Make Taxes Work for Women

The current tax system of most countries worsens gender inequality. On the one hand, the tax burden tends to fall on the poorest women while on the other hand, tax revenues are insufficient to fund the gender responsive programmes and services needed to improve women’s lives and realise their rights – to healthcare, education, decent work, and an adequate standard of living. For women to exercise choice and control over economic opportunities and resources, tax justice is key. 

GATJ advocates for a feminist tax system which promotes gender, social and economic equality, and funds public services, including health care, universal public education, provision of safe water, provision of safe public transport, lighting in public spaces and other factors that keep women and all people safe, and redistribute women’s unpaid care work.

GATJ calls for a feminist tax system which includes:

  • an end to regressive consumption taxes such as value-added taxes and goods and services taxes that increase the burden on the poor and marginalised, particularly women
  • the introduction of taxes on large incomes, assets and wealth to ensure sufficient funding for quality public services and universal social protection
  • publicly available gender disaggregated economic, revenue, and demographic data generated by governments and international financial institutions
  • the inclusion of women’s voices and feminist analyses in international financial decision-making and policy-making spaces

Campaign activities

GATJ coordinates the Tax and Gender Working Group (TGWG), a collective of women’s rights organisations, global trade unions, international non-governmental organisations, and civil society organisations working together to link tax and gender justice.  In 2017 GATJ co-convened a Tax Justice & Women’s Rights Forum in Colombia, the resulting Bogotá Declaration was signed by 150 organisations worldwide. The TGWG has launched Framing Feminist Taxation volume 1 and volume 2, providing guidance and recommendations for gender-just policymaking and advocacy.  GATJ with the TGWG coordinate an annual Global Days of Action in March coinciding with the International Women’s Day and the Commission on the Status of Women.