Generation Equality 'SHE = HE' Campaign
Gender equality is more than a fundamental human right.
Women are entitled to live with dignity and in freedom from want, fear, and violence. Gender equality is also a precondition for advancing development and reducing poverty: Empowered women contribute to the health and productivity of whole communities and societies, and they improve prospects for the next generation.
Women and men must enjoy equal opportunities, choices, capabilities, power and knowledge as equal citizens. Equipping girls and boys, women and men with the knowledge, values, attitudes and skills to tackle gender disparities is a precondition to building a sustainable future for all. Still, despite solid evidence demonstrating the centrality of women’s empowerment to reducing poverty, advancing development and addressing the world’s most urgent challenges, gender equality remains an unfulfilled promise.
The roles that men and women play in society are not biologically determined. They are socially determined, changing and changeable. While they may be justified by their proponents as being required by culture or religion, these roles vary widely by locality and evolve over time. Efforts to promote women’s empowerment should ensure cultural considerations are respected while women’s and girls’ rights are upheld.
Effectively promoting gender equality also requires recognizing that women are diverse in the roles they play, as well as in age, social status, geographic location and educational attainment. The realities of their lives and the choices available to them vary widely.
Gender Equality is United Nations Sustainable Development Goal no 5.Targets:
5.1 End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
5.2 Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation
5.3 Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation
5.4 Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
5.5 Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decisionmaking in political, economic and public life
5.6 Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences.
Women are entitled to live with dignity and in freedom from want, fear, and violence. Gender equality is also a precondition for advancing development and reducing poverty: Empowered women contribute to the health and productivity of whole communities and societies, and they improve prospects for the next generation.
Women and men must enjoy equal opportunities, choices, capabilities, power and knowledge as equal citizens. Equipping girls and boys, women and men with the knowledge, values, attitudes and skills to tackle gender disparities is a precondition to building a sustainable future for all. Still, despite solid evidence demonstrating the centrality of women’s empowerment to reducing poverty, advancing development and addressing the world’s most urgent challenges, gender equality remains an unfulfilled promise.
The roles that men and women play in society are not biologically determined. They are socially determined, changing and changeable. While they may be justified by their proponents as being required by culture or religion, these roles vary widely by locality and evolve over time. Efforts to promote women’s empowerment should ensure cultural considerations are respected while women’s and girls’ rights are upheld.
Effectively promoting gender equality also requires recognizing that women are diverse in the roles they play, as well as in age, social status, geographic location and educational attainment. The realities of their lives and the choices available to them vary widely.
Gender Equality is United Nations Sustainable Development Goal no 5.Targets:
5.1 End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
5.2 Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation
5.3 Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation
5.4 Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
5.5 Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decisionmaking in political, economic and public life
5.6 Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences.
Women have had to fight for their recognition as full human beings and their basic human rights for a long time, and unfortunately the fight is not over yet. Although women’s situation has improved in many ways almost globally, societal factors still provide obstacles for the full and immediate implementation of human rights for women all over the world. The 20th century has brought many improvements, but also many setbacks, and even in times of peace and progress women and their human rights were not given special attention nor did anybody for a long time object to such policy. Nevertheless, in all periods of history heroines can be found who fought for their rights and the rights of other women, with arms or with words. Eleanor Roosevelt, for example, insisted that “all human beings are equal” should be used instead of “all men are brothers” in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) when it was drafted in 1948.
Discrimination against women is defined by Article 1 of thee Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).as “any distinction, exclusion, or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.”
Discrimination against women is defined by Article 1 of thee Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).as “any distinction, exclusion, or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.”
INTERCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE & CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES
The concept of universality is of central importance to human rights, but especially indispensable when it comes to women’s rights. Cultural diversity is far too often used as an excuse or an impediment to the full implementation of the human rights of women. The document adopted during the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna is an essential achievement for women as it underlines that “all human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated. […] While the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds must be borne in mind, it is the duty of States, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.” Despite the widely shared concept of universality, many areas of women’s daily lives are still sources of controversy. In some religions and traditions women do not enjoy the same treatment as men. The denial of equal access to education and employment opportunities as well as overt exclusion from political decision-making is considered normal. In some extreme cases, these policies and perceptions even pose a threat to the personal security and the right to life of women.
In 2002, a young Nigerian woman was sentenced to death by stoning by a Shari’a law court. According to Amnesty International Australia, the crime Amina Lawal had allegedly committed was giving birth to a child out of wedlock. This verdict caused an international outcry and questioned the compatibility of some cultural and religious practices with the universality of human rights. Regrettably, more recent incidents such as the case of Sakineh Ashtiani in Iran whose execution was postponed several times and in the end transformed to a ten-years sentence after a wave of international protest in 2010 and 2011 or the 2012 case of a Mali couple sentenced to 100 whippings for the crime of giving birth to a child while not being married show that little progress has been made in reconciling religion or tradition and women’s rights.
