In our education we are using teaching cases, assignments and videos to highlight the issues as well as the business challenges posed by the SDGs, and confront students with the complexities of working with the SDGs. Here we share these materials per SDG, showcasing material that is most directly relevant.
This SDG seeks to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls all around the world. Awareness, equal opportunities, diversity, equal payment, and anti-discrimination laws are crucial in the efforts to achieve SDG 5 Gender equality; Ending discrimination against women and girls is a pre-condition for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. In many cases, education is the only way to allow women to escape oppression and attain financial independence. Despite tremendous improvements in the last 100 years, full equality is still far off.
Organisations with an equal amount of men and women at senior management level considerably outperform those that lack equal representation.
Robin Driessen - MScBA Master in Management graduate
Student Robin Driessen, an MScBA Master in Management graduate explains why she advocates gender equality; not least because organisations with balanced and equal numbers of men and women tend to outperform organisations that don’t. She also explains the effects of denying women access to contraception.
Professor Dianne Bevelander talks about women’s empowerment, structural gender bias and the need to increase the representation in executive positions of organisations. As founder and Executive Director of the Erasmus Centre for Women and Organisations at RSM, she focuses on women in management as well as researching management education and diversity.
Marlies Dekkers explains how she supports feminism from an extraordinary viewpoint – that of a designer of lingerie for women, a ‘feminine feminist’ as she calls it. This led to her writing a book Unlock your potential for women undergoing the journey to be their best. As well as designing lingerie, Marlies Dekkers also lectures internationally about her 25 years of experience building her international business.
Want to start applying your knowledge? Here are easy tips related to SDG 5:
- Practice and demonstrate to children equal decision-making processes at home.
- Stand up for women’s rights, whether you are one or not.
- Learn to recognize harmful gender representations in the media.
Want to do more? Here are the Good Life Goals.
RSM has developed a case series addressing the Sustainable development goals, which contains at least one case that specifically touches upon one of the 17 SDGs.
Cases with a primary focus on SDG 5:
- Flying High: Women on Wings Gives Lift to Women in Rural India
You might also be interested in:
- Business and the Sustainable Development Goals – a framework for effective corporate involvement, a short book by Prof. Rob van Tulder.
- RSM’s 2018 Women in Leadership Conference. Here’s the report.
- One of several RSM executive education programmes for women in business.
- The ECWO also developed the following case: Kilimanjaro: Challenge, Self-reflection and Gender Stereotypes.
- A blog on why menstrual health must be in government and employer policies.
- An article about PhD candidate Maria Carmen Punzi and her research on menstrual health and gender equality
Explore all SDGs
SDG cases
The SDG teaching cases of Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, explore the complexity of sustainable development.
Positive Change
Learn more about RSM's mission to be a force for positive change in the world
