Gender Equality: A Frightening Timeline Of 300 Years

The?rather charged?statement followed The Gender Snapshot Report of 2022 published by the UN. The report acts as an SDG tracker, specific to the SDG 5 - Global Gender Equality?-?out of the 17 SDG goals?established?by the UN in 2015.

Diminished Outlook for Gender Equality

The report emphasizes on the need to amplify education and employment opportunities for women, and the disparities fuelled because of COVID-19.?It?also?highlights how the backlash against women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights is another deterrent on the road to gender equality. "Our?Gender Snapshot report?shows that the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, conflict and the backlash against women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights?have?diminished?the outlook for gender equality?across all 17 goals,"?Ginette Azcona and Antra Bhatt,?research?and data specialists involved in the curation of the report,?told Outlook.???

Violence against women has?aggravated with the high?global health,?climate?and humanitarian crises in place, especially?among?the?vulnerable in?conflict ridden areas.?War?further?worsens food insecurity?while the?rate of crimes against women and children?increases?multifold.

This year’s SDG 5 tracker also reveals a regression in women’s economic empowerment.?Reduced women’s representation in positions of power and decision-making?remains?a major contributing factor to the disparity in their economic empowerment.?Additionally, the report underlines how violence?against women?is not restricted to physical, offline spaces anymore.?Online violence?too,?has notably?increased during the?pandemic.?As?the deadline of 2030 nears,?the UN’s?report?aims to?prove catalytic in accelerating?focused?efforts?in the right?direction.?The targets?set?to?achieve,?and?their?analysis?based on the?latest report?are outlined as?follows:?

• End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere -?However,?gaps in constitutional provision for gender equality?persist. Lack of?quotas and guarantees for equal legal rights might take another 286 years to achieve.?

• Eliminate?all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation -?Considering the present state,?ubiquitous presence?of laws?to address and prevent violence against women?can take another 21?years. Cases?of honour killing, sexual and physical violence in a relationship, domestic violence at homes,?witnessed?a surge?during the pandemic?and?need to be acknowledged and addressed more adeptly.?

• Eliminate?all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation -?1 in 4 women have undergone FGM in Sub-Saharan Africa. And although progress is slow, noteworthy steps have been taken by 4,475 communities to outlaw the practice, recording a steady increase by 48 per cent?since 2020.?

• Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally?appropriate -?Compared to men, women shouldered a larger share of unpaid care work during the pandemic that went unnoticed because of a lack of documentation.?Since women are?assumed?to?oversee?the?domestic?space,?it impedes?their ability to?join the?labour?force in the same way as men.?The recently released UN report?-?“The Paths To Equal”?highlights?a stagnating?figure of?61.8 per cent?women’s share in the labour?force,?as compared to more than 90 per cent of prime working-aged?men.??

• Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of?decision-making?in political,?economic?and public life - As?per records, in 2022, women held only 26.4 per cent?of parliamentary seats globally. While representation was below 10 per cent?in 23 countries. It would take about 39 years to bridge the colossal gap.?Women clearly?are deprived of?an equal right and say in decision and policy making involving them.??

• Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights?as agreed?in accordance with?the?Programe?of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences.??

• Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services,?inheritance?and natural resources,?in accordance with?national laws -?According to the 2019-21 data, only 4 out of 52 countries have legal frameworks that guarantee women’s equal rights to land ownership and control.?

• Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology,?to promote the empowerment of women?-?women are less likely to own a mobile phone than men, in 52 out of 80 countries and areas.?

• Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels - Progress has been noted in terms of?Gender Responsive Budgets, with 59 per cent?of the countries?allocating?certain features to track the same.?

Gender inequalities intersect and come to the front when measuring the remaining 16 SDGs too.??"The achievement of?SDG 5 is closely linked with progress on?all of?the other SDGs," said the?UN?research and data specialists?Ginette Azcona and Antra Bhatt.??

Poverty??

The?SDG tracker envisaged?around 383 million women and girls?to live in?extreme?poverty compared?to 368 million men and boys, by the end of 2022 -?the majority share to remain from Sub-Saharan Africa?and Central?and?Southern Asia.?If?the?current trends continue, by 2030, more women and girls?are?anticipated?to?live in extreme poverty in?Sub-Saharan Africa than?they?do?today.?"Inadequate access to decent work and social protection perpetuates the poverty cycle,"?Ginette and Antra added.??

