Moving towards gender justice

Since at least the 1970s, feminists and advocates of women’s rights have sought to mainstream gender in the international development agenda, rallying around gender equality as a shared aspiration. However, the focus on the distribution of resources and power within countries ignores how supra-national and historical forces shape gender inequality and the diverse, nuanced ways in which gender inequality operates in different parts of the world and at different moments in time. 

The concept of gender justice provides an analytical lens through which we can make visible and address the multifaceted challenges faced by people of all genders within and beyond country boundaries.

In this backgrounder, we explore how this shift from equality to justice in gender analysis can be done and why it is so important.