How Can You Contribute to Achieving Gender Equality?
A recent study called PROGRESS ON THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS THE GENDER SNAPSHOT 2022 revealed that gender equality would take at least three centuries to achieve.
The Woman Post | Nibeth Adriana Duarte Camacho
Listen to this article
Read more content like this at: thewomanpost.com
Among other things, that this study is focused I show the pandemic attacked and delayed achievements about women's rights and struggles for their freedoms.
This study examines from a gender perspective, the progress towards compliance with the 17 SDGs in the United Nations 2030 Agenda. According to data from the study, exactly achieving gender equality can take 286 years to close the legal gaps and 140 to attain equity in positions of power and leadership in the workplace, as indicated in this United Nations study.
The main issues that have held back are domestic violence, discrimination in education and work, as well as access to leadership positions in the workplace.
The study begins with a chapter dedicated to education and the gap between the subjects of study that women choose from men, revealing that even today two of ten women's work positions are related to science, engineering, or technology.
Some surprising data in addition to this are:
• One in ten women and girls between the ages of 14 and 49 were victims of sexual and physical violence.
• By the end of 2021, more or less 44 million women and girls were forced to leave their homes due to climate change, war, and human rights violations.
• In general, in all countries, girls are systematically excluded from science and mathematics careers.
• According to the study at the end of 2022, about 383 million women will live in extreme poverty compared to 368 million men and children.
• To eradicate child marriage by 2030, progress must be 17 times faster than that recorded over the last decade.
• The war in Ukraine worsens food insecurity and hunger, especially among women and children, limiting the supply of wheat, fertilizer, and fuel, and promoting inflation.
Within the consequences of the pandemic, the study indicates that globally, it is estimated that women lost 800 billion dollars in income during 2020 due to the pandemic and, even though there was an economic upturn, it is expected that their participation in the labor market is lower in 2022 than before the pandemic (50.8%, compared to 51.8% in 2019)
There are numerous other armed conflicts, in Africa and Asia, and over the past year, some 38% of female-headed households in war zones were moderately or severely food insecure, compared to 20% of male-headed households.
If changes are not accelerated, legal systems that do not prohibit violence against women, do not protect women's rights within marriage and in the family, and those that do not guarantee equal rights to property and control of land, could remain existing for many more generations
“It is crucial that we mobilize now to invest in women and girls and to recapture and accelerate progress. The longer we take to reverse this trend, the more it will cost us all”, said Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, after the report’s presentation.
If you want to read the study:Progress-on-the-sustainable-development-goals-the-gender-snapshot-2022
What can we do?
In addition to recognizing the gaps that widen achieving gender equality, it is important to understand that, just like climate change, there are actions that are in our hands:
- Housework division
Housework and child care are the responsibility of all the adults in the house. In an egalitarian society, domestic chores belong to everyone. The burden of caring for the home and children, in much of the world, is still placed on women. According to UN Women, the 2020 school and preschool closures required 672 billion extra hours of unpaid child care worldwide. Assuming the gender gap in care work remained the same as it was before the pandemic, women would have taken on 512 billion of those hours.
- Voted women state representatives
Find out who the female candidates are, especially women from underrepresented communities. In addition to voting, consider other ways to support and give democratic spaces to women and LGBTQI in the arts, sciences, sports, etc.
- Same salary
For every dollar a man receives, a woman earns, on average, 70 to 90 cents, according to UN data. Therefore, it is important to take into account, check and support companies that pay the same salary, benefits, and bonuses to employees and employees with equivalent positions.
- Hire women
According to a study by the Boston Consulting Group even indicated that the inclusion of just 2.5% of women in a management team can increase revenue from innovation by 1%.