Since?poverty?often endangers other essential services like clean drinking water and fuel, such deprivations propel other inequalities,?as women spend more time on unpaid care and domestic work.??

Climate Change

Moderate or severe food insecurity among adult women rose?from 27.5 per cent in 2019 to 31.9 per cent in 2021.?This further increases their risk?of developing?anemia.??In 2019, 571 million women of reproductive age?were anemic. Climate shocks coupled with?the economic depravity?from?COVID-19,?and conflicts and wars have?also contributed to the major food security?crisis.?The UN cites?nearly one?in every three women to fall victim to food insecurity, globally.???

Health??

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted health services and?strained?medical supply chains,?financial and human resources.?This has inadvertently?affected women’s sexual and reproductive health. Countries have gone through drastic declines in maternal health care, including antenatal services.?Adolescent pregnancies were also on the rise among girls with no or little primary education, and the poor in developing countries.?Legal restrictions, including the criminalization of abortion, continue to impede access to safe, sexual and reproductive health?care. Decline?in?both,?physical and mental health?have?been?registered. Women's?life expectancy?has?been?shortened by 1.6 years in 2021 compared to 2019.?

Education

According to?Ginette and Antra,?education?has a sizeable impact on?women and girls’ ability to?pursue?a career and?break the cycle of?poverty. And?every?subsequent?year of schooling can boost their income by 20 per cent. Globally, transformative gains in girls’ education have unfolded in recent decades. Girls’ learning outcomes have, on average, caught up to those of boys and in some cases surpassed them.??However, the?trajectory has not been equal?between the urban and the rural.?When asked in context?specific to India, they said, "In India,?30.7 per cent of women aged 20-29 have completed upper secondary?school. However,?only 4.7?per cent of?women and?girls from poorest rural households have?secured an upper secondary degree vs?69.8 per cent of the richest urban girls.?This highlights the lopsided progress being made?as high-quality education for?the marginalized groups of women and girls?remains?out of reach."

UN Women’s analysis?of a sample of 29 countries with recent data on upper secondary school completion confirms the existence of inequality in access to education, with girls from rural poor households among the most deprived.?

Faster poverty reduction, better maternal health, lower child mortality, greater HIV prevention and reduced violence against women, all can be achieved by educating women and girls.?Despite the knowledge,?more than half of?nearly 130?million girls are not enrolled in formal education worldwide. In Afghanistan, girls are no longer allowed to attend secondary school.?Moreover, girls with disabilities and those?residing?in crisis affected areas are worse affected.?Additionally, girls, across countries are?systematically steered away from science and math?careers in lieu of the stereotype manufactured around ‘men’ and ‘women’ jobs.?This results in a mammoth imbalance with women making up a mere?19.9 per cent of science and engineering professionals.?

Clean Water and Sanitation

According to the UN research and data specialists, the unavailability of safe water, sanitation and hygiene claims the lives of more than?800,000 women?and girls every year. 44 million pregnant women have sanitation-related hookworm, which causes maternal anemia and leads to preterm?births. Subsequently, in the face of a paucity of clean water and sanitation, women and girls end up walking long distances?and?expending?a copious amount of time and effort in pursuing this activity.??

In India,?in a?quarter of rural households?with no water on premises,?women and girls devote more than 50 minutes?per day to?the exercise of?collecting water.?Compared to 4 minutes per day for men.??

Energy

Continued supply of?electricity can?reduce women’s time spent on unpaid domestic work and?in?turn improve?their?decision-making ability, financial autonomy, reproductive?freedom?and social participation.?And clean cooking technologies?will help them escape?chronic obstructive pulmonary?diseases caused by fuelwood.??

Employment and Economic Growth

Women have been?predominantly employed?in informal sectors exposing them to greater vulnerabilities.?Unequal distribution of unpaid care work and limited access to maternity benefits, childcare?widens an already existing gender pay gap.?The pandemic has?further heightened job insecurity. So much so, women have not recovered lost jobs and income.??

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Women and girls?remain?underrepresented in industries,?academia?and the broader technology sector.?Women hold only 2 in every 10 science, engineering and information and communication technology?ventures.?Their participation?even?in government, research and resource management?remains?negligible.?Women make up only 16.5 per cent of inventors listed on international patent applications globally, Ginette and Antra confirm.??

