Reflecting on CSW70: A critical moment for amplifying older women’s rights and voices

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principle global body dedicated to gender equality. It is the time at which UN member states come together to report on progress - and negotiate agreement for next steps - on gender equality and women’s rights. This year was its 70th session and, for the first time in its history, it included a special focus area on older women.

Here, Katy Chadwick (Senior Policy Adviser at Age International) looks at some of the key outcomes for older women. She goes on to identify opportunities for the UK Government to integrate a life course approach to gender equality into its international development approach.

A historic moment for gender equality, and for older women’s rights

This year’s Commission took place at a critical moment for gender equality, with global progress in this area experiencing a significant backlash. Age International was also delighted to see a special focus on older women’s rights - the first time in its history that the Commission has had a dedicated space for older women.

This dedicated space has been long awaited, and has taken many years of advocacy to achieve. Women over 60 years of age now represent 15% of the global female population, and this will rise to nearly 25% by 2050. Gender inequalities do not disappear with age - they accumulate across the life course. Globally, older women live longer than men, but often in poorer health, and they are more likely to experience higher rates of poverty. 

Older women today were also the driving force behind establishing and enshrining landmark women’s rights. This includes establishing the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995[1]. This year, it was more apparent than ever that these hard-won rights need protecting, or there is a risk of reversing decades of progress.

Yet despite their contributions, and their growing numbers, older women are often invisible in UN policy and gender equality frameworks. The special focus area on older women’s rights provided an important moment to listen to the lived experiences of older women, and to integrate a life course perspective into policy and practice. As one of Age International’s UK campaigners recently put it:

Key moments for older women’s rights at CSW

1. Recommendations from the Ministerial Roundtable to inform evidence-based policy making

The focus area on older women at CSW70 took the form of a Ministerial Roundtable. This was chaired by Rwanda, and 48 member states contributed. It was disappointing that the UK Government did not contribute, despite initially being on the list to do so. The roundtable was a missed opportunity to set out how the UK Government’s recently announced international focus on women and girls will be inclusive of all women, and will take a life course approach.

Representatives spoke about the structural barriers to gender equality that compound across the life course. These include in education, employment, caregiving responsibilities, healthcare access and social protection. This cumulative disadvantage leads to higher levels of poverty, insecurity and exclusion in later life. It was highlighted that older women make significant contributions to their families, communities and societies - yet their experiences and contributions are not properly recognised in policy or practice.

There is also an urgent need for more comprehensive gender and age data, with age in 10 year cohorts. This is an essential foundation for ensuring that older women’s experiences are visible, and can inform evidence-based policy making.

Representatives shared examples of addressing poverty, insecurity and exclusion. These included policies such as pension reforms that recognise unpaid care work, expanding coverage of non-contributory pensions, targeted cash transfers, initiatives to support digital inclusion, and strengthening of health care systems.

2. Older women’s voices and lived experiences at CSW

It was encouraging to see that older women’s voices and lived experiences were prominent across a range of events at CSW.  This included older women advocates who travelled with HelpAge, speaking at a number of events and with policy makers. For example, Paulette Metang Tchekotio (founder of ACAMAGE and an older women activist from Cameroon) spoke at the UN Secretary General’s Town Hall Meeting with Civil Society.

Age International participated in a joint event with UK Civil Society Women’s Alliance (UKCSWA) and the UK Government Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO) to speak about violence across the life course. Speakers at the event highlighted how older women’s experiences of violence remain some of the least heard, least understood, and least resourced. Older women’s experiences of violence, and their ability to seek support, are often shaped by reliance on care givers, unique health needs, social isolation, and unequal power dynamics. Contributions from speakers, and from audience members, made clear that we need to tackle social stigma and silence, increase access to specialist services, validate and listen to older women’s experiences, and make older women visible in the data collected on VAWG.

Meanwhile, a UN Women event on access to justice across the life course highlighted how justice gaps run deepest for both the youngest and the oldest. Young feminists spoke about limited legal literacy, parental restrictions on participation in justice, and criminalisation and stigma around reproductive health rights. Older women advocates spoke about compounding inequalities across the life course, lack of documentation, barriers to inheritance and property rights, as well as violence against older women being under-reported and under-addressed.

These events, and many more across the two weeks, highlight how at different stages across the life course, structural barriers and patriarchal norms, serve to deepen gender inequalities.

3. Protecting hard-won gains in the agreed conclusions

CSW ends with a set of agreed conclusions. These conclusions outline the work that member states must do to make progress on gender equality. This year, reaching agreement on the agreed conclusions was particularly tense. Interventions from the US attempted to block adoption, and forced a vote. In times of intensifying polarisation, and the backlash against gender equality, it was clear at this year’s CSW that consensus at the UN has ended. Protecting progress on hard-won gains is more urgent than ever.

Despite these attempts to block progress, the agreed conclusions contain strong references to the rights and lived realities of all women and girls, the multiple and intersecting discriminations they face, and the importance of taking a life course approach to gender equality.  It is encouraging to see the specific needs of older women named (in para 8), a life course approach referenced throughout the document, and in reference to preventing and responding to violence against women and girls.

There was important language on taking an age sensitive and disability inclusive approach to justice systems. The text also recognises the importance of investing in national statistical systems that disaggregate data by age, gender and disability (and other relevant characteristics). The text failed, however, to recognise the outcomes of the Ministerial Roundtable. This was a missed opportunity to embed a life course approach more substantially, and to commit member states to take action on implementing some of the resulting recommendations from the roundtable. 

What next for older women’s rights?

Ageing is not gender neutral. The Ministerial Roundtable on older women’s rights highlighted the urgent need to embed the experiences, contributions and specific needs of older women across gender equality frameworks. Progress on gender equality requires explicit attention to older women’s rights.

The UK Government missed an opportunity to contribute to the Ministerial Roundtable. But there are clear opportunities to respond to its recommendations, and to integrate a life course approach to gender equality into upcoming moments. This includes at the G20, at the G7, and during the global partnerships conference in May this year.

In her remarks to the commission, Baroness Smith made clear the UK Government’s ambitions to be an ally on gender equality, and to put women and girls at the heart of international policy:

This welcome commitment now needs to translate into policies. It requires resourcing which listens and responds to the unique lived realities of girls and women across the course of their lives.

1] This landmark text established that women’s rights are human rights, and was adopted by 189 governments. It highlights 12 critical areas for action, which CSW helps to monitor progress on.