Africa: Africans Endorse Women's Rights, and Want Institutions to Do More to Protect Them

Majorities support women's autonomy in decisions about marriage and childbearing.

Gender equality and women's rights are central to Africa's development agenda. The African Union's Agenda 2063 outlines "full gender equality in all spheres of life" as a core goal. This includes equal rights in property ownership, inheritance, contracting, and access to financial services, as well as a reduction in violence against women (African Union, 2015). Similarly, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) place gender equality at the heart of the global development agenda, both as a standalone goal (SDG No. 5) and as a priority that intersects with all other goals (United Nations, 2015). African governments have formally endorsed these commitments: Most countries have ratified the 2003 Maputo Protocol on the rights of women in Africa (African Union, 2003, 2023) and the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

But substantial gaps remain between these commitments and women's lived realities. Recent evidence suggests that progress has been uneven and, in some areas, reversed. The Africa Gender Index reports that the continent's economic gender equality score declined from 61.0% in 2019 to 58.2% in 2023, reflecting worsening economic conditions that have disproportionately affected women (African Development Bank Group & United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, 2024). Across the continent, women are more likely than men to work in vulnerable and informal employment, with lower earnings and poorer working conditions. They also continue to face unequal access to land, finance, agricultural inputs, and productive assets, despite their central role in food production.

Recent global estimates further indicate that progress toward gender equality remains far off track, with discriminatory norms, unequal care burdens, and weak institutional protections continuing to limit women's economic and political participation (UN Women, 2025). The 2026 Women, Business and the Law Index shows only gradual progress across the African continent, while the 2024 SDG Gender Index found that globally, no country is on track to achieve gender equality by 2030; most sub-Saharan African countries are classified as "poor" or "very poor" environments for women and girls (World Bank, 2026; Equal Measures 2030, 2024).

Afrobarometer Round 10 surveys, conducted in 38 African countries in 2024/2025, reflect this mixed picture. A majority of Africans support women's autonomy in marriage and childbearing, but women trail men in hou