'Start and Improve Your Business' training for rural women in Sabirabad region

Achieving gender equality is one of the United Nation's highest priorities and is considered as a necessary precondition for fully achieving human development. Gender equality recognizes the individual - regardless of sex - as the central figure of societal progress and enables the nation to set on a long and thorny path to democratization and the nation’s sustainable development. The legal framework and policies pursued by the Government of Azerbaijan create enabling environment for women to exercise their rights and advance their position in the society. Since independence, Azerbaijan has ratified almost all essential international documents on the protection of women's rights. However, in Azerbaijan, like in many other countries, there is a gap between legislative acts and their enforcement. Disparities observed in the level of men’s and women’s participation in economic, social and political life are, to a large extent, accounted for by patriarchal attitudes and the stereotypes regarding women roles and responsibilities in the family and society, which constitute a significant impediment to the implementation of the legal provisions and are a root cause of women’s disadvantaged position in public life, the labour market, and other areas.