It’s rather unfortunate how almost half the world’s population is suppressed and oppressed by the other half.Gender inequality is sadly amongst the few things that is global and affects all – the rich and the poor. It isn’t only a third world problem or merely a first world inconvenience, it is an omnipresent issue that needs to be addressed!
Often, the misogyny and sexism is so utterly common that we as a society seem to have difficulty acknowledging it. It is so deep rooted in the society that when it is questioned, it causes an uproar! Yes, we might have made a little progress but it certainly is far less than what you might have actually anticipated.
Often, gender equality is overlooked or misunderstood because of senseless and baseless arguments. Here are some of the most shocking facts that prove why it needs to be addressed asap!
- 60% of the world’s chronically hungry are women and girls.
- 2/3 of all the children denied education are girls which leads to the current 75% of 876 million illiterates in the whole world. In India, female literacy is at a staggering 65.46% as opposed to the male literacy of 82.14%
- It is a well known fact that women around the globe spend twice as many hours doing unpaid labours than men.
- Despite being almost half the population, they hold only 21% of the world’s parliamentary seats and only 8% of the world’s cabinet ministers are women!
- Despite the UN’s efforts only 46 countries have been able to meet the target of 30% female decision makers. Do you think this is only because women are just incapable of leadership?
- Women only earn 60-70% of men’s wages for the exact same work. The major reason for that is their gender. Is this in any way justified?
- Only 6 out of 187 countries give equal work rights to both the sexes. They are Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxemburg and Sweden.
I admit not all women might capable of leadership roles but don’t you think these numbers are alarming? Why has it come to this? The answer is the continual oppression of them that has been going on for more than a millennia. Sexism or the discrimination against a particular sex has been going on for as long as the human civilization. For people who think sexism isn’t prevalent even after reading the above facts, here are some more:
- Female infanticide has led to around 63 million girls missing in India!
- Societal thinking of valuing men over women has led people to keep ‘trying’ until they have a boy. Many resort to female infanticide to not bear the burden of an unwanted child. The others have contributed to around 21 million girls who are notionally unwanted in India and hence the victims of serious oppressions.
- 1/3 women around the world are likely to be victims of gender based violence. Gender based violence is one of the biggest causes of death and injury to women worldwide causing more deaths than cancer, malaria and even war!
- In New Zealand 20% of the women are physically abused and 1 in 5 women are raped in their lifetime. In Samoa and Fiji, the percentage increases to a terrifying 41% and 46% respectively.
- Then there are countries like India and Singapore where marital rape is still legal!
- Around 46 countries do no even acknowledge domestic violence and have no laws against it.
- In some countries like Egypt and Syria, honour killings are justified and aren’t even treated as murders and the perpetrators receive as less as 2 years for them.
- There are 18 countries around the world like Cameroon, in which men can prohibit their wives from working.
- Adding to it, there are 17 countries which limit when and how women can travel outside their houses. Some require a male escort as a compulsion in other countries like Yemen a woman must have her husband’s permission to leave her house.
- Countries like Iran treat their women as secondary citizens by having to provide two female testimonies for each male testimony.
- Malta’s law allow a man to kidnap a woman and marry her. The woman hence effectively has no say in it.
- Around 39 countries have laws that differentiate the way a daughter and son inherit property. The most shocking is the case of Chile, Tunisia and the UK wherein a man inherits twice as much as a woman.
- Almost 300,000 women died in 2013 due to preventable pregnancy and childbirth complications.
- This mortality is due to the striking number of child brides. Everyday, 33,000 underaged girls are married off which breaks down to 1 child bride every 2 second!
- According to the World Economic Forum’s latest report; at our current rate, it will take a whopping 108 years to close the gender gap!
If you still disregard this issue of gender inequality, then you really are just being blatantly ignorant of the facts. We need to think over and work towards abolishing this evil from its roots. Our current pace is definitely quite futile, hence we need to spread awareness and work towards improving it.
I aimed to compile verified facts and numbers on the issue so that the actual seriousness becomes obvious to anyone who reads this. Do share this in order to create more awareness!
References-
- in.one.un.org
- oxfamindia.org
- weforum.org
- globalcitizen.org
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