Women’s rights, gender justice, and tax justice advocates are standing together to demand “Progressive Taxation for an Inclusive and Just Social Organization of Care.” The call takes place under the 9th edition of GATJ’s annual Global Days of Action on Tax Justice for Women’s Rights, organised by GATJ, GATJ’s regional members and GATJ’s Tax and Gender Working Group. 

Each year, the Global Days of Action runs alongside the UN Commission of the Status of Women (CSW). This year is a key moment for reflection as the campaign also marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Beijing+30). 

Launching the campaign, Maureen Mburu, Tax & Gender Lead and Africa Campaigns Coordinator at GATJ, said “We have a critical opportunity this year to shape global policies that will define the future of tax justice, gender equality and economic fairness. Over the coming days, we will mobilize, raise our voices, and demand a world where tax systems work for women, not against them. We will stand together with feminist movements, trade unions, and tax justice organizations to ensure that economic systems value care, prioritize gender equality, and serve the needs of all, rather than the wealthiest few.”

Care as a Crucial to Gender Equality 

“The enjoyment of rights is different for men and women due to care work. The intensity of care work undertaken by women and girls hinders education, prevents professional progress, and more. State action or inaction defines who has access to quality care and who bears the cost. The lack of publicly provided care solutions is at the centre of the discussion we are having here; it is one of the main obstacles to gender equality. The capacity is hindered by an outdated international tax system,” shared Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), in the keynote address.

Historically, care work has been undervalued and care public services underfunded, further entrenching gender inequality.  

Chenai Mukumba, Executive Director of Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA) and GATJ Coordinating Committee Member, shared “Despite the fact that care plays a fundamental role in sustaining economies and societies, it remains largely unrecognised and excluded from formal economic metrics such as GDP. This oversight perpetuates gender inequalities and harms women’s economic empowerment.”

Addressing these gender and care imbalances requires connecting progressive taxation and gender-transformative policy.

Klelia Guerrero García, Specialist in Tax Justice and Gender at Latindadd and member of Red de Justicia Fiscal de América Latina y el Caribe (RJFALC), shared, “We must break away from outdated models that see care as a private responsibility and instead move to recognize care as a public good and human right. When care is embedded in our frameworks it will no longer remain as invisible and finally be celebrated as the indispensable element of our collective prosperity that it is.”

The panelists highlighted the need to have an intersectional approach within care discussions. This includes looking at the role of migration and the need to ensure access to public services for all people. 

Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona spoke about the role of migration, “When we talk about the unequal distribution of care work this is very much related to migration patterns. Women from the Global South are migrating to the Global North to provide care work, having to leave their own families behind without care. Migration within the country and across borders is really at the core when we talk about the need to protect care workers by recognising, valuing, and redistributing care work.”

Progressive Taxation Now!

In many countries, particularly in the Global South, regressive tax policies and austerity measures deepen gender inequality. Poorer families are forced to spend a larger portion of their income on taxed essential goods and services, resulting in a higher effective tax rate compared to the rich. Meanwhile, tax avoidance by the rich and multinational corporations reduce public funding for essential services while privatizing care which increases the burden of care on women, particularly who are poor and marginalized. This worsens inequalities between the rich and poor. 

Progressive taxes, where the rich and multinational corporations pay their fair share, are critical to generating sustainable financing for public services including healthcare, education, and more.

Global Tax Justice for Women’s Rights

Tove Maria Ryding, Tax Coordinator at Eurodad and GATJ Coordinating Committee Member, commented upon the state of the international tax system to say, “Right now, the world’s richest corporations and individuals can use tax havens to avoid taxes but the poorest can’t. There is a huge gender bias in that because when you look at who has the money, there are more rich men than women. And, as a consequence, that means public coffers are empty which then undermines public services, including care work where women do the majority of the work.” 

The 2025 GDOA takes place against the backdrop of the beginning of the negotiations for a United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (UN Tax Convention) as well as the Fourth Financing for Development (FfD) Conference. 

Tove Maria Ryding commented upon the UN Tax Convention negotiations, “Between now and 2027 they are writing a legally binding agreement that could be the most important global agreement on tax in the past 100 years. We have established the link between tax and gender so we have a place we need to capture it: in the UN Tax Convention.”

Jeannie Manipon, Co-Coordinator of Tax and Fiscal Justice Asia (TAFJA) and GATJ Coordinating Committee Member, shared, “For a strong UN Tax Convention, the political conditions must be there on the ground. In the Philippines, we call this the rice cake strategy; we make our rice cakes by applying heat on top and heat from below. We need to continue making the connections between the multiple fights by grassroots social movements for economic justice, for wages, for land rights, and the fight for a global UN Tax Convention.” 

Take Part in the GDOA Campaign

Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona, commented upon the need to continue collaborating across our movements, “We are seeing a pushback on gender equality and on our democracies. Now, more than ever, women and feminist allies need to stand together.”

Moderating the event, Yamina Ouldali, Head of Policy at the Gender and Development Network (GADN), summarised the panel to say, “As tax and gender advocates, we have a very clear vision of what we are asking our policymakers for and what we want as a movement.”

Maureen Mburu closed the event, “The work does not stop here, it begins. Join in the activities of the GDOA from now until the 21st. This is our time to #MakeTaxesWorkForWomen and reclaim care as a human right. Let’s get to work.”