G20 pushes for women empowerment

The G20 has a group dedicated to women empowerment – the Women 20 (W20). It advises governments on how they can promote women’s economic empowerment and gender equality. Narnia Bohler-Muller, a legal specialist and gender equality researcher, who headed South Africa's delegation to the W20 in 2025, highlights the group’s priorities in The Conversation. ‘This year, the W20 organised work around interconnected thematic areas. These were: entrepreneurship and financial inclusion, the care economy, women in science, technology, engineering and maths, health equity, climate justice and violence against women and girls,' she explains. The W20 adopted a theme grounded in ubuntu philosophy, ‘Women in Solidarity towards Sustainable Socio-Economic Development’, explicitly addressing modern slavery in global supply chains and recognising how forced labour intersects with women’s economic empowerment. She warns that $468bn worth of goods imported by the G20 are at risk of being produced by forced labour. ‘Over half of all modern slavery victims are exploited within G20 borders. The W20 called for countries to co-ordinate action against this, beyond fragmented national responses,’ she writes. The W20’s focus on the care economy addresses the problem of women performing 76.2% of total unpaid care work globally, more than three times as much as men. The health equity work centred on the systemic underfunding and under-research of women’s health. ‘On climate justice, the W20 insisted women must lead in decision-making bodies. This must happen from global to local levels,’ Bohler-Muller notes. For the first time ever, the W20 recognised the effects of war on women, calling for more women’s leadership in peacebuilding and peacekeeping. She highlights that the W20 achieved ‘remarkable consensus’ around moving beyond talk, to taking actions that could be measured. For example, all countries in the W20 agreed that gender issues cannot only be discussed in the W20.

They must become part of every G20 discussion and Finance Ministers must consider how monetary policies affect women differently. ‘The W20 also said that all trade negotiations must make sure that any new policies are suitable for women entrepreneurs,’ Bohler-Muller writes on The Conversation. She explains the W20 produced a consensus communiqué but tensions emerged around scope and ambition. ‘Some delegates advocated for bold, transformative targets that would fundamentally restructure economic systems. Others preferred small improvements within existing frameworks,’ Bohler-Muller explains. There were differences with the Russian delegation about the word ‘gender’ and meanings assigned to it, including a tussle over recognising the rights of the LGBTQI+ community. ‘Eventually the compromise position was to refer mostly to “all women (and girls)” when talking about women,’ she said. Bohler-Muller notes the G20 Leaders Declaration 2025 did not mainstream gender equality or women’s rights as hoped. However, there was agreement and progress in areas, including regarding care work and that including women in all aspects of the economy means eliminating laws that discriminate agains them. ‘There was agreement to wipe out GBVF by improving laws, putting more government resources into safe houses and … survivor services and doing much more about awareness with men and boys,’ she notes. They agreed the private sector must move beyond supporting projects that include women only through corporate social responsibility rhetoric. ‘Business needs to embed gender equality into their core practices. For example, corporations must look into their supply chains and make sure there is no forced labour taking place,’ Bohler-Muller explains. It was agreed that civil society must monitor implementation and hold governments and corporations accountable. Bohler-Muller concludes that it was also agreed future presidencies should maintain the momentum of consecutive global south leadership to enhance civil society influence on government commitments.