As a worldwide organisation, Mothers' Union represents a diverse membership. Members and their communities across the world face a huge range of issues including family breakdown, violence, poverty, water shortages, illiteracy, HIV/AIDS and gender inequality. As well as addressing these issues through practical programmes, Mothers' Union lobbies for political change to tackle the root causes.

Within their own countries, Mothers' Union members engage with local and national government on issues affecting their communities. Mothers' Union also holds special consultative status with the United Nations, which entitles us to make a contribution to the UNs work in areas relating to Mothers' Union expertise. Mothers' Union exercises its consultative status every year at the Commission on the Status of Women, held at the United Nations headquarters in New York. We attend this commission in particular because gender inequality compounds many other problems such as illiteracy and the spread of HIV/AIDS, and as Mothers' Union represent millions of women, we have a great deal of knowledge about the impact of womens inequality across the world.

The Commission is dedicated exclusively to advancing the status of women across the world. In the 21st Century, girls and women still face inequality and discrimination because of their gender. For example:

Literacy Rates: There are 774m illiterate adults in the world, 64% of whom are women.

Health inequalities: 50% of adults living with HIV/AIDS worldwide are female; rising to 61% in Sub-Saharan Africa. Every day, 1600 women and more than 10,000 newborn babies die due to preventable complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

Income: Although the pay gap has decreased over the past decade, women in the UK earn on average 17.2% less than male counterparts. Worldwide, women hold 28.3% of the legislative, senior official or managerial roles.

Regional breakdown: 41.2% North America; 35% Latin America and Caribbean; 30.6% EU; and 8.6% South Asia.

Political representation: 17.2% of Parliamentarians across the world are women.
Regional breakdown: Americas 19.2%; Europe 19.9%; Sub-Saharan Africa 17.5%; Arab States 9.1%; Asia 16.5%; Pacific 9.4%.

Each year the CSW looks at a different theme and after talks and negotiations between governments and non-governmental organisations, the Commission produces a set of agreed conclusions. Governments are then responsible for implementing these agreements.

CSW 53 (2009) The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including care-giving in the context of HIV/AIDS

The UN 2009 theme examines the fact that caring for the home and family is still a role fulfilled predominantly by women, and that political and economic decision-making is still taken mainly by men – not necessarily through individual choice but often through a mixture of tradition, prejudice and discrimination. Governments will also address the fact that care for those with HIV/AIDS is provided disproportionately by women worldwide.

Mothers’ Union advocates three ways in which governments can promote more equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men:

1. Governments must support grassroots programmes that promote and support the equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men within the household and wider community, such as the Mothers’ Union’s Family Life Programme.

2. Governments must implement policies that support women and men to share responsibilities equally within family and work life and within the wider community, such as flexible working rights and affordable childcare provision.

3. Governments must also commit unreservedly to achieving Millennium Development Goal 6 - combat HIV/AIDS – by investing in HIV/AIDS education, prevention and treatment; and by ensuring that those needing treatment can access it easily when needed.