War, violent conflict, terrorism and violent extremism have different and devastating consequences for women and girls. In the face of these, women all over the world lead movements to prevent conflict, restore peace and rebuild communities. The women, peace and security agenda was formally established in 2000 by a unanimous Security Council decision. This year’s Security Council’s annual open debate on women, peace and security will focus on investing in the contribution of local women to peacekeeping, peacebuilding and transitional settings during and following UN peace operations.

More than 217 million women and girls in the world who want to avoid getting pregnant aren’t using effective contraceptives. UNFPA helps countries increase access to voluntary family planning.

UN Women is committed to #StayandDeliver in Afghanistan, where recent rollbacks on women’s rights have evoked fear for Afghan women and girls. UN Women Afghanistan Deputy Representative Alison Davidian breaks down this urgent situation, highlighting key areas for action to support the immediate and long-term needs of Afghan women and girls. 

UNESCO and the L'Oréal Foundation unveil the winners of this year’s International Prize for Women in Science, which honours five eminent women scientists with exceptional careers from the five regions of the world.

The progress Afghanistan has made in increasing freedom and rights and dramatically lowering maternal mortality must not be erased or eroded. UNFPA is on the ground in Afghanistan working with its partners to ensure access to life-saving reproductive health and protection services at community, village and district levels and in camps. Guided by the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, UNFPA is committed to delivering in Afghanistan, with our response grounded in our mission to uphold the rights of girls and women.

Across all regions, women are paid less than men. The International Equal Pay Day (18 September) represents the longstanding efforts towards the achievement of equal pay for work of equal value. It further builds on the United Nations commitment to human rights and against all forms of discrimination, including discrimination against women and girls. This year’s observance focuses on encouraging efforts of key labour market actors to ensure that equal pay remains central to pandemic responses worldwide and to fully recognize the contributions of women to COVID-19 recovery.

Engaging women and girls to develop safe, inclusive, and accessible public spaces is one of the core principles of UN-Habitat’s global commitment to building better and more resilient cities.

We all have the potential to create meaningful change in the world around us. Whether by educating family and friends, speaking up on social media, challenging stereotypes through creative expression or otherwise, we can each promote gender equality and #ActForEqual every single day. In the run up to the 2021 Generation Equality Forum UN Women asked artists globally to visualize what gender equality means to them and received more than 1000 inspirational submissions from creative advocates all over the world.

Rape is widespread all over the world, and all countries, as well as the UN, need to do more to improve legislation to improve conviction rates and protect women, Dubravka Šimonović, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, has told UN News.

In her last report for the UN in the role, entitled: Rape as a grave and systematic human rights violation and gender-based violence against women, Ms. Šimonović, a highly experienced independent human rights expert, calls for governments to ensure that rape laws are in line with international human rights legislation which, she says, has evolved significantly over recent decades.

Speaking to UN News’s Conor Lennon, Ms. Šimonović said that impunity remains a major problem.

UN Women invites women’s and feminist organizations, government and private entities to make bold commitments for equality at the Generation Equality Forum, from 30 June to 2 July.

What does supermodel and UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador Natalia Vodianova have inside her bag? Watch as she shows us the essential items women just can't live without.

Mothers already shouldered tremendous financial, physical, emotional, and intellectual burdens before the onset of the pandemic. But now ‒ under increasing economic pressures, reduced access to health care, diminishing social support and growing unpaid care responsibilities ‒ many of these burdens have become crushing. All of this is taking a toll on the long-term health and welfare of mothers. Women have been disproportionately affected by pandemic-related job losses, and researchers are starting to see signs of rising stillbirths, maternal mortality and poor maternal health outcomes around the world. 

The new reality, due to the pandemic, has left many mothers scrambling. With schools and day-cares closed, many were forced to leave their jobs or cut the hours they worked. New IMF estimates confirm the outsized impact on working mothers, and on the economy. Within the world of work, women with young children have been among the biggest casualties of the economic lockdowns. Three countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain—illustrate the varied impact of the pandemic on workers.

A Yemeni woman improves lives and changes minds

In war-torn Yemen, women are often the first victims