UN women report highlights gender equality in global universities

UN Women on Tuesday launched its first-ever University Parity Report which outlines commitments from 10 universities worldwide to achieving progress on gender equality.

The report noted that universities can address three imbalances: the ratio of men to women represented in university faculty, the fields of study selected by young women versus young men, and the number of female students at universities.

The 10 universities are chosen from eight countries on five continents, including the University of Oxford of the United Kingdom, Georgetown University of the United States, University of Hong Kong of China's Hong Kong, Paris Institute of Political Studies of France and the University of the Witwatersrand of South Africa.

The universities also vowed to work together to combat sexual violence on campus.

The University of Oxford is engaging their whole student community to address campus-based sexual violence including a first response mobile app.

University of the Witwatersrand has created a Gender Equity Office that has developed a comprehensive system to report, predict, prevent and address gender-based harm on campus.

UN Women is the UN entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women. It has recognized that education is one of the most powerful tools for social transformation and to achieve the global goal of gender equality. Endit