Becoming Us — A Viewpoint on Gender Equality
“Since stepping reluctantly into public life, I’ve been held up as the most powerful woman in the world and taken down as an “angry black woman.” I’ve wanted to ask my detractors which part of that phrase matters to them the most- is it “angry” or “black” or “woman?” (Michelle Obama, 2018).
Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. Gender equality is a human right, but our world faces a persistent gap in access to opportunities and decision-making power for women and men.
Although it can be seen globally, women have fewer opportunities for economic participation than men, less access to basic and higher education, greater health and safety risks, and less political representation. Over 64 million girls over the world, which equates to the population of Ethiopia, the 12th most populated country in the world, lack the opportunity to have the most basic education. Data shows that on average, women only make 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, worldwide.
Though girls and boys face comparable challenges in early childhood, gender disparities become more definite and prominent in adolescence, a crucial period when boys’ and girls’ approaches to gender development and gender norms consolidate. In many places, the onset of puberty is a signal for confining girls’ movement, schooling, friendships, sexuality, and life exposure. Adolescent girls, due to expected gender roles, may also face a disproportionate burden of domestic work, expectations to be married, risks of early pregnancy, as well as sexual and gender-based violence.
Education is a key focus area. While the world is making progress towards gender parity in education, girls still make up a greater percentage of out-of-school children than boys. An important area of focus in attaining gender equality is women’s economic and political empowerment. Though women comprise more than 50% of the world’s population, they only own 1% of the world’s wealth.
Social scientists have documented vivid changes in gender inequality in the last half-century, often called a “gender revolution.” There has been dramatic progress in the movement toward gender equality between 1970 and 2018, but also that in recent decades, change has slackened or stalled. The slowdown on some indicators and stall on others suggests that further progress requires considerable institutional and cultural change. Evolution requires an increase in men’s participation in household and care work, governmental provision of child care and adoption by employers of policies that lower the gender discrimination and help both men and women combine jobs with family care responsibilities.
In her novel becoming, Michelle Obama sheds indispensable light on the realities of women in US-American and international politics. The ‘othering’ of women within the theory and practice of IR often renders women the outsider in political spaces — often presumed to be a privileged forte of men. Such ideas, which are deeply institutionalized into the global political system, reflect the internal gender regime that defines acceptable behavior, clearly segregating the organized spaces along gendered lines.
To survive and flourish, all children, irrespective of sex or age, require quality care and support from women as well as men, particularly from their fathers. This care and support can be substantially improved by fostering and furthering gender equality in adulthood–an important goal in its own right — and by reducing the gender-related barriers that contribute negatively to the wellbeing and rights of children.
The issues encompassing gender equality are not simply matters of equality in employment. However, equality of the genders brings up profound conceptual questions about personhood and individuality, whether men and women share a single ‘human nature or whether they have dissimilar, complementary characteristics and merits; the significance of biological sexual differences; and the current structure of social institutions. Granted, most policymakers and employers publicly embrace and welcome anti-discrimination policies, it is not clear that equalizing employment opportunities between the sexes is sufficient for genuine equality between men and women, given the range of factors shaping gender and selfhood that occur outside the political or public sphere.
Most men, when talked to about gender equality, do agree with the concept, but they take it as their ethical responsibility to fight gender inequality, and in doing so, take it over from women. This, instead of promoting gender equality, degrades it much more. What most men don’t understand is that gender equality is not just about fighting for the rights of women, but it’s also about implementing the biggest to the smallest changes in their lives. From taking equal responsibilities in the household to not commenting on someone’s work by judging it on basis of their gender. What needs to be understood is that every step taken forward, will make the situation better by some points, but every step on the same path, or backward, actually downgrades it much more than it had gotten better.
Equality does not mean that women and men will become the same, but that women’s and men’s rights, accountabilities, and opportunities will not be determined by whether they are born female or male. Gender equality implies that the welfare, needs, and priorities of both women and men are taken into consideration, thereby acknowledging the diversity of different groups of women and men. Gender equality is not a women’s issue, but should concern and fully engage men as well as women. Equality between women and men is seen both as a human rights issue and as a precondition for, and an indicator of, sustainable people-centered development.
Today, the most influential women around the world, are known for coming forward to fight the stereotypes and gender norms. The one thing that is commonly attributed to all these names-Jacinda Ardern, Kamala Harris, Sanna Marin, Rosalind Brewer, Hasina Wajed, Leena Nair, and many more women in power all over the world, is how these women fought over gender-specific norms to reach where they are. But these norms, that exist today, don’t have to be there. There are a lot of young girls who shouldn’t have to fight over these, and the only war that is possible is if all of us come together and make the world a place that has a balance, a world where no person has to struggle to gain success because of their race, class, orgender. Yes, we all know it’s the right thing to do, but let’s start implementing small steps in our lives, and make the world a better place for all.
