It is time to take action! Join our Tribe of Changemakers. Sign up for Virtual Conversations!
Gender Inequality forms a number of issues across the world. The following are ways how:
Gender-Based Violence
Gender-based violence has only been exacerbated by the pandemic. Calls to helplines increased five-fold in some countries as the movement was restricted in response to the health crisis, causing both social isolation and increased economic insecurity in ways that made women more vulnerable to violence at home. According to the UN Women-UNDP COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker, as of March 2021, 52 countries had integrated prevention and response to violence against women and girls within their pandemic response plans, and 136 had adopted measures to strengthen services for female survivors of violence during a pandemic.
Still, more action is urgently needed. Potential solutions include laws and policies to promote gender equality and punish perpetrators, comprehensive and accessible survivor-centered services for women and their children, greater prevention and more coordinated responses to gender-based violence from health, judicial, educational, and social service providers, greater efforts to challenge norms and attitudes that harm women and girls, strengthened collection, measurement, reporting, and use of related data in decision-making, and increased support for community-based organizations’ advocacy and action to end gender-based violence.
The pandemic made women around the world more vulnerable to violence at home. Not enough is being done to prevent violence, or to mete out punishment when it occurs.
Rates of depression, anxiety, unplanned pregnancy, sexually-transmitted disease, and HIV are relatively higher among women who have experienced violence. This can strain health care systems, and undermine productivity; the estimated annual cost to the global economy of discriminatory social institutions and violence against women is roughly $12 trillion. At least 155 countries have passed domestic violence laws, and 140 have legislation on sexual harassment in the workplace - though enforcing these laws remains a challenge, and women and girls are frequently denied access to safety and justice.
About one in every three women in the world aged 15 and older have experienced physical and/or sexual violence at least once in their life, according to the World Health Organization. And, for 16% of those aged between 15 and 24, it has happened within the past 12 months. Gender-based violence is a human rights violation with devastating immediate and long-term physical, sexual, and mental consequences - which can prevent women from fully participating in society.
Political Gender Inequality
Conflict affects women and girls differently than men and boys. Women and girls face heightened risks from displacement and breakdowns of protection services, for example, and up to 70% are liable to experience gender-based violence in crisis settings. Child marriage is more likely in such situations, as well - in Syria, rates are now four times higher than before the outbreak of war there. Humanitarian emergencies also increase the risk of unwanted pregnancy, STDs, and maternal mortality - and create more care-related tasks like providing food and water or caring for the sick. This can preclude women and girls from paid work or education, while straining their physical and mental health.
In addition, research shows that men constitute the vast majority of humanitarian actors, while women tend to have only symbolic positions. Women’s representation is even lower when it comes to peace and security specifically; they accounted for a mere 6.6% of all uniformed military, police, and justice and corrections personnel in UN field missions in 2020, and for just 13% of negotiators, 6% of mediators, and 6% of signatories in major peace processes worldwide. This is true despite research showing that involving women in crisis response and prevention improves outcomes and lowers risks.
They tend to play limited roles in peace and security efforts, despite research showing their participation improves outcomes
Disasters such as droughts, floods, and storms kill more women than men due to structural inequalities, though in the aftermath of disasters the specific humanitarian needs of women and girls are often inadequately identified and addressed. Assessments conducted by UN Women in dozens of countries revealed that women were less likely than men to receive pandemic-related cash relief, were half as likely as men to have unemployment insurance, and were less likely to receive support from NGOs.
To address this, women and girls must participate both as beneficiaries of humanitarian action and as contributors (to both planning and implementation) - with a focus on rights, needs, and agency. Emergency response plans and strategies must address the immediate needs of women and girls and their protection, help restore their livelihoods, and promote their leadership and resilience. The presence and influence of women in peacekeeping should be increased, gender experts should be included in humanitarian teams responding to crises, and gender should be integrated into monitoring tools as well as assessments of vulnerability, risk, and capacity.
Women in Crises
Assessments conducted by UN Women in dozens of countries revealed that women were less likely than men to receive pandemic-related cash relief, were half as likely as men to have unemployment insurance, and were less likely to receive support from NGOs.
