Goal 5 of 17
Gender equality
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
What this goal is about
Goal 5 is about women and girls having the same rights, safety, opportunities and voice as men and boys. It covers law, violence, health, unpaid work, land and money, leadership, and access to technology.
Progress is real in places. Child marriage fell twice as fast between 2015 and 2024 as in the decade before, and 99 gender equality reforms were recorded in national laws between 2019 and 2025. But no Goal 5 indicator has reached its target, and nearly one in three women has experienced physical or sexual violence.
Gender gaps also hold back the other goals. Where women and girls fetch water, do most unpaid care or cannot own land, education, health and incomes all suffer.
The main targets
End all forms of discrimination against women and girls everywhere.
Eliminate violence against women and girls in public and private, including trafficking and sexual and other exploitation.
Eliminate harmful practices such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.
Recognise and value unpaid care and domestic work through public services, infrastructure, social protection and shared responsibility at home.
Ensure women's full participation and equal opportunities for leadership in political, economic and public life.
Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.
Give women equal rights to economic resources, land, property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources.
Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable laws that promote gender equality at all levels.
Summaries in plain English. The full wording of every target and indicator is on the UN Goal 5 page.
What businesses can do
- Measure pay and promotion by gender. Pull headcount, median pay within each role and promotions by gender from payroll, anonymise it and review it every quarter.
- Set pay bands and publish ranges. Give each role a salary band, show the range in job adverts and review pay against the bands once a year.
- Hire with structured interviews. Ask every candidate the same questions and score them against the same criteria, and aim for shortlists that include women.
- Support carers and keep work safe. Offer parental leave for all parents and predictable schedules, and run a clear, confidential process for harassment complaints.
- Open your supply chain. Invite women-owned businesses to quote for the goods and services you buy, and report honestly on what changed.
What you can do
- Share the work at home. Women do about 2.5 times as much unpaid care and housework as men. Cooking, cleaning and caring are jobs for everyone.
- Speak up calmly. Question stereotypes and put-down jokes among friends and classmates, and back each other in any subject or job.
- Stay safe and report abuse online. Block and report harassment, never share personal details with strangers, and tell a trusted adult or colleague.
- Explore careers linked to the goal. Law, data, public health, social work, finance, software and HR all connect directly to Goal 5 targets.
Phones and digital accounts help when women can reach them: in 2025, 78% of women and 87% of men owned a mobile phone. Digital bank accounts, anonymous reporting tools and budget-tagging systems give women and governments useful channels and data. Automated hiring and credit tools can also repeat past bias, so they need testing by gender and human review before they are trusted.
Sources
- UN DESA, Goal 5: targets and progress
- United Nations, The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026: Goal 5
- United Nations, Gender equality and women's empowerment
- World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2026
The goal icon is the official United Nations icon, used for information under the UN guidelines for the use of the SDG logo and icons. The content of this page has not been approved by the United Nations and does not reflect the views of the United Nations or its officials or Member States. Emberoot is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the UN.