The concept of universality is of central importance to human rights, but especially indispensable when it comes to women’s rights. Cultural diversity is far too often used as an excuse or an impediment to the full implementation of the human rights of women. The document adopted during the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna is an essential achievement for women as it underlines that “all human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated. […] While the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds must be borne in mind, it is the duty of States, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.” Despite the widely shared concept of universality, many areas of women’s daily lives are still sources of controversy. In some religions and traditions women do not enjoy the same treatment as men. The denial of equal access to education and employment opportunities as well as overt exclusion from political decision-making is considered normal. In some extreme cases, these policies and perceptions even pose a threat to the personal security and the right to life of women.
In 2002, a young Nigerian woman was sentenced to death by stoning by a Shari’a law court. According to Amnesty International Australia, the crime Amina Lawal had allegedly committed was giving birth to a child out of wedlock. This verdict caused an international outcry and questioned the compatibility of some cultural and religious practices with the universality of human rights. Regrettably, more recent incidents such as the case of Sakineh Ashtiani in Iran whose execution was postponed several times and in the end transformed to a ten-years sentence after a wave of international protest in 2010 and 2011 or the 2012 case of a Mali couple sentenced to 100 whippings for the crime of giving birth to a child while not being married show that little progress has been made in reconciling religion or tradition and women’s rights.
Gender Stereotypes and Education
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Gender Pay Gap
Overall women on average earn less than men per hour. This gender pay gap stands at 13.0 % for the EU27 in 2020 and declined only by 2.8 pp since 2010. Several factors contribute to this gap: different working patterns of women, often linked to their career breaks or change in working pattern to look after a child or other relatives; gender segregation in low-paid sectors; part-time employment… Some women are even paid less than men for the same work.
Best practices in EU countries
Social dialogue, measuring tools and awareness-raising incentives in EU countries to promote gender pay equality.
Combating pay discrimination in Member States
How the gender pay gap is measured in the EU, what laws and initiatives are in place to end discrimination.
EU action for equal pay
Equal Pay Day
Awareness-raising measure of the EU and its Member States to promote equal pay.
The gender pay gap situation in the EU
Causes of the gender pay gap in the EU, the pay gap situation in different EU countries.
Tools and actions for more gender equality
Identifying gender discrimination in pay through wage calculators, audit systems and income reports.
Find out more about the Gender pay gap
Eurostat gender statistics web page
Gender Equality Strategy Monitoring Portal
Best practices in EU countries
Social dialogue, measuring tools and awareness-raising incentives in EU countries to promote gender pay equality.
Combating pay discrimination in Member States
How the gender pay gap is measured in the EU, what laws and initiatives are in place to end discrimination.
EU action for equal pay
Equal Pay Day
Awareness-raising measure of the EU and its Member States to promote equal pay.
The gender pay gap situation in the EU
Causes of the gender pay gap in the EU, the pay gap situation in different EU countries.
Tools and actions for more gender equality
Identifying gender discrimination in pay through wage calculators, audit systems and income reports.
Find out more about the Gender pay gap
Eurostat gender statistics web page
Gender Equality Strategy Monitoring Portal
Gender segregation in the labour market
The uneven concentration of women and men in different sectors of the labour market is a persistent problem in the EU. 3 in 10 women work in education, health and social work (8% of men), which are traditionally low-paid sectors. On the other hand, almost a third of men is employed in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (7% of women), which are higher-paid sectors.
Find more statistics on the gender segregation.
Find more statistics on the gender segregation.
Gender stereotypes
Gender stereotypes in all spheres of life influence very much people’s choices of work they do and how they can combine it with private life. They are at the root of occupational, sectoral, time and hierarchical segregation between women and men.
Gender stereotypes related to the division of care responsibilities usually turn out to be detrimental
for women and their career paths. Women opt for part-time work more often, with consequences for their life-long income, including pension, and with impact on their career possibilities. Likewise, stereotypical masculinity norms hinder men from fully participating in parenthood, and in caregiving in a wider sense.
We need to build a future Europe where girls and boys can choose freely their education and profession.
Gender stereotypes related to the division of care responsibilities usually turn out to be detrimental
for women and their career paths. Women opt for part-time work more often, with consequences for their life-long income, including pension, and with impact on their career possibilities. Likewise, stereotypical masculinity norms hinder men from fully participating in parenthood, and in caregiving in a wider sense.
We need to build a future Europe where girls and boys can choose freely their education and profession.
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Empowering women
Despite many international agreements affirming women’s human rights, women and girls are still much more likely than men to be poor and illiterate. They have less access to property ownership, credit, training and employment. They are far less likely than men to be politically active and far more likely to be victims of domestic violence.
Gender equality will be achieved only when women and men enjoy the same opportunities, rights and obligations in all spheres of life. This means sharing equally the distribution of power and influence, and having equal opportunities for financial independence, education and realizing one’s personal ambitions.
