This means tackling structural gender inequalities as well as cultural norms that prevent the full participation of girls and women around the world.
This perception is reinforced by the lack of gender analyses in key programme documents, and the fact that structural gender inequalities, and their basic causes, are not systematically identified and highlighted.
The Mobilising Men programme, working in countries such as India, Kenya and Uganda, seeks to change systemic and structural gender inequalities (Greig and Edström 2012), while Sonke Gender Justice, among other strategies, works to hold the South African government accountable for the adoption and implementation of policies regarding gender-based violence (Sonke Gender Justice Network 2009).
Third, the structural nature of gender inequality means it is central to meeting development goals.
The MDGs taught us that, without addressing the underlying structural causes of gender inequality, progress is likely to be uneven and prone to reversals.
The goal should: reflect the priorities of marginalised women and girls; address the structural causes of gender inequality; be accepted and acted upon by national governments and the international community; and address issues that cannot, or should not, be placed under other goals.
The historic Beijing Platform for Action, agreed at the fourth world conference on women in 1995, did much to solidify the calls for change, with demands for structural change to end gender inequality.
Violent acts by male perpetrators need to be examined and understood in the context of structural inequities that cause and maintain gender inequality (e.g., rape myths).
As a form of violence against women, FGM takes place because of structural inequalities in society – particularly gender inequality," she says.
For those who recognise gender inequality as structural, and not easily shifted by the success stories of a few powerful women, the branding of female faces on banknotes should give rise to some discomfort.
