"We have met many talented women with great ideas and perseverance," says Hongyan, her eyes showing her determination to help. "But they struggle to get the money and training they need to make their ideas a reality."

Given the influential role and extensive network of chambers of commerce in the private sector, this collaboration will create a platform to achieve the mutual goals of UN Women and the private sector for sustainable development.

Increasing sustainable investment in women and girls is key to achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on gender equality and indeed, to achieving all the other 16 SDGs. But results thus far have disappointed.

[Press Release] On 8 March 2024, the UN Women Centre of Excellence for Gender Equality in the Republic of Korea (the Centre) convened its second International Women's Day celebration at Hotel Westin Josun in Seoul.

This was a common message of women leaders who spoke at ‘1st Seoul Gender Equality Dialogue: Breaking Gender Barriers for a Better Future of Key Industries,’ organized by the UN Women Centre of Excellence for Gender Equality (the Centre) in the Republic of Korea on November 2. With some 300 people attending.

[16, 28 and 32 per cent] This under-representation of talented women hinders gender equality, innovation, and prosperity. Increasing women in under-represented industries is therefore not just a “women’s issue,” but an economic imperative.

[Press release] the UN Women Centre of Excellence for Gender Equality in Seoul hosted a policy forum to explore strategies for private sector, governments, and international organizations to address and narrow the gender pay gap.

[Joint Press Release] UN Women and the European Union today jointly launched “Women in Motion”, a two-and-half-year programme to enhance decent work and career development among migrant women workers in Guangdong Province.

The virtual workshop was part of the Together Digital Programme launched in 2022 by UN Women and the Ant Foundation of China to try to close the digital gender gap. It was held on United Nations Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) Day, 27 June 2023.

"We want to gain insights from the United Nations on how companies can internalize efforts for gender equality," one participant noted in the online feedback system on why they joined UN Women’s workshop in Seoul on the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs).

UN Women is helping women farmers switch to using renewable energy in Qinghai Province, which is located in the Tibetan Plateau with rich solar energy sources but also heavily affected by extreme weather and climate change. On 11 May UN Women China and the Qinghai Rural Revitalization Bureau jointly launched the Women-led Rural Community Renewable Energy Transition and Governance Project.

Almost 60 -private representatives attended Korea’s first workshop on the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), hosted by the UN Women Centre of Excellence for Gender Equality in the Republic of Korea on 20 April 2023. “The Centre aims to help and communicate with companies' efforts to promote gender equality, starting with this event,” said its Director Jeongshim Lee. The WEPs Workshop for Korea was held in partnership with the UN Global Compact Network Korea at The Plaza Hotel, Seoul.

UN Women has given the national 2022 Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Awards to eight companies in China for promoting gender equality and empowering women employees. In five of these companies, women hold more than half of the management positions. UN Women and United Nations Global Compact launched the WEPs in 2010. The seven principles guide companies on ways to support women in the workplace, marketplace and community, and to help achieve the gender equality goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The brunt of the pandemic has been borne by women and girls. Emerging evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded existing vulnerabilities faced by women and girls and threatened to further widen gender and socioeconomic inequalities. Yet, during this difficult time, women around the world have exhibited remarkable resilience in contributing to the response effort as well as economic recovery.

Eleven Chinese businesses were granted Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Awards by UN Women China, in partnership with the EU Delegation to China. The award ceremony took place during the 2021 International Conference on Gender Equality and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The WEPs Awards celebrate the efforts of private-sector companies in addressing gender inequalities in the new normal of a post COVID-19 world.

When UN Women first began to consider the way that climate change was hitting rural women in China, it was Qinghai that first came to mind. A large, sparsely populated province stretched high across the Tibetan Plateau, Qinghai has seen an unprecedented jump in precipitation and extreme weather, wreaking havoc on rural livelihoods. Its rural labor force also has a largely female face, being around 70-80 per cent women.

Women-owned businesses that have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic are receiving support with recovery efforts from a new project jointly implemented by UN Women China and the All-China Women’s Federation.The project, Supporting Women to Recover from the Socio-Economic Impacts of COVID-19, was launched in Wuhan on 16 September. It is funded by China’s Rockcheck Puji Foundation. The project will target women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in two of the Chinese cities most-affected by the pandemic, Wuhan and Tianjin.

From cooking and cleaning to taking care of children and the elderly, household care work is the backbone of thriving families, communities and economies. Yet many cultures traditionally have regarded men as the breadwinners and women as the caregivers, with unpaid care work their “natural responsibility”. In China, women spend around 2.5 times as much time as men on unpaid care work.

Worldwide, data shows that women and girls are at the frontlines of agriculture and natural resource management and are key guardians of agrobiodiversity and food security. Yet compared to men, they rarely have an equal right to own, use and control these resources. They also receive less support through formal or informal networks and programmes, and have less opportunity to learn and advance.

Twenty-eight more Chinese companies -- the majority of them led by women -- signed on to UN Women’s Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) to mark International Women’s Day on 8 March. A total of 258 companies in China have now signed on.