (Eurasia)
Ensuring that the legal ecosystem around women and girls encompasses mechanisms to prevent and address child or forced marriage, and that survivors have access to justice and adequate services.
Nationality Rights (global and Africa)
Ensuring that governments in targeted countries around the world amend sex/gender discriminatory nationality laws.
Developed with the Women’s Human Rights Training Institute (WHRTI), the EJA will be a pioneering global learning space, providing training in international law, strategic litigation, feminist jurisprudence, and media advocacy, as well as creating opportunities for knowledge sharing and movement strengthening.
More than just a training platform, the EJA will be an engine for legal and systemic change at scale – equipping a diverse and growing network of actors to follow proven best practice and advance economic justice and broader gender equality everywhere.
Tell us what you think about how we’re centring economic justice for women and girls, and where you think you can make a difference.
Securing rights. Transforming futures.