At Equality Now, we know that discriminatory laws don’t reverse themselves and change is not possible unless we all work together. We are tenacious in our mission to ensure that every woman and girl is equal.
It is a long journey but our hope comes from the courage of survivors we work with, whose voices change the status quo. And it comes from you, as we stand together to uphold the ideal that every woman should live safe, fearless and free.
Here are seven reasons you should donate to Equality Now this #GivingTuesday:
1. There are only six countries in the world where there is no legal inequality between men and women. We’re working to change that.
There is legal inequality between men and women in almost every country in the world, except Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg and Sweden, according to the World Bank’s Women Business and the Law Report 2019.
Without equality in the law, there can never be equality in society. At Equality Now, we encourage governments to adopt, improve and enforce laws that protect and promote the rights of women and girls around the world.
2. We believe gender equality is an American value. So we’re working to enshrine it in the U.S. constitution.
We are supporting grassroots efforts to get Virginia to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in January 2020, which would finally enshrine gender equality in the U.S. Constitution.
3. Women and girls are being excluded from education. We’re using the law to challenge that too.
Educational inequality happens around the world every day, but in Tanzania this inequality is sanctioned by the law. For the last 59 years, Tanzania has had a discriminatory ban that denies pregnant school girls their right to education. In the past 4 years this ban has been reinforced by various political pronouncements. It prohibits girls from accessing education, not just for the duration of their pregnancy but even after it too. Equality Now is working with our partners on the ground to urge Tanzania to lift the discriminatory ban and #LetGirlsLearn.
4. Girls are being subjected to FGM on every continent except Antarctica. We are part of the movement to end it.
We know that FGM occurs on every continent except Antarctica, and across all geographical, cultural, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds. While the reasons for performing FGM vary, it is always rooted in the desire to control women and girls’ bodies. FGM has no medical benefits; but the trauma of undergoing FGM can stay with girls throughout their lives and set them up for a lifetime of health problems, including recurrent urinary tract infections, difficulties in child birth and painful menstrual periods. At least 200 million women and girls are living with the reality of FGM and every year an additional 3.9 million girls are at risk. Equality Now works around the world to end FGM, your donation will support this work as we push for the end of this human rights violation.
UPDATE: In 2024, new statistics were released by UNICEF showing 230 million women and girls around the world are affected by FGM, a 15% increase or 30 million more girls and women being subjected to FGM, compared to the data released eight years ago. This figure now includes data on FGM prevalence in Asia (80 million), the Middle East (6 million), and countries which have small practicing communities and are destination countries for migration (1-2 million).
5. Legal systems don’t protect victims of rape. We are holding governments accountable.
Rape is a global epidemic that will affect over a billion women over the course of their lifetime. Around the world, 35 percent of women have experienced either physical and/or sexual violence. 120 million girls worldwide will have experienced sexual violence at some point in their lifetimes. Laws like estupro pose a lesser penalty for the rape of an adolescent girl than for a younger child or adult woman. Such laws exist in many Latin American countries, including Bolivia, and let rapists slip through a legal loophole that robs survivors of a chance to obtain justice. Similar scenarios play out in some courtrooms and within certain legal systems around the world every day. But you can support Equality Now to help change that. Working together, we can end sexual violence.
6. Women in Lebanon don’t have equal citizenship rights to men. We’re campaigning to change that.
This year, along with the Committee for the Follow Up on Women Issues (CFUWI) we prepared a draft nationality law for Lebanon.The draft law, as opposed to most existing draft nationality laws, is based on complete gender equality, giving Lebanese mothers the same legal rights to pass on their nationality to their children and spouses as their male counterparts. All women should have equal nationality rights and this has been a core campaign for Equality Now for the past 27 years. Your support will continue this work as we pressure every government to ensure their citizens have equal nationality rights.
7. We are experts in International Gender Equality.
On December 2nd, Equality Now was awarded the International Gender Equality Prize by the Government of Finland. Finland’s Minister for Nordic Cooperation and Equality, Thomas Blomqvist, presented the award to Equality Now’s Global Executive Director, Yasmeen Hassan, in the city of Tampere, Finland.
Today is #GivingTuesday and there is no better time to make a donation that will reclaim the rights of women and girls around the world.
In the UK? To make a donation in UK pounds sterling and boost your donation with gift aid, click here.
Thank you for standing with us to make equality reality.