Gender equality

Equality and discrimination

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Since its founding in 1919, the ILO has been committed to promoting the rights of all women and men at work and achieving equality between them. The ILO vision of gender equality – which coincides with the organization’s four strategic goals – recognizes this goal not only as a basic human right, but intrinsic to the global aim of Decent Work for All Women and Men. This vision is based on the ILO mandate on gender equality as stated in numerous Resolutions of the International Labour Conference, the highest policy-making organ of the ILO, as well as relevant International Labour Conventions. The ILO Policy on Gender Equality and Mainstreaming, which is made operational through the ILO Action Plan, supports a two-pronged approach of gender mainstreaming: systematically analysing and addressing in all initiatives the specific needs of both women and men, and targeted interventions to enable women and men to participate in – and benefit equally from – development efforts.

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  • Girls in gold-mining: “I don’t want my children to be like me”
    10 June 2009 - Over 18,000 girls and boys are engaged in mining and quarrying in the Philippines. For many generations, the search for gold in small-scale mining has been a means of survival for poor families. Girls in such work are particularly vulnerable. Minette Rimando, ILO press officer in Manila, wrote this report for ILO Online.
  • Migrant working girls, victims of the global crisis
    10 June 2009 - More than 100 million girls are involved in child labour worldwide, according to a new ILO report for World Day against Child Labour 2009. The report warns that the global financial crisis could push an increasing number of children, particularly girls, into child labour. ILO Online reports from Moscow where migrant workers and their children are the first to be hit by the crisis.

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