On 26 August Santa Margherita Ligure will host the first G20 Conference dedicated to women’s empowerment

August 9th, 2021

A Conference exclusively dedicated to women’s empowerment will be held on the 26th of August 2021, in Santa Margherita Ligure. This will be the first time that the G20 hosts an event on women’s empowerment, focusing on access to better quality jobs for women, policies aimed at enhancing women’s talents and skills, increasing women’s representation in leadership positions, the definition and protection of women’s rights, and tackling gender-based violence.

The Conference will be chaired by the Italian Minister for Equal Opportunities and Family Elena Bonetti, and will see the participation of gender equality Ministers from the G20 countries and host countries, representatives of international organisations (UN Women, ILO, OECD), representatives of the business community, civil society, and academia who will convene to discuss two specific areas:

STEM, financial and digital literacy, environment and sustainability
Labour and economic empowerment and work-life balance.

There is a need to support women’s economic empowerment and improve work access, chances and conditions for women in terms of employability, pay and professional development. This also in view of creating new job opportunities, including for women victims of violence. Moreover, it is important to highlight positive and successful experiences of female workers and entrepreneurs, especially in relation to creative and cultural businesses, the technological and financial sectors, and the circular, green and sustainable economy.

The Conference will allow participants to exchange views and share best practices on how to foster women’s empowerment and promote gender equality. It will also consider gender-related outcomes of other G20 workstreams, the Women20 engagement group, and of the G20 Empower alliance – whose goal is to promote women’s leadership in the private sector. The results of the discussion will be collected by the Italian Presidency and brought to the attention of the G20 Leaders ahead of the 2021 Rome Summit on 30-31 October.