Center for Women's Global Leadership

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CWGL is the initiator and global coordinator of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign founded in 1991, which has been used by more than 6000 civil society organizations in over 185 countries to raise awareness about gender-based violence (GBV). The campaign currently has a multi-year theme that is focused on ending GBV in the world of work which includes explicitly linking structural gender-based discrimination to GBV as the root cause of abuses and disparities, including pay inequity and the devaluation of women’s labor.

Since 2018 the campaign has explicitly expanded its focus to include gender-based discrimination which lies at the heart of the gender pay gap. The campaign has expanded the timeframe of its activities to include an annual targeted period 16 days of activism from November 25 to December 10, and to extend its reach for all 365 days of the year which includes a stronger call for accountability to elimination of all forms of gender-based discrimination all year round. In 2018, CWGL launched a new digital platform to bridge the women’s rights and labor rights movements around the ILO standards, specifically through its calls for the adoption of a new convention on violence and harassment and the ratification of ILO Convention 190.

CWGL’s niche lies in its use of multiple lenses namely, gender, human rights, and economic policy, in its research and advocacy, which has focused extensively on the economic and social rights of women while establishing links to unpaid care work and GBV. This body of work has been expanded in recent years to specifically examine the links between GBV, macro-economic policy, labor rights and sexual and reproductive rights. Some of recent publications include the 2019 Global 16 Days Campaign Advocacy Guide, Auditing Economic Policy for Human Rights, and others can be found here.

CWGL takes an intersectional approach which involves tackling issues of discrimination, including the gender pay gap, by recognizing that not all women are affected in the same way. Multiple forms of discrimination, based on factors such as race, ethnicity and legal status, can exacerbate disparities, including the gender pay gap, revealing a more complex picture that calls for a range of solutions and nuanced interventions in a variety of sectors.

CWGL’s mission and goals align with EPIC’s vision of a more gender equal and inclusive world of work. Our approach involves utilizing a human rights-based approach and feminist values to strengthen and bridge voices towards social justice and self-determination with an intersectional approach to transform the lives of women engaged in paid and unpaid work worldwide. EPIC’s multi-stakeholder structure, which involves governments, employers and workers, is a crucial platform for CWGL to engage with a range of key actors, who may otherwise be difficult to access individually, with an eye to exploring innovative ways to supplement their efforts to make concrete progress towards achieving the goal of ensuring equal pay for women and men everywhere. Engagement with EPIC will give us deeper insights into work being made by key stakeholders in this area which can be integrated into a broader feminist advocacy agenda that can be operationalized at the national and local levels through our networks.