Was 2023 a “Good Year” for Women?

Only if you don’t mind waiting another 131 years for equal rights

Lina AbiRafeh
Fourth Wave
Published in
7 min readJan 10, 2024

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If there was good stuff in 2023, that’s because FEMINIST ACTIVISM WORKS.

We assume there’s progress — that with every passing year, we’re better than we were before. I’m not so sure. We’ve just started 2024, and it’s a good time to assess the year that was, and to ask ourselves if 2023 was a good year for women.

We’d like to think that the world is moving in the right direction — towards equality, justice, peace. All that stuff. Yet, year after year, we confront recurring challenges: pervasive gender disparities, widespread violence against women, barriers to political engagement, ongoing economic disempowerment, and restrictions on reproductive rights. These persistent inequalities and systemic barriers place boulders on the path to equality.

What do we know?

The Global Gender Gap is generations away from closing. At the current sluggish pace, achieving gender equality in top positions of power is projected to take 131 years. In 2022, we were 132 years away from closing the gap, so that’s “progress,” right?! Well, not really.

No country has fully achieved gender equality, as per the 2023 Global Gender Gap Index. The leading nine countries — places like Iceland, Norway, Finland — have closed at least 80% of their gender gaps. Thematically, we’re doing pretty well when it comes to education, and a little better in health care. But political empowerment and economic opportunity remain weak — we’re nowhere near where we need to be. Meaning, we’re nowhere near equal. In those areas, we need 162 years to close the political gap and 169 years to close the economic gap. Not. Good. Enough.

So, what’s going on? More importantly, what’s stopping us from making progress? Maybe we’ll find some hints — or alarm bells — about what we might do better in 2024. And maybe — maybe?! — this year we’ll move a little faster.

Education for girls is getting better, but…

Why haven’t we closed this gap? We’d imagine that universal education is something we can all agree on, right? Nope. Take Afghanistan, for instance… a country I’ve written about a lot. The country ranks highest in terms of its gender gap, meaning it’s got the world’s largest disparity in education indicators such as literacy rate and the number of children out of primary school. The country also needs the longest time to close this gap.

Recent violations of fundamental freedoms of women and girls have manifested as severe restrictions on education, work, health, access to justice, freedom of movement, attire, and just about everything else in Afghanistan. In short, women and girls are being erased from all aspects of public life there. And education was the first thing to go.

But Afghanistan isn’t the only metric. 2023 brought some good news in education worldwide. 50 million more girls have been enrolled in school globally since 2015. And more girls are completing every level of education. But, in 2023 there were still 122 million girls out of school around the world.

Healthcare — especially sexual and reproductive health — is still a challenge…

Autonomy over our bodies, sexuality, and reproductive rights have always been the hardest won — and the first lost. Take the US, for instance. Do American women have full freedoms over their bodies and choices?! In a nutshell: hell, no.

In June 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, terminating the legal right to abortion nationwide. Now, states have authority over the matter. We felt the effects of this in 2023. Currently, 14 states have banned abortion outright. But 17 states have implemented laws or referendums to safeguard abortion, so that’s the good news. The Supreme Court is set to hear an appeal about the abortion pill launched by the US Food & Drug Administration with a decision expected by the end of June 2024. And we can count on abortion rights on the ballot for the 2024 US presidential election.

All around the world, women and girls lack comprehensive healthcare, and nowhere is this more evident than in family planning and safe abortion. In 2023, women and girls lost ground when it came to sexual and reproductive health and rights. According to the UNFPA, 9% of women aged 15–49 had unmet family planning needs. This means that 9 out of every 100 women have inadequate access to contraception and/or comprehensive sexual education. Worldwide, this number rises to 11% for married women or women in unions. 78% of women report being satisfied with modern family planning methods, so that’s the small sliver of good news. Lots of work needed here in 2024!

