Bangladesh: With help from Oxfam partner JAGO NARI, Dulu Begum has become a community leader and an outspoken advocate for reducing disaster risks. Photo: Elizabeth Stevens/Oxfam.
Gender equality
We seek gender equality because all lives — hers, theirs and his — are equal.
Vanuatu: Yannick, Ivanka and Peter outside the Vanuatu Pride (VPride) office. Photo: Arlene Bax/Oxfam. Oxfam acknowledges the support of the Australian Government through the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP).
OUR APPROACH
Gender equality is achieved when people of all genders and sexual orientations have the opportunity to exercise and enjoy equal rights.
All around the world, women, girls and people of diverse genders and sexualities are more likely than men to face discrimination and violence, and to live in poverty. They are also less likely to have the power to change their circumstances.
Gender inequality is a human construct, and we can overcome it. It is caused by gender bias in our systems, structures and attitudes, which create an environment where women, girls and people of diverse genders and sexualities are denied their rights to learn, earn equal pay and hold leadership positions.
Oxfam Australia recognises that many factors drive discrimination, including colonisation, location, social class, (dis)ability status, age, language, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity. As identities are complex and overlapping, a person might face multiple forms of exclusion. For example, someone from a minority gender, sexual identity or racial background, who also has a disability, faces multiple disadvantage when it comes to enjoying equal rights.
Economic empowerment and equal opportunities
Women and girls face discrimination at home, at school and in the workplace, which means they do not have the same opportunities as men to earn a fair income. Girls are less likely to go to school, and women and girls largely bear the responsibility of unpaid care and household work.
To achieve gender equality, girls must be able to attend school alongside boys. Women, LGBTQIA+ people and people living with a disability must have the opportunity to develop the skills they need to earn an income.
