Gender Equality

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A gender-equal society would be one where the word 'gender' does not exist: where everyone can be themselves. ~Gloria Steinem

Creating and Developing Awareness

The United Nations Sustainable Goal number five is to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”

The UN cites:

• About two thirds of countries in developing regions have achieve gender parity in primary education
• Only 74 girls in Southern Asia were enrolled in primary school for every 100 boys in 1990. By 2012, the enrollment rations were the same.
• Girls in sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania and Western Asia still face barriers in primary and secondary school.
• Only one in five non-agricultural jobs are held by women in Northern Africa.
• Globally, women on average make 24 percent less than men
• About 133 million girls and women have experienced some form of genital mutilation cutting
• Women hold more than 30 percent of seats in national parliament in 46 countries.

USAID is an U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme poverty around the world and enable resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential. Their website, usaid.gov, list the challenges facing women and girls around the globe as:

• 98 million girls are not in school
• Globally, 1 in 3 women will experience gender-based violence in her lifetime
• In the developing world, 1 in 7 girls marry before her 15th birthday
• Each year more than 287,000 women die from pregnancy and childbirth related complications
• In almost 90% of the 143 countries studied at least one law impedes women’s economic opportunities
• The vast majority of women in developing countries are employed in informal work and overrepresented in the least secure and lowest paid jobs

The site also lists opportunities gained by investing in gender equality and women’s empowerment. Some of them are:

• Women account for 1⁄2 of the potential human capital in any economy
• An extra year of secondary school for girls can increase their future earnings by 10-20 percent
• Countries that invest in girls education have lower maternal and infant deaths, lower rates of HIV and AIDS and better child nutrition

Educate, Inform and Create Inspiration

The Internet is awash in stories about women and allies who have made a difference in moving the world in the direction of gender equality. A 2015 story in the international version of Huffpost (huffingtonpost.in) list eleven stories of inspiration women who are fighting for equality. The list below is a short summary of their work. For a complete information go to (www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/03/13/facebook-inspirational-st_n_6863018.html):

• Mavis Mendonca Smith – Started a program called Win Bangalor Back and an incident of a six-year old being rape at a private Indian school. The aim of the group is to bring issues to the forefront and ensure necessary action is being taken to the keep the city and its residence safe, particularly women.
• Masih Alinejad – an Iranian journalist who started the My Stealthy Freedom campaign in 2014. The goal was to attempt to free Iranian women who are being forced to wear a head coving instead of leaving the choice up to them.
• A group of eight women in Nairobi Kenya started a group called Her Voice after a women was stripped in public for wearing a skirt on the grounds that she was indecently dressed.

What This Looks Like in Real Life (Stories and Case Studies)

The website, www.zeus.aegee.org/magazine/2017/03/08/gender-equality-stories, provides a space for women to share their stories about or lack of gender equality.

Global Citizen (www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/x-stories-explore-women-girls-equality) is another site that provides 13 stories about how women are treated around the world.

Skills Development and Activities

How to Implement or Put into Action

Source Links:

https://www.usaid.gov/what-we-do/gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment

http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/03/13/facebook-inspirational-st_n_6863018.html

http://www.zeus.aegee.org/magazine/2017/03/08/gender-equality-stories/

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/x-stories-explore-women-girls-equality/