Reduced Inequalities

By the end of 2021, some?44 million women?and girls,?encompassing refugees, asylum?seekers and?those?displaced?in war, accounted for?IDP - Internally Displaced People.?The migrant women are overrepresented in the domestic?workspace,?rendering?themselves more vulnerable?to?violence,?trafficking?and sexual abuse.?Displacement?also?often?results?in loss of?property,?assets?and livelihoods, coupled with?insignificant access to?health care.?Although,?the gaps tend?to be?smaller?in higher human development?countries,?it is not always the case, as?suggested?by Ginette and Antra.?The?recently?released Gender?Parity?Index?by the UN?ratifies?that higher?GDP?does not always translate to higher gender equality or women’s empowerment.?

Sustainable Cities and Communities ?

UN Women’s rapid gender assessments in 13 countries revealed 49 per cent?of women in urban areas felt less safe walking alone at night?since the pandemic.?Simultaneously, women?and?girls, in?slum and slum-like settings,?are?bestowed with?inadequate housing,?water?and sanitation?in addition to a decrepit?health care?system and incompetent transport services.?Considering their economic and social handicap,?a?decent?job opportunity is a far-flung dream.??

Climate Action??

Responsible?consumption and?production, climate?action,?life below water and on land, have visible effects everywhere.?Women?play an instrumental role?in climate change adaptation and mitigation despite many obstacles, and?hence,?must be engaged in devising responsible solutions.??

Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions??

Women human rights defenders working on land, environmental and indigenous rights, LGBTQI rights and women’s rights?face sexual violence and harassment, often?inflicted?to?intimidate and drive them out of public life.??

Partnerships for the Goals

Women, globally,?lost an estimate?of?$800 billion?in income in 2020 due to the pandemic.?Improved international cooperation is pertinent to combat the global crises. Funds need to be better directed to?ameliorate?the crises faced by women and girls.??

Context Specific to India??

UN research and data specialists, Ginette and Antra shed light on the major impediments facing gender equality, in the?context of?India.?

While only?12?of 18?indicators?and sub-indicators for SDG?- needed to?monitor?SDG?5?-?have data available?for India,?5?are?far or?very far?from target, 4 are moderate distance to target?while only 3 are target met or almost met.?Following are the highlights from the conversation:?

-??They noted that in?India, 44 per cent?of members of local deliberative bodies are women,?and the figure has been?attributed?to deliberate policies like??gender quotas.?

-?According to?the?UNDP and UN Women,?the?Ministry of Finance-led?gender budgeting in Budget Circulars, Expenditure Budgets, and the Outcome Budget?is exemplary.??

However,?progress is slow in other areas and?needs?to be?followed through. These include?-?having legal frameworks in place?to promote, enforce and?monitor?equality and non?discrimination?based on?sex?and overarching?legal frameworks?governing?public?life,?employment?and economic benefits.?Similarly, gaps are also seen in the representation of women in national parliaments,?women in managerial positions and?in the time spent on unpaid care and domestic work.?

- One of the biggest impediments, however, persists to be?the presence of discriminatory social norms?which relegate?women?to?a traditional role?of the primary caregiver?in?a?household.?Based on the?2019 Time Use Survey?from India,?women do 8 times more unpaid care and domestic work as compared to men.?Concurrently,?the participation rate of women in the labour force for?prime aged individuals (25-54 years) is?36.3 per cent, juxtaposed to the 96.5 per cent for men.?While these rates?remain?stable for men irrespective of their marital status and family responsibilities, for women with young children at home these rates drop further.?Thereafter,?countries?with higher expenditure (as a percentage?GDP)?on children?tend to have lower?labour market participation gaps.?In contrast, countries?with little or?no expenditure?-?such as India?-?have the highest gaps.?Gender equality will remain a distant dream for India unless policies to address these issues are put in place.??

The Gender Snapshot 2022 report?urges and directs?cooperation,?partnerships?and investments?to pour in,?since no country?has achieved full gender parity across key dimensions of human development. Although progress has been made?over the last?few?years,?as more girls?attend?school, more?women serve?in parliament and positions of leadership,?rate?of child or early marriage?witnesses?a decline,?and laws?to?advance gender equality?are set in place,?the pandemic reversed a lot of these developments.?An?amalgamation of?elevated?poverty rate,?inflated food and commodity prices,?an unprecedented climate emergency and shrinking sexual and reproductive rights,?face?women and girls?with greater risks.??

"Stronger international cooperation, especially around financing for gender equality, is needed to combat the multiple and interlinked global crises that put?their lives and wellbeing at risk, but funding?remains?erratic and insufficient.?Let’s?raise our voices to change this too! Women deserve better,"?Ginette and Antra conclude.