A report by the United Nations released on Monday (June 12) showed that despite the rise in women’s rights groups and social movements over the past decade or so, progress towards gender equality has stagnated.
The report has noted that nearly 90 per cent of both men and women or almost nine out of 10 men and women worldwide hold “at least one” fundamental bias against women.
What was the report about?
The UN Development Programme released its latest Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) report which revealed there has been no progress on biases against women in the last decade. Among both men and women, “biased gender social norms are prevalent worldwide: almost 90% of people have at least one bias” of the seven biases analysed by the UN agency.
This comes as the report noted that prejudices remain “deeply embedded” in society along with cultural biases and pressures that have continued to hinder women’s empowerment. These prejudices “are widespread among men and women suggesting that these biases are deeply embedded and influences both men and women to similar degrees,” the report stated.
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The report uses data from the international research programme World Values Survey (WVS) collected between 2010-2014 and 2017–2022 from 80 countries and territories accounting for at least 85 per cent of the global population.
According to the UNDP report, the index has shown “no improvement in biases against women in a decade,” adding that this is “despite powerful global and local campaigns for women’s rights,” such as MeToo. It is also worth noting that in 38 of the surveyed countries people with “at least one bias” decreased to just 84.6 per cent from 86.9 per cent.
What are these biases?
More than half of the world’s population (69 per cent) believes that men make “better” political leaders when compared to women, said the UNDP report. Additionally, more than 40 per cent of people reportedly believe that men are better business executives than women.
The report also noted that only 27 per cent of people believe that women having the same rights as men is essential for a democracy. Meanwhile, 25 per cent of people or one in four respondents believe that a man beating his wife is justifiable, the report also noted how more direct harm to women’s well-being could be seen from this view on violence.
According to the report, some 28 per cent believe that university is more important for men. This comes as education is seen as key to improving women’s economic status, however, the UN report also said that the data showed persistent gender pay gap even when education rates are high.
Notably, in 57 out of the countries surveyed, where adult women are more educated than men the average income gap was reported high at 39 per cent.
‘Disappointing’: UN officials about the report
The report has prompted UN officials to raise concerns about the agency’s goal of gender parity by 2030. Heriberto Tapia, research and strategic partnership adviser at UNDP and co-author of the report, as per Reuters, has called the degree of improvement over the past decade or so “disappointing.”
Furthermore, the report also said that these “hurdles” which have been created by prejudices against women have “manifested in a dismantling of women’s rights in many parts of the world.” This has also been attributed to biased social norms and a broader human-development crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic, as per the report.
Meanwhile, Head of the UNDP’s Human Development Report Office, Pedro Conceicao said, “Social norms that impair women’s rights are detrimental to society more broadly, dampening the expansion of human development.” He added, “Lack of progress on gender social norms is unfolding against a human development crisis.”
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