Gender Equality and Discrimination

Promoting  gender  equality  is  at  the  heart  of  the  ILO’s  mandate,  and  has  been  since its first Constitution was adopted in 1919. A range of international labor standards, declarations and resolutions over the years have served to reinforce the importance of this issue for the ILO and its constituents. The global community has recently affirmed a  universal  consensus  on  the  centrality  of  gender  equality  with  the  adoption  of  the 
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Gender equality is key to the achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Goal 8 on decent work.

The ILO Office in Washington works in close collaboration with its U.S. constituents to advance compliance of core labor standards and promote greater gender equality in the U.S. workforce.

Highlights

  1. International Women's Day

    Celebrating Women’s Day with women’s rights activist Eva Longoria Baston

    March 8, 2017

What's happening in the US

  1. © AP/Rick Rycroft

    Center for American Progress

    RELEASE: As Advocates Observe Equal Pay Day in the US, New Brief Examines International Approaches to the Gender Wage Gap

    April 4, 2017

    As equal pay advocates in the United States observe Equal Pay Day today, women continue to earn on average just 80 cents for every dollar earned by men. The wage gap is even worse for women of color: African American women and Hispanic women, for example, earn just 63 cents and 54 cents, respectively, for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men.

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    The sixty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women

    Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Changing World of Work

    March 13, 2017

    "We bring our decent work mandate to the challenge of making the future of work we want – a future where women’s economic empowerment, gender equality and social justice are features of and drivers for a better world," says ILO Director-General Guy Ryder.

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    Over 100 Companies Sign the Equal Pay Pledge

    December 7, 2016

    Forty-four new employers have signed on to the Equal Pay Pledge, bringing the total number to over 100 businesses who have embraced equal pay policies.

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    President Obama's Record on Empowering Women and Girls

    Here is a look at the progress that has been made under the Obama Administration on issues that affect so many women and girls across the country.

  5. White House United State of Women Summit

    June 14, 2016

    The United State of Women Summit was a summit held in Washington, D.C. focused on gender equality in the United States.