Although more women are now enrolled in higher education than men worldwide, Sutherland lamented the gaps that remain for girls to complete secondary education in some regions, especially in the poorest, rural areas. Unequal burdens of care work (the theme of next year’s CSW), lack of equal employment opportunities and a persistent gender pay gap compound the problems for young women seeking a life of dignity and fulfilment. “In the United States, for example,” he said, “Black and Hispanic women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) earn about $20,000 a year less than average and about $33,000 less than their white, male counterparts.”
“As Lutherans, education is core to who we are,” Sutherland insisted, adding that “education of girls and young women has a powerful multiplier effect on progress towards all of the critical areas of concern” set out in the Beijing Platform for Action. “We celebrate that the LWF contributes to increasing girls’ access to education, particularly in low-income and conflict affected areas,” he said, reiterating that “when women and girls access education, all of society benefits from more inclusive, environmentally sustainable economic growth."
Rising levels of gender-based violence
As a 28-year-old psycho-social worker with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Colombia, Kamilla Buitrago Guerra is also deeply concerned about persisting injustice, violence and discrimination against women in her country. “In my family, I am the exception,” she said, “as my mother, my relatives, my closest friends have all suffered from gender-based violence.” Rape and sexual violence cases in Colombia have tripled over the past two decades, with 88 percent affecting girls under 18.
Guerra also noted that less than 50 percent of women in her country have their own source of income, while “discrimination against women and unjust institutions are rooted in a deeply sexist and patriarchal culture.” She told a panel of young faith-based actors that she hopes for a recommitment from governments to the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, as well as “accountability for perpetrators and reparations for survivors of gender-based violence” in her country.
Another CSW delegate, Rev. Lilana Kasper, the first female executive director of the Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa, also works to support survivors of gender-based violence in her country. “South Africa has the highest incidence of intimate partner violence in the world,” she noted. “We say that every 10 minutes a woman gets killed and every 23 minutes a woman is raped by someone she knows and should be able to trust.”
15 years ago, Kasper was part of a task force set up by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa to respond to this hidden scourge. As a survivor herself, she knew that many women did not know where to turn for help and were unable “to find the language or find a voice to describe what was happening to them.” Since then, she said, the church has developed a tool kit and trained a focal person in each of its seven dioceses to support survivors with pathways for justice and healing.
“What I take away from CSW is how to step up our advocacy for the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals,” Kasper said. She echoed the words of the LWF statement to CSW calling for “stronger accountability mechanisms to ensure the robust and complete implementation of the framework” drawn up 30 years ago.
