Without any social protection 2 billion women, reveals UN

Madrid. Nearly 2 billion women and girls around the world do not have access to any social protection, such as unemployment assistance, pensions, healthcare or maternity benefits, UN Women reveals in a report.

On the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, which is celebrated every October 17, the UN Women report reveals that, although social protection has increased since 2015, men have benefited more, increasing the gap gender and making women and girls more vulnerable.

The document details that women between 25 and 34 years old are 25 percent more likely to suffer extreme poverty than men of the same age group, and that this circumstance increases in childhood.

Gender gap

Factors such as conflict or climate change accentuate this reality, although the circumstances depend on the context. The women who are in fragile contexts are 7.7 times more likely to live in extreme poverty compared to those living in non-fragile contexts.

Regarding maternity and despite progress, more than 63 percent of women around the world continue to give birth without having access to maternity benefits. In sub-Saharan Africa, this figure rises to 94 percent.

The study also denounces that the lack of financial support related to motherhood not only places women at an economic disadvantage but also compromises the health and well-being of their children, and at the same time, perpetuates poverty between generations.

However, it highlights some examples of progress, for example, in countries like Mexico or Tunisia, steps have been taken towards the inclusion of domestic workers in social security; In Senegal, the national health system has been extended and adapted to the needs of rural women, with the support of UN Women, and in Mongolia, measures have been extended that benefit maternity leave for working women. informal . It has also strengthened paternity leave to support equality in childcare.