Gender equality demands the empowerment of women, with a focus on identifying and addressing power imbalances and giving women more autonomy to manage their own lives. When women are empowered, whole societies benefit, and these benefits often have a ripple effect on future generations.
Key issues
Experience has shown that addressing gender equality and women’s empowerment requires strategic interventions at all levels of programming and policy-making. In addition to the different forms of gender-based violence and harmful practices mentioned above, key issues include:
Gender equality will be achieved only when women and men enjoy the same opportunities, rights and obligations in all spheres of life. This means sharing equally the distribution of power and influence, and having equal opportunities for financial independence, education and realizing one’s personal ambitions.
Gender equality demands the empowerment of women, with a focus on identifying and addressing power imbalances and giving women more autonomy to manage their own lives. When women are empowered, whole societies benefit, and these benefits often have a ripple effect on future generations.
Key issues
Experience has shown that addressing gender equality and women’s empowerment requires strategic interventions at all levels of programming and policy-making. In addition to the different forms of gender-based violence and harmful practices mentioned above, key issues include:
- Reproductive health: The ability of women to control their own fertility is fundamental to women’s empowerment and equality. When a woman can plan her family, she can plan the rest of her life. Protecting and promoting women’s reproductive rights – including the right to decide the number, timing and spacing of children – is essential to ensuring women’s and girls’ freedom to participate fully and equally in society.
- In addition, for both physiological and social reasons, women are more vulnerable than men to reproductive health problems. Collectively, complications of pregnancy or childbirth are one of the leading causes of death of women of reproductive age. In 2017, about 295,000 women died from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Failure to provide information, services and conditions to help women protect their reproductive health constitutes gender-based discrimination and is a violation of women’s rights to health and life.
- Economic empowerment: Poverty is not gender-neutral: Globally, women are more likely to be poor than men. Economic disparities persist partly because women have unequal access to and control over economic resources, and much of the unpaid work within families and communities falls on the shoulders of women.
- Educational empowerment: About two thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women. Lack of an education severely restricts a woman’s access to information and opportunities. Conversely, increasing women’s and girls’ educational attainment benefits both individuals and future generations. Higher levels of women's education are strongly associated with lower infant mortality and lower fertility, as well as better outcomes for their children.
- Political empowerment: Gender equality cannot be achieved without the backing and enforcement by institutions. But too many social and legal institutions still do not grant women equality in basic legal entitlements and human rights, in access to or control of resources, in employment or earnings, or in social or political participation. And men continue to occupy most positions of political and legal authority; globally, less than one quarter of parliamentarians are women and the percentage is even less in the Arab States Region.
- Violence against women
Women in STEM studies and careers
The European Commission study ‘She Figures’ (2021) confirms that there are fewer women in the digital sector:
FREYR INSTITUTE supports the EU actions in this field:
The European Commission study ‘She Figures’ (2021) confirms that there are fewer women in the digital sector:
- women represent only 20% of ICT graduates and only 17% hold tech sector jobs
- women represent only 24% of self-employed professionals in technical professions, such as science, engineering or ICT
- the pace of change is not promising:
- the share of women in ICT jobs in the European Union (EU) increased by only 0.5 % between 2012 and 2016 (Source: European Institute for Gender Equality: Women and men in ICT: a chance for better work-life balance, 2018)
- female scientists and engineers in EU Member States, from 39% in 2011 to 41% in 2020.
FREYR INSTITUTE supports the EU actions in this field:
- online learning platform Girls Go Circular ( managed by EIT RawMaterials, a Knowledge Innovation Community of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology)
- girl's and women's E-STEAM* festivals in different EU Member States to enhance digital and entrepreneurial competences among girls and women and boost their confidence to use them creatively to spot opportunities, innovate and create value for society
- participating in Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe funded projects on girls and women in STEM education
- good practices: European Universities alliances
Source: The Economist
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/06/05/the-world-is-a-long-way-from-meeting-its-gender-equality-target
Resources:
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the optional protocol. The “women’s bill of rights” is a cornerstone of all UN Women programmes. More than 185 countries are parties to the Convention.
- Gender equality toolkit, UNHCR
- The Economist- The world is a long way from meeting its gender-equality target
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Links:
- UN Women
- He for She campaign
- United Secretary-General Campaign UNiTE to End Violence Against Women
- Every Woman Every Child Initiative
- Spotlight Initiative
- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
- UN Population Fund: Gender equality
- UN Population Fund: Female genital mutilation
- UN Population Fund: Child marriage
- UN Population Fund: Engaging men & boys
- UN Population Fund: Gender-based violence
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
- UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
- UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)
- UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Gender Statistics
- European Gender Equality Institute
- UN Women - Resources: Over 2,600 learning and research materials
- UN Women Training Centre: online courses
FREYR HUMAN RIGHTS:
