LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND? AN ANALYSIS OF HEFORSHE'S GLOBAL MOVEMENTS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
Feminisms; Gender equality; HeForShe; Sustainable Development Goals
Gender inequality, violence and the oppression of women is a long-standing issue, and its growing importance for any debate, initiative or movement that is truly committed to social justice is undeniable. The launch of the global movements HeForShe, in 2014 by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, UN Women, and the Sustainable Development Goals, in 2015 by the United Nations, represent important milestones in the global efforts to strengthen and foster the necessary changes in the world and in the efforts to overcome gender inequality and the promotion of sustainable development. Recognizing that overcoming gender inequality cannot be dissociated from struggles to overcome oppressions such as racial, class and hetero-cis-normativity, and that only structural responses can guarantee the overcoming of these inequalities; in this research, based on feminist theories, with an intersectional and decolonial approach, I make a critical analysis of these two global movements, and specifically the 'SDG 5: Gender Equality', in order to better understand how the proposals, goals and strategies of these global movements respond to structural oppressions and inequalities; how these movements position themselves in relation to the universalization of women's experiences; and how they contemplate current feminist agendas. The methodology used in this work is a qualitative analysis, based on documents and media, available on the platforms and official pages of the global movements studied and of UN entities, and a review of feminist literature. Results of the analysis point to the absence of important social markers, palliative proposals in the face of structural inequalities, and the non-contemplation of important guidelines of the feminist movement.