Editorial: Women's Empowerment, Migration, and Health

Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls in the world is one of the Sustainable Development Goals, as part of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. In this regard, despite substantial progress attained in the last three decades, many challenges still remain, in terms of difficulties in entering University and advanced educational programs, accessing health care, gender pay gap, underrepresentation at the political level, and gender-based violence. These problems and inequalities are particularly evident for women living in developing countries and for migrant women, and may be exacerbated by the effects of the current COVID-19 crisis. Empowering women is a goal as well as a promoter of development. It can lead women to participate in social and political life; it can promote their effective involvement and lead to equal opportunities in the labor market. This can have a noteworthy impact on health, ensuring better care, social protection and promotion, universal access to sexual and reproductive health, as well as the reduction of harmful practices such as forced marriage and female genital mutilation/cutting. It can also lead to reduce all forms of violence against women and girls in the private and public sphere, thus decreasing the impact of violence. Empowerment can be important for the most vulnerable women, and especially for migrant women, who are particularly exposed to the effects of violence, discrimination, and underrepresentation.