JOIN USMore and more reports of women breaking the glass ceiling in many areas, their increased participation in social, political and other fields of life, better visibility in all spheres and a host of other indicators of overall advancement have testified to the changing gender roles all over the world. While this is true and while there are examples of such advancement in most countries and places, true equality of men and women is still far off. It remains an ideal but is not even accepted as necessary and desirable by many. Recent reports of two UN agencies have made this clear. A UNICEF report has revealed that while much progress has been made after the historic 1995 world women’s conference in Beijing, the picture is not rosy and there are many serious problems that keep women and girls down. Another report by the UNDP, which presented the Gender Social Norms Index, shows how entrenched attitudes hardly change. It found that 90% of men hold some form of bias against women and surprisingly, most women also hold many such biases.
More girls are going to school now, and more women are qualified for employment and are better equipped for life. But they still face an unequal and violent social environment and are victims of trafficking and other crimes. More and more women face mental health challenges and the suicide rate among teenagers is increasing. Many girls are married off before they reach adulthood. In India, female work participation has fallen from 36.9% in 2008 to 26.7% in 2019. Unfair and discriminatory practices and attitudes against women continue to exist, and the UNDP report gives many instances. According to the report, based on data from 75 countries, nearly half of the world's population believes that men make better political leaders, and more than 40% believe men make better business executives. It also found that 28% of men and women believe that men are justified to beat their wives.
The report concludes that the fight about gender equality is a story of bias and prejudices, and despite remarkable progress in some areas, no country in the world, rich or poor, has achieved gender equality. This cannot be contested. Equal education, equal opportunities, equal pay, equal participation and equal justice are all aspects of progress, but real equality is more than the sum of all these. The struggle and fight for equality has been incremental and uneven, and it needs to gain greater pace and strength. No progress and achievement can be considered real and lasting if biases and prejudices are not removed from the thinking and conduct of not only men but also women.