Although women are more likely than young men to pursue higher education, they make up only 35 per cent of science graduates. Across the world, a significant gender gap persists at all levels of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines due to lack of research funding, gender stereotypes, and discriminatory workplace practices. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the gap is particularly pronounced in […]
Olivia Albert, 19, was subjected to female genital (FGM) mutilation when she was 14. She told the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA) that she hid her pain because everyone around her said it was normal. “Deep down, I knew what I had experienced was not something any girl should go through,” she emphasised. FGM was […]
Female genital mutilation violates five fundamental human rights: the right to be free from gender discrimination, the right to life and physical integrity, the right to health, the right to be free from torture and cruel inhuman or degrading treatment, and the rights of the child. The associated detrimental physical, psychological, and economic impacts of female genital mutilation can […]
The world has moved beyond a water crisis and into a state of global water bankruptcy, says a new flagship report released on Tuesday January 20, 2026 by UN researchers. For decades, scientists, policymakers and the media warned of a “global water crisis,” implying temporary shock – followed by recovery. What is now emerging in […]
On 8 March 2026, rally with women and girls around the world to demand equal rights – and equal justice to enforce, exercise, and enjoy those rights. As we begin the second quarter of the 21st century, no nation has closed the legal gaps between men and women. Right now, in 2026, women have only 64 […]
Around the world, 644 million women and girls alive today were once child brides. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where the rates are highest, one in every five girls is married before her 18th birthday. As the world observes the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, we must ask an urgent question: are the laws designed to protect girls actually working? […]
Exceptional women business leaders such as African engineer-turned-entrepreneur Norah Magero are demonstrating how lived experience and ingenuity, backed by United Nations support, can turn promising ideas into successful companies, even in societies where their voices have long been sidelined. As a young mother in a remote part of eastern Kenya, Norah Magero struggled to get […]
For three years, thousands of angry messages poured into American actress Azie Tesfai’s phone from a man she’d never seen nor met. One day, the anonymous interaction turned into physical stalking. He texted her exactly what she was wearing. “There is a specific terror in being watched by someone without a face,” Ms. Tesfai told UN officials, Goodwill Ambassadors and civil […]
More than one in four children globally – around 610 million – live with mothers who have experienced physical, emotional or sexual abuse by an intimate partner in the past year, making violence a part of their everyday lives, according to new data released by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday November 25, 2025. […]
Scolded for wanting to go to school as a girl and dismissed or ignored as an adult, Awrelia from Wau in South Sudan has learnt to advocate for herself, her children and for the women in her community. She knows what it’s like to be silenced. Born into a family that didn’t believe in educating girls, she had to stay home while […]