Political life is still dominated by men…

In 2023, women were dramatically underrepresented in leadership and decision-making. We’re still living in a world run by men — which probably explains a lot! We know too well that women are notably absent in politics. At the current rate of progress, gender parity in national legislative bodies is not expected before 2063. Sure, position and presence don’t necessarily translate into power, but still, it’s a start! We’ve currently got 195 countries in the world, of which only 19 were led by women in 2023. And, to state the obvious, a female head of state isn’t necessarily a feminist head of state. One can only hope…

For instance, there’s Spain. In February 2023, Spain became the first European country to enact menstrual leave for women. The law, championed by (the now former) Equality Minister Irene Montero, allows employees experiencing period pain to take time off, with the state social security system covering the costs. What’s more, this law permits minors aged 16 and 17 to undergo abortions without parental consent, overturning a previous requirement introduced in 2015 by a conservative government.

The United Nations — a supposed beacon of rights and equality — has never (never!) had a female Secretary-General. There continue to be campaigns for this, but for reasons I can never understand, not a single woman has ever held that position. And when it comes to the President of the General Assembly, we’ve had only four women. And 74 men.

What’s more, discrimination is embedded in laws. Fifty countries have discriminatory nationality laws, and 24 of them deny women the right to confer nationality onto their children. Discrimination in nationality laws presents risks of statelessness and challenges in accessing essential state services. This also reduces protections and exposes women and girls to exploitation, abuse, and just about everything else. And we’re not even talking about other types of legal discriminations, of which there are plenty!

Economic opportunities are nowhere near equal…

… and, unsurprisingly, the burden of unpaid and domestic care work continues to fall on women. At the existing pace, the next generation of women is projected to spend an average of 2.3 more hours per day on unpaid care and domestic work than men. Per day.

And when it comes to poverty, this still wears a woman’s face. Over 340 million women and girls will live in extreme poverty by 2030 — if we maintain this present pace. And, food insecurity is gendered as well — one in four women will face moderate or severe food insecurity. Human-induced climate change certainly isn’t helping. In the worst case, 236 million more women and girls will experience food insecurity as a result.

Conflicts continue, and continue to make life hell for women and girls…

It’s not safe to be a woman anywhere in the world, and it’s even worse in conflict. In 2022, approximately 89,000 women and girls were intentionally killed — the highest annual count in the past two decades.

In 2023, we had 100+ active conflicts around the world. 2024 seems to be no better. We know what this does to women and girls — with sexual violence being the worst of it. And, 2023 brought us some pretty horrific conflicts. The genocide in Palestine shows no signs of abating. Women in Iran courageously protested against restrictive veiling laws and continued to experience gender-based persecution. Women and girls in Sudan have experienced a range of violence, including rape, sexual slavery, and sexual exploitation and abuse. None of this seems like it’s going anywhere in the new year.

Yet, it’s not just war. My thoughts immediately go to Türkey’s Hatay province where women have felt the brunt of the region’s devastating aftershocks to one of this century’s deadliest quakes on February 6, 2023. Natural disasters are gendered — even if it doesn’t seem like they should be. From Hatay to Gaza, it’s clear to see how war and disaster continue to make life hell for women and girls.

That’s pretty bleak.

OK … What can we do?

Despite widespread and often vocal resistance to the term “feminism” — and, more generally, toward any progressive push forward that aims at fixing existing systemic inequalities — it remains absolutely vital to fund and participate in women-led organizations, support gender-inclusive policies at both the local and national levels, and, perhaps most importantly, listen to and support the women within your own community.

We’re in 2024 now, so let’s get moving! Take action by actively amplifying women’s voices, views, and accomplishments in all the spaces you occupy. Take those spaces and make them feminist. Advocate for women’s rights — and for human rights — everywhere, all the time. If we’re not infiltrating the spaces we’ve got — our home, school, work, whatever — then it’s not working for us. I’m trying reeeeeally hard to be optimistic about 2024. Scraps of hope are all we’ve got — hang onto them, make more of them!

Be courageous and be loud. We have no other choice!

For more stories about social justice, follow Fourth Wave. Have you got a story or poem that focuses on women or other disempowered groups? Submit to the Wave!

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Lina AbiRafeh
Lina AbiRafeh

Written by Lina AbiRafeh

Global women's rights activist, author, speaker, aid worker with 3 decades of global experience - and lots to say! More on my website: www.LinaAbiRafeh.com

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