Kingdom of Bahrain - eGovernment Portal

Fifth Goal: Gender Equality

While the world has achieved progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment under the Millennium Development Goals (including equal access to primary education between girls and boys), women and girls continue to suffer discrimination and violence in every part of the world.

Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. Providing women and girls with equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large.

Responsible Entities to Achieve the Goal and Monitor Achievement Levels:

Learn more about ‘Gender Equality ’ as one of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Fifth Goal Statistics

0.34% of women aged 20 to 24 years were married before age 15
19% of women in Legislative authority positions
53% of Bahraini women in public sector

Policies and Strategies Supporting the Fifth Goal

Women and Girls Empowerment

Ministry of Labour and Social Development has adopted a package of current and future projects and initiatives aimed at increasing the integration rates of Bahraini women into the labor market and increasing their participation in the private sector by providing suitable job opportunities and improving the working environment and conditions to suit the specificity of women. The Public Sector Labour Law explicitly provides for the prohibition of discrimination between the sexes.

The Supreme Council for Women was also established under the leadership of Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the wife of the King of Bahrain, to complete the efforts of the Kingdom of Bahrain to empower women. The council is composed of sixteen female public figures who have experience in women's affairs.

The government bodies have formed equal opportunities committees, which aim at integrating the needs of women in the framework of equal opportunities in all fields of work and working to achieve the principle of equal opportunities among all employees and beneficiaries and services provided by that body in coordination with the Supreme Council for Women . Such a committee will express its opinion on the issues relating to the integration of women's needs within the framework of equal opportunities. The governmental sector institutions have formed forty-five equal opportunity committees following the issuance of the instructions of Civil Service Bureau No. (4) of 2014 on the establishment of equal opportunities committees in the government sector.

National Plan for the Advancement of Bahraini Women

The National Plan for the Advancement of Bahraini Women (2013 - 2022) includes five aspects that seek to ensure family stability in the context of family cohesion, and enable them to contribute competitively to development track, which is based on the principle of equal opportunities and integrating the needs of women in development, with a vision that is built on equal partnership to build a sustainable competitive community.