In Focus: Striving for gender equality
End discrimination against girls in Europe and Central Asia
Highlights
Countries across the Europe and Central Asia region have narrowed some of the most glaring gender gaps in recent decades. Yet discrimination and patriarchal attitudes still limit the life chances of millions of girls and young women and hold back social and economic progress for entire nations.
Unless something changes – and fast – it will be another 100 years before the Europe and Central Asia region achieves the equality that should be achieved by 2030, the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Successes in the region include equal rates of primary and secondary enrolment for boys and girls, and a growing number of girls going to college or university. But they mask problems elsewhere, including a lack of women’s representation in political life and their limited economic power, as well as their heavy burden of unpaid care duties. There are also concerns about lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services, about child marriage and sex-selective abortion, and the relentless prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV).
Boys in the region face their own challenges – often severe. Many boys do not complete secondary school and face heavy pressures to earn money or migrate for work. The stress of having to conform to outdated ideals of masculinity can be too much for some, leading to high rates of mental health problems and even suicide.
These challenges are rooted in patriarchal gender norms that shape the lives of girls and boys. They are most acute for those who are already marginalized, including rural and migrant girls and women, those with disabilities, single mothers and those from ethnic minorities. And they start early, with gender stereotypes defining the behaviour expected of girls and boys from their earliest moments and becoming increasingly entrenched as they grow up.
On top of these existing challenges, we see increasingly vocal opposition to gender equality, with the region affected – like other parts of the world – by a ‘push-back’ against the human rights agenda. There is now a real risk that, far from moving towards gender equality, the region could see its fragile progress unravel as funding dwindles and the policy focus shifts elsewhere in response to populist pressures.
UNICEF makes the case for a continued focus on – and resources for – the gender equality that benefits entire societies. Our vision for Europe and Central Asia is a region where nobody is left behind because of who they are – a region where everybody has equal opportunities to thrive, to learn, to be protected, and to be connected and included in their communities.
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Key facts
Key policy frameworks
Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
- Article 2: All rights apply to all children in every country without discrimination of any kind, regardless of their sex or other status.
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979)
- Article 1: “discrimination against women” is defined as any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex that undermines the fulfilment of women’s human rights and fundamental freedoms.
- Article 2: States Parties condemn discrimination against women in all its forms, and agree to pursue, “by all appropriate means and without delay”, policies to eliminate it.
Challenges
The ‘absence’ of women in politics. If women are not present – and represented – at the highest levels of political life, they are less likely to be heard, and less likely to be considered in policies and programmes. The absence of women in political leadership also reinforces a perception that this is a purely male domain. Progress in women’s political representation has been slow in the Europe and Central Asia region. In 2023, for example, women held around 26 per cent of parliamentary seats, limiting the number of role models who can inspire girls and young women to enter politics.
A lack of economic power. While women outperform men in education, and more than half of them are in the labour force, they do not get their fair share of the economic rewards. Gender stereotypes often skew girls’ educational ‘choices’, steering them towards the kind of work that is seen as suitable, and many end up in low-paying jobs in the informal sector. They are, for example, less likely to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (the STEM subjects) than boys, and account for just one third of graduates from STEM programmes in further education. Yet they are over-represented in studies and careers linked to traditionally accepted roles for women in education, health and welfare – as frontline workers in traditionally low-paying and underfunded sectors.
The burden of care and domestic work. Girls and women carry a disproportionate load of the region’s unpaid care and domestic responsibilities. Women take on 2.5 times more unpaid care and domestic work than men – a burden exacerbated by a chronic lack of affordable childcare. This heavy workload, which goes largely unrecognized and undervalued, can hamper career prospects and well-being for even the most educated and highly skilled women, and stops girls and women reaching their full potential. Adolescent girls may have to drop out of education to help with domestic and care work in the family.
Maternal mortality. The region halved its overall maternal mortality rate between 2000 and 2017, but rates remain unacceptably high in parts of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Cuts in health spending in many countries are also undermining access to reproductive and sexual health services for girls and women, particularly those in remote and poverty-stricken areas, and those from ethnic minorities. There are also concerns about early pregnancies: with fertility rates higher than the global average among those aged 15 to 19 in Azerbaijan (with 48 pregnancies for every 1,000 girls of this age) and in Tajikistan (54 for every 1,000), compared to a global average of 42 per 1,000 in 2022. The greatest threat, however, remains HIV infection, with the number of HIV-positive pregnancies rising in the region in recent years.
Gender gaps in education. As in other parts of the world, enrolment rates in Europe and Central Asia are similar for girls and boys until lower-secondary school, with boys more likely to be out of school in some countries. However, the region is unique in having the largest enrolment gaps in countries where girls are more disadvantaged, particularly girls from Roma communities and those with disabilities. As a result, young women are more likely than young men to be not in education, employment or training (NEET), accounting for more than 15 per cent of those aged 15 to 24 who are NEET in around half of the region’s countries.
The long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and girls
The COVID-19 pandemic intensified existing inequalities for women and girls in Europe and Central Asia. It added to their already heavy burden of domestic responsibilities while reducing services to meet their needs. In parts of the region, for example, 60 per cent of women were reported to have problems accessing sexual and reproductive health services. The pandemic is thought to have undermined education for girls who had less access to the Internet than boys, particularly in Central Asia. And there were clear links between lockdowns and a rise in domestic violence. The loss of incomes and long school closures may also have put girls at greater risk of child marriage during the pandemic.
The digital divide. There is a digital divide between women and men, girls and boys in the region, with a lower share of women having access to the Internet, particularly in Central Asia, where women have 30 per cent less access than men. This undermines their chances of gaining the digital skills they need for the 21st century workplace, as well as the prospects for countries that are trying to transform their labour markets for economic growth.
Harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and sex-selective abortion, have been banned across the region, yet they persist in some areas and communities. Between 3 per cent and 15 per cent of girls under 18 in the region are thought to be married or in a union, a practice linked to school dropout, early childbirth and heightened risks of domestic violence and social exclusion. Child marriage is reported to be up to seven times higher than the average among Roma communities. Sex selective abortion, driven by a continued preference for sons, skews the ratio between male and female births, with more than 170,000 ‘missing’ girls across the region. Such abortions inflict lasting damage on women’s health and reinforce a perception that girls are of less value.
Gender-based violence (GBV) against women and girls is widespread in the region, with estimates that around one-quarter of women in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have endured violence by an intimate partner, and violence against women and girls increases in areas affected by crises. Such violence is often tolerated – even by women themselves – with 38 per cent of women and 45 per cent of men in Central Asia believing that men are justified in beating their wives in some circumstances. Laws to curtail violence against women and girls are poorly implemented, and there is a continuing lack of awareness and data, as well as support for survivors. There is, however, a growing recognition of the close links between violence against women and violence against children, which are often found in the same households, with serious consequences for children’s health, development and well-being.
The gendered impact of emergencies. Adolescent girls who have fled from their homes to escape from a crisis, particularly those who are travelling alone, face extreme risks of GBV before, during and after migration. An estimated 90 per cent of trafficking victims in Europe and Central Asia are female, trafficked mainly for sexual exploitation, and around one-fifth of them are girls under the age of 18. Girls and women with disabilities are also more likely to experience GBV during humanitarian crises. Yet services to tackle such violence and support survivors during emergencies are chronically under-funded. The region’s girls and women are also recovering from the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
UNICEF’s work for girls and women
UNICEF aims to address the gender-based disparities that start from birth and that become more embedded, ‘hard-wired’ and difficult to uproot as infants become children, and children become adolescents. We include gender in all of our programmes, aiming to build gender equality across every sector, from early childhood development and education to the empowerment of adolescents and young people.
We work with governments to address the root causes of gender inequality. To do this, we need to understand what the causes are and how they play out in people’s everyday lives. So we prioritize gender analysis in our planning, programme design and more.
We empower girls and women. Lasting change is only possible when all girls and boys and all women and men feel that they have a stake in it and are treated as partners in change, rather than the beneficiaries of programmes. While we work to improve the everyday lives of girls and women, our priority is to help them enhance their social position, so they can control the decisions that affect them and can boost their knowledge, confidence and skills. In this way, they are equipped to claim their own rights and improve their own lives. Education has a critical role to play in their empowerment, and in equipping them with core skills. These include problem-solving, conflict resolution, and the digital, STEM and green skills they will need in today’s increasingly specialized and high-tech labour market. Girls also need an enabling environment around them that includes non-stereotypical career pathways, role models and mentors.
We work alongside boys and men, recognizing the challenges they face as a result of gender inequality in their own lives. While inequality gives them many advantages in terms of power, authority and resources, they often pay a heavy price for such privilege. Like girls and women, boys and men are also under pressure to behave in certain ways – in this case, to be the breadwinners, to be in control, and to embody values that are traditionally seen as ‘masculine’. Such pressures can blight – and even shorten – their lives. Working with boys and young men as allies in the fight against discrimination and exclusion can generate positive results for everyone.
We mobilize communities. Gender equality relies on positive relationships that create communities where equality becomes the new normal. From local outreach to the development of games that change mindsets, we aim to mobilize communities to shift norms, open up debates and overcome resistance to change.
GirlsGoIT helps girls in Moldova follow their dream of a career in information technology
Mihaela, 18, is looking forward to becoming one of Moldova’s premier information technology (IT) specialists. “I want to bring change,” she says, “and support people who do not have IT skills but have great ideas. My parents hoped I would become a doctor. One of my priorities was to show them I am good at IT. Thanks to the GirlsGoIT programme, I managed to convince them.”
Mihaela is an Ambassador for the programme, which was developed by TEKEDU, which aims to equip youth with skills and opportunities, and the Ministry of Education and Research with support from UNICEF and funding from the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, among others.
Today, Mihaela is a mentor at a GirlsGoIT ‘boot camp’ for 20 girls who want to explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in Floresti, a rural community.
“I’m happy that the programme is expanding to more rural localities like Floresti. Somewhere, in a small village very far from Chisinau [the capital city], there are girls who want to develop but don’t have the necessary resources. This project could support them in fulfilling their dreams”, she says.
Since 2015, the programme has supported over 1,700 beneficiaries in 24 locations across Moldova, including refugees from Ukraine. Like Mihaela, many hope to pursue a career in IT. In 2022, to complement the GirlsGoIT programme, UNICEF and partners launched the country’s first ever mobile education laboratory, STEAM on Wheels, to reach more children in rural areas. Girls and boys, including those from refugee centres, take part in workshops on a bus equipped with robotics sets and laptops. By the end of 2023, the STEAM on Wheels initiative had reached more than 10,000 children and young people (60 per cent of them girls aged 16-18) and a national network of STEAM mentors had been created – 80 per cent of them girls.
Parenting schools for fathers
In Montenegro, the role of fathers in raising children is supported by the ‘Caring Families’ parenting programme, for parents of children aged 2 to 9. Implemented by the Association ‘Parents’ with support from UNICEF and the European Union, the programme was initially comprised of groups of mothers and fathers, but a group solely for fathers was created in 2021. As programme facilitator Darija Petovic Bambur explains: “We wanted to normalize the fact that the father has an important and irreplaceable role in his child’s growing up and to show how important it is to have fathers assume the role that belongs to them.”
“I would often shout and be verbally aggressive towards my daughter when communicating with her, and I realized that this was not doing any good to our relationship,” says Slobodan Volaric, one of the participants. He noticed a change in his own behaviour during the 12 weeks of group work and counselling, which aims to help parents find solutions to their problems. “I notice that I have stopped saying “no” so often.”
‘Caring Families’ is part of a suite of parenting programmes that aims to build positive relationships between children and parents. It was developed by the World Health Organization, Stellenbosch and Cape Town Universities in South Africa, Oxford and Bangor Universities in the UK, and UNICEF.
A game challenges child marriage in Kyrgyzstan
Erkinai lives in a small mountain village near Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. She is studying to be a tailor in a vocational school, but everyone around her is hinting that she should be thinking about marriage. Erkinai dreams of becoming an actress. One day, on the shore of Sary Kol, a lake near her village, she meets a mysterious woman in black.
So begins the game ‘The Mystery of Sary Kol’. From that moment on, it is the players who decide what Erkinai will do, and her fate depends on their choices.
“We wanted to give girls the opportunity to dream, make decisions and feel independent,” says Munara Beknazarova, the game’s originator, who runs the Open Line Public Foundation. The game was developed with financial support from UNICEF as part of the global United Nations Spotlight Initiative, which aims to end violence against women and girls and is run in collaboration with the European Union and other partners.
In 2023, ‘Mystery of Sary Kol’ was selected as a finalist from 400 entries worldwide by Game4 Change in the category for Best Civics Game. A survey by the Open Line Foundation showed that players were more likely to see child marriage as a crime, and more willing to help those forced into such marriages. In six communities reached by the Game, 80 per cent of adolescents felt more confident about denouncing child marriage, compared to only 58 per cent in other communities.
We work to transform systems. Gender-transformative change demands fundamental changes in policies and systems to support gender justice and deter gender discrimination. UNICEF promotes and supports legislation to transform gender norms, build stronger programmes for girls and women, and enhance capacity-building for service providers across the region. We recognize that weak systems that are already failing to meet the needs of children have little hope of becoming gender sensitive. So, we aim to strengthen entire systems by supporting the capacities of frontline services, and by advocating for budgets, the implementation of policies, the generation of gender data and the effective monitoring of results to inform action that is based on hard evidence.
We work in partnership. UNICEF knows that no single organization or government ministry, working in isolation, can ‘deliver’ gender equality. We work with a wide range of partners, including governments, the European Union and other international institutions, academia, the private sector, media and grass-roots organizations – particularly women’s groups, youth networks – to move the region towards gender equality.
“What makes you feel safe?”
This question is posed to a group of adolescent girls from Ukraine during a discussion about gender stereotypes at a support centre in the Czech Republic. For these girls, the answer is not always straightforward, but many have found a sense of safety in connecting to other girls in the same situation. As one says: “When I’m here, the dangers of the world seem to fade away.”
UNICEF-supported safe spaces like these can be found across countries that are hosting girls who have fled from Ukraine, and in Girls’ Clubs within Ukraine. Here, adolescent girls are free to discuss issues that matter to them, including gender roles, stereotypes, their sexual health, and their relationships. In the Czech Republic, one girl talks about gender power dynamics, saying: “I don’t like reactions from men influencing my behaviour, such as feeling the need to dress in a manner that wouldn’t ‘provoke’ a man.”
These spaces are limited, with most girls surveyed (82 per cent in Moldova and 98 per cent in Ukraine) having no access to them. In response, UNICEF has worked with adolescent girls to develop Laaha – a virtual safe space. This online platform gives them access to information and support, with every aspect developed in consultation with women and girls to ensure that it meets their needs.
Call to action
Gender equality is good for all of us. It is everybody’s business, and we all have a stake in it. UNICEF recognizes that promoting gender equality and empowering girls and women is not only crucial to give all children a fair chance, but also necessary for society, given the profound impact of gender inequality on the lives of children, their communities and nations.
Investments in gender equality throughout infancy, childhood and adolescence are cumulative, building on each other to propel children into a productive, safe, healthy and happy adulthood. However, gaps in this investment, particularly in the early years, allow traditional social norms, harmful practices and gender roles to become deep-rooted.
Gender equality is, therefore, a journey that must be supported throughout childhood, starting with positive early socialization that encourages the engagement of fathers as well as mothers in children’s development, role modeling for gender equality, violence-free households and an equal division of household responsibilities. It must continue throughout a child’s learning, including an end to the practice of steering girls and boys towards school subjects traditionally seen as ‘suitable’. And it must be supported as adolescents move from learning to earning, with young women having equal resources and opportunities. They also need platforms and safe spaces that enable them to pursue the careers and lives they have chosen, rather than those that are chosen for them, helping them to overcome the gender inequalities that limit their potential.
There is no room, at any point in this journey, for complacency. Yet complacency is a concern in a region of middle- and high-income countries where gender equality is not always seen as a burning issue and where back-sliding and gender gaps are on the rise.
What happens for gender equality in Europe and Central Asia, from the gender capacity of social systems to the implementation of national gender policies, offers lessons for other regions worldwide.
