Sustainable Development Goals and Gender Equality

Sustainable Development Goals and Gender Equality

Main Examination: General Studies Paper-1

(Women Empowerment and Gender Equality)

Foreword:

  • Gender inequality exists in almost every society in the world. From ancient times to the present day, there is a long history of denying women decision making, acceptance of them as economic unit and denying them access to social resources.

What is “Gender Equality”?

  • Gender equality refers to equal opportunities and rights for both men and women. Both should get equal right to live life with dignity and should not be discriminated against on the basis of caste, religion, gender, language and colour.
  • Gender equality is the process of being fair to women and men. To ensure this, efforts have been going on for a long time at the local, national and global levels.
  • Gender equality requires that women and men have equal access to social power, decision-making, opportunities, resources and rewards.

Causes of Gender Inequality:

  • Priority to be given to male dominated society.
  • In general, being male or female in all societies does not just refer to their biological and physical characteristics, but men and women are expected to have different behaviours,habits and roles.
  • Relations between men and women, whether in the family, at the workplace or in the public sphere, have been determined by patriarchy.
  • The major reason for increase in incidents of violence and crime against women in the society is to see her only as a body.
  • Neglect of women's knowledge, economy, power, thought and political understanding.

Social evils:

  • Many practices and prejudices prevalent in our society create hurdles in the way of gender equality.
  • In Rajasthan, the evil practice called Atta-Sata is prevalent, in which a girl is exchanged for a girl. That is, the house from which the daughter is taken, the same house is given to her daughter. Even in this practice, most of the girls have to compromise with their likes and dislikes. Women committed suicide because of this practice.

Gender Social Norms Index on Gender Inequality:

  • Recently, the United Nations Development Program's 2023 'Gender Social Norms Index' was released, which assesses prejudices against women.
  • The index depicts people's attitudes towards women's roles based on four key dimensions - political, educational, economic and physical integrity.
  • The index shows that almost 90 per cent of the world's population holds some sort of prejudice against women. For example, about half of the population thinks that men make better political leaders than women.
  • Women hold only 24 percent of parliamentary seats worldwide, and only ten of the 193 member states have a female head of government, despite voting rates being equal between men and women.
  • According to data published in the report, 28 per cent people think it is okay for a man to beat his wife.

Efforts and suggestions for gender equality:

  • There is a clear mention of the equality of men and women in the Indian Constitution and Human Rights Declaration.
  • According to Virginia Woolf, a woman should have a room/space of her own, where she should feel free enough to see herself in both imaginary and non-imaginary forms.
  • A woman should be given the freedom to fly at every level without any fear, so that her intelligence at the micro and macro level can be reflected.
  • The choice of who can be present in a woman's private space should be that of the woman.
  • A woman must develop the ability to freely express her views, her prejudices, her needs, her language, her symbols and the question of her sexuality.
  • Women have to explore themselves under aspects like autonomy, freedom, human rights to eliminate oppressive and non-oppressive power.
  • According to UNDP, worldwide women's rights demonstrations and the 'MeToo' movement have indicated that there is a need for new norms and alternatives and people are actively campaigning for gender equality.
  • The participation and contribution of women in all practical activities must be recognized by the society.
  • Underestimating the talents of women, treating them as non-economic entities, accepting them only as bodies, the belief that they lack the capacity to make decisions,there are some aspects that prevent them from establishing their identity fearlessly. Along with this, the state, administration and academic intellectuals will have to take strict steps in this direction, so that a safe society can be provided to women.
  • There is a need to bring a positive change in the mindset of the male society towards women.

Conclusions:

  • Gender equality has been placed at the fifth position in the list of Sustainable Development Goals, which are set to be achieved by 2030. But at the rate at which incidents of violence and abuse against women are increasing, achieving this target by 2030 does not seem easy.
  • To build an egalitarian and gender discrimination-free society, it is necessary to change the prejudiced thinking towards women in the society.
  • Widespread changes are being seen in the role of working women in the present society. Now women have become aware of their rights as well as their responsibilities to a great extent.
  • There are countless such examples in the society, which prove that women have been actively participating in all these fields.

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Mains Exam Question

In the context of gender equality, write suggestions to address its causes.