Women's inequality is a key obstacle to development and a major cause of social injustice. The UK's policy directly supports the Global Platform for Action agreed at the 1995 World Conference on Women at Beijing. It recognises that women and men, boys and girls, often have different needs, and that all have the right to share in the benefits of development. Gender inequalities are addressed across the whole range of our programme, in all sectors and at all levels. This ensures that a concern for women is at the heart, rather than in the margins, of our programme.
Gender inequality is a structural impediment to poverty elimination.
It is in everyone's interest to remove it. The empowerment of women does not need to be at a cost to men, but creates a net gain for society as a whole. A recent DFID publication, Breaking the Barriers. Women and the Elimination of World Poverty , summarises our policy and illustrates how we seek to implement our mainstreaming approach across the full breadth of our programme.