To address this, women and girls must participate both as beneficiaries of humanitarian action and as contributors (to both planning and implementation) - with a focus on rights, needs, and agency. Emergency response plans and strategies must address the immediate needs of women and girls and their protection, help restore their livelihoods, and promote their leadership and resilience. The presence and influence of women in peacekeeping should be increased, gender experts should be included in humanitarian teams responding to crises, and gender should be integrated into monitoring tools as well as assessments of vulnerability, risk, and capacity.
In addition, research shows that men constitute the vast majority of humanitarian actors, while women tend to have only symbolic positions. Women’s representation is even lower when it comes to peace and security specifically; they accounted for a mere 6.6% of all uniformed military, police, and justice and corrections personnel in UN field missions in 2020, and for just 13% of negotiators, 6% of mediators, and 6% of signatories in major peace processes worldwide. This is true despite research showing that involving women in crisis response and prevention improves outcomes and lowers risks.
Conflict affects women and girls differently than men and boys. Women and girls face heightened risks from displacement and breakdowns of protection services, for example, and up to 70% are liable to experience gender-based violence in crisis settings.
Child marriage is more likely in such situations, as well - in Syria, rates are now four times higher than before the outbreak of war there. Humanitarian emergencies also increase the risk of unwanted pregnancy, STDs, and maternal mortality - and create more care-related tasks like providing food and water or caring for the sick.
This can preclude women and girls from paid work or education, while straining their physical and mental health. Disasters such as droughts, floods, and storms kill more women than men due to structural inequalities, though in the aftermath of disasters the specific humanitarian needs of women and girls are often inadequately identified and addressed.
They tend to play limited roles in peace and security efforts, despite research showing their participation improves outcomes.
The Care 'Conundrum'
There is no country where men spend the same amount of time on unpaid work as women - even where the ratio is lowest, women are still doing twice as much. Although the care work they are tasked with is essential for families, communities, and entire economies to thrive, it goes uncounted and undervalued. If women’s unpaid work were assigned a value, in some countries it would account for as much as 39% of GDP. To share the workload more evenly, many organizations have called for the three Rs: recognition, reduction, and redistribution.
COVID-19 has only worsened the situation. The pandemic meant women around the world were suddenly tasked with a disproportionate amount of unpaid domestic work.
In much of the world traditional gender roles continue to define unpaid, care-related and domestic work as “women’s.” Studies conducted by UN Women prior to the pandemic found that women were doing three times as much unpaid care and domestic work as men, on a global basis. This includes household tasks like cooking, cleaning, and fetching firewood and water - and caring for children, the sick, and the elderly. For many women, this time spent on unpaid work increases their odds of poverty, and leaves them little time for training or for themselves.
Assessments conducted by UN Women in 45 countries reveal that women have been more likely than men to report an increase in domestic work.
There is no country where men spend the same amount of time on unpaid work as women - even where the ratio is lowest, women are still doing twice as much. Although the care work they are tasked with is essential for families, communities, and entire economies to thrive, it goes uncounted and undervalued. If women’s unpaid work were assigned a value, in some countries it would account for as much as 39% of GDP. To share the workload more evenly, many organizations have called for the three Rs: recognition, reduction, and redistribution.
COVID-19 has only worsened the situation. The pandemic meant women around the world were suddenly tasked with a disproportionate amount of unpaid domestic work.
In much of the world traditional gender roles continue to define unpaid, care-related and domestic work as “women’s.” Studies conducted by UN Women prior to the pandemic found that women were doing three times as much unpaid care and domestic work as men, on a global basis. This includes household tasks like cooking, cleaning, and fetching firewood and water - and caring for children, the sick, and the elderly. For many women, this time spent on unpaid work increases their odds of poverty, and leaves them little time for training or for themselves.
Assessments conducted by UN Women in 45 countries reveal that women have been more likely than men to report an increase in domestic work.
