II. Findings of the CRM 410. Women constitute approximately 52 per cent of the Mozambican population. According to PARPA II, 72.2 per cent of Mozambican women live in rural areas, and 23.2 per cent are heads of households. The female population is more concentrated in rural areas, where women form 55 per cent of the labour force and engage in subsistence farming. 411. Despite being a numerical majority and having major responsibilities as mothers, wives and daughters, the status of women is that of subordination. As a result, they are worse off than men, being poorer, illiterate and more affected by, and infected with, HIV/Aids. This has influenced the government’s policies and guided it towards developing multifaceted strategies for uplifting the status of women in Mozambique. While a great deal of work has been done in the political public arena and impressive results have been achieved, it is in the social, cultural and economic arenas and in the private sphere that women suffer setbacks. Policy and Institutional Framework 412. Mozambique’s Family Law is a progressive tool that provides an appropriate framework for eliminating discrimination against women in family relations, which tend to be bedrocks of the marginalisation of women. The Family Law covers important concepts of parental rights, child custody, cohabitation rights, separation and divorce, property rights and inheritance, to mention but a few. 413. Mozambique has both a National Gender Policy and a National Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women. This plan involves all sectors of society and is implemented by the Cabinet, the General Assembly and the Constitutional Council. Gender is a cross-cutting issue in the country’s five-year socioeconomic government plan. PARPA II has gender indicators for measuring the mainstreaming of gender equity in all sectors (e.g. the water and energy sectors). CEDAW, the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, and the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa have either been signed or ratified in order to facilitate an enabling policy environment. 414. Gender equality and empowerment are priorities in Mozambique, and are reflected in the number of women in leadership positions, especially at the central level, although to a lesser degree at the provincial and district levels (Box 3.7). Women have been appointed to executive positions from central to local council level (e.g. 50 per cent of those in the Gaza and Inhambane governments are women and they make significant decisions). 145