Gender Inequality: Causes and Solutions

Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a prosperous and sustainable world. In this assignment we are going to discuss gender inequality mainly focusing on women. Gender lines are drawn early, starting by birth and exclