2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action. It also marks the first time that progress on the implementation of the Platform is reviewed in light of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in 2015. This report therefore takes an integrated approach to reporting on progress, gaps and challenges related to the advancement of gender equality and women’s rights across six dimensions that link the Platform’s critical areas of concern and the Sustainable Development Goals. It finds that there have been important gains since the adoption of the Beijing Platform in 1995, but that progress towards gender equality has stalled and even reversed in some areas in recent years. Across the globe women’s movements, energized by young feminists at the helm, are challenging slow and piecemeal progress and are impatient for systemic change. World leaders can learn from the ways in which these movements work across silos and political boundaries, seeing their work to advance the rights of women and girls as inextricably linked to the achievement of economic, social and environmental justice for all. The report features their voices that must be heard and acted upon. The report also highlights catalytic policies and programmes under each of the six dimensions as well as a number of cross-cutting strategies that can accelerate the implementation of the entire Platform for Action for this generation and the next.

Gender equality is a moral and a business imperative. But unconscious bias holds us back and de-biasing minds has proven to be difficult and expensive. Behavioral design offers a new solution. Iris Bohnet shows that by de-biasing organizations instead of individuals, we can make smart changes that have big impacts—often at low cost and high speed.

"Home : a place that provides access to every opportunity America has to offer.--A.H."--P. [vii]

2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action. It also marks the first time that progress on the implementation of the Platform is reviewed in light of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in 2015. This report therefore takes an integrated approach to reporting on progress, gaps and challenges related to the advancement of gender equality and women's rights across six dimensions that link the Platform's critical areas of concern and the Sustainable Development Goals. It finds that there have been important gains since the adoption of the Beijing Platform in 1995, but that progress towards gender equality has stalled and even reversed in some areas in recent years. Across the globe women's movements, energized by young feminists at the helm, are challenging slow and piecemeal progress and are impatient for systemic change. World leaders can learn from the ways in which these movements work across silos and political boundaries, seeing their work to advance the rights of women and girls as inextricably linked to the achievement of economic, social and environmental justice for all. The report features their voices that must be heard and acted upon. The report also highlights catalytic policies and programmes under each of the six dimensions as well as a number of cross-cutting strategies that can accelerate the implementation of the entire Platform for Action for this generation and the next.

Why aren’t the great, qualified women already in tech being hired or promoted? Should people who don’t fit in seek to join an institution that is actively hostile to them? Does the tech industry deserve women leaders? The split between the stated ideals of the corporate elite and the reality of working life for women in the tech industry—whether in large public tech companies or VC-backed start-ups, in anonymous gaming forums, or in Silicon Valley or Alley—seems designed to crush women’s spirits. Corporate manifestos by women who already fit in (or who are able to convincingly fake it) aren’t helping. There is a high cost for the generation of young women and transgender people currently navigating the harsh realities of the tech industry, who gave themselves to their careers only to be ignored, harassed and disrespected. Not everyone can be a CEO; not everyone is able to embrace a workplace culture that diminishes the contributions of women and ignores real complaints. The very culture of high tech, where foosball tables and endless supplies of beer are de facto perks, but maternity leave and breast-feeding stations are controversial, is designed to appeal to young men. Lean Out collects 25 stories from the modern tech industry, from people who fought GamerGate and from women and transgender artists who have made their own games, from women who have started their own companies and who have worked for some of the most successful corporations in America, from LGBTQ women, from women of color, from transgender people and people who do not ascribe to a gender. All are fed up with the glacial pace of cultural change in America’s tech industry. Included are essays by anna anthropy, Leigh Alexander, Sunny Allen, Lauren Bacon, Katherine Cross, Dom DeGuzman, FAKEGRIMLOCK, Krys Freeman, Gesche Haas, Ash Huang, Erica Joy, Jenni Lee, Katy Levinson, Melanie Moore, Leanne Pittsford, Brook Shelley, Elissa Shevinsky, Erica Swallow, and Squinky. Edited and selected by entrepreneur and tech veteran Elissa Shevinsky, Lean Out sees a possible way forward that uses tech and creative disengagement to jettison 20th century corporate culture: “I’ve figured out a way to create safe space for myself in tech,” writes Shevinsky. “I’ve left Silicon Valley, and now work remotely from home. I adore everyone on my team, because I hired them myself.”

This volume of Research in Political Sociology addresses a broad range of gender equality issues from women's status and opportunities at work, education, health, political participation, community involvement and global migration; from a vast domain of countries in Europe, America, Australia, Asia and Africa.