Stressing inequalities faced by older women for the UN Commission on the Status of Women

AGE joined other civil society organisations in order to bring attention to the challenges faced by older women in accessing social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure.

UNwomen-logo The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the main United Nations (UN) body that aims at promoting women’s rights and gender equality and at mainstreaming these issues across UN work. Its next session that will take place in New York from 11 to 22 March 2019 will focus on issues around women’s access to social protection, public services and infrastructure.

AGE Platform Europe has endorsed the written statements prepared by HelpAge International and the International Federation on Ageing in order to raise visibility of older women in the CSW discussions and show the breadth of civil society support for increasing attention to the human rights of older women.

In these statements we underline the fact that older women face a higher risk of poverty and we deplore the persistent gender pension gap, which has reached almost 40% in the EU. In addition, we refer to unequal access of women to health and long-term care when social protection is not guaranteed.

We therefore make several recommendations to mitigate these inequalities, including by…

  • providing non-contributory pensions,
  • recognizing and supporting care work provided by older women,
  • expanding coverage of health and long-term care needs through social protection schemes,
  • systematically consulting older women.

Useful resources

For more information you may contact Nena Georgantzi, Policy Coordinator on Human Rights & Non-Discrimination: nena.georgantzi@age-platform.eu

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