Gender Wage Gaps
Economic Opportunity and Poverty
Women in these places often take low-paid jobs that do not provide protection under local labour laws or social benefits. In most places, gender pay gaps are rooted in systemic inequality. Prevailing stereotypes tend to push women away from traditionally male-dominated occupations, and pull them towards poorly-compensated care work. Meanwhile discrimination prevents many women from winning prestigious leadership roles, as notions of traditional gender roles create and sustain pay inequities. Women are often hit with a motherhood-wage penalty, for example, which increases alongside the number of children they have. This can manifest in the form of working fewer paid hours, choosing relatively family-friendly jobs with lower salaries, hiring and promotion decisions that (consciously or not) penalize mothers, and the absence of programmes that support women’s re-entry into the workforce.
Gender pay gaps are also wider for women of colour, and for women who progress to higher levels of responsibility and authority. According to the #BlackWomenomics report published by Goldman Sachs in 2021, Black women earn 15% less than white women on average, and 35% less than white men. The report estimated that reducing that racial gender pay gap in the US could create as many as 1.7 million jobs, and raise annual GDP by as much as 2.1% (equivalent to about $450 billion) annually.
Women around the world are being paid less than men for work of equal value
The global gender pay gap is stuck at 16%, and women in some countries are paid as much as 35% less than men, according to a report published by UN Women in 2020. Still, even these figures do not capture the full extent of pay inequality - particularly in developing countries where informal work or self-employment is rampant.
Gaps also tend to be starker in certain industries; a sample of reported pay at 10 large UK banks, for example, showed a 44.5% difference between male and female hourly wages as of April 2020 - meaning that a woman there has been earning about 56 pence for every pound earned by a man. At the current pace, the World Economic Forum has suggested that achieving gender parity in economic participation and opportunity will take 257 years. Some potential ways to speed up related progress include pay-equity laws requiring employers to eliminate pay gaps, greater transparency, and enabling employees to organize and bargain collectively.
Relatively low participation in labor markets and legal discrimination have condemned many women to hardship.
In 72 countries, women are still barred from opening bank accounts or obtaining credit. According to UN Women calculations made prior to the pandemic, women (at 55%) were also participating far less in the global labor force than men (94%). Now, the situation has only worsened. An analysis conducted by UN Women in dozens of countries confirmed that employed women were more likely than employed men to lose their jobs due to the pandemic’s impact, because they are over represented in the relatively hard-hit service sector.
In addition, 82% of self-employed women workers were likely to face reduced paid work hours, compared with just 65% of men. Prime working-aged women (between 24 and 44) with children were more likely than their male counterparts to lose their job, while younger women (18 to 24) with children were far more likely than their male counterparts to see reduced paid work hours. The International Labor Organization has predicted that women’s job recovery will be slower than men’s - with 13 million fewer women employed in 2021 than in 2019, even as the number of employed men remains the same.
Their relatively low labour market participation impacts women’s economic status, as does their inability to own or inherit land or assets in several countries. In fact, it condemns many to a life of poverty. An analysis commissioned by UN Women and the UN Development Programe estimates that by the end of 2021, 435 million women and girls will be living on less than $1.90 a day - and 47 million will be pushed into poverty as a direct result of COVID-19.
This translates into 118 women in poverty for every 100 men, a ratio that could increase to 121 per 100 by 2030 (the ratio will be worse in regions like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia). However, more than 100 million women and girls could be lifted out of poverty if governments implement comprehensive strategies to improve access to education and family planning, pay fair and equal wages, and expand social transfers. Any measures aimed at increasing women’s economic empowerment and entrepreneurship must be coupled with efforts to ensure gender parity across occupations and professional levels - to spur greater economic equality and reduce poverty for women and girls everywhere.
GENDER INEQUALITY
Assessments conducted by UN Women in dozens of countries confirm that COVID-19 has widened existing gaps, resulting in a disproportionate loss of work and deepening poverty for women and girls, while increasing both gender-based violence and women’s unpaid domestic workloads. Change, in the form of equality, can no longer wait.
Despite the progress made on closing gender gaps in work and education, gender inequality remains the norm around the world. Violence against women has yet to be properly addressed in any country, and social, cultural, political, and economic barriers continue to hinder women’s participation in labour forces, politics, and humanitarian action - while stunting their presence in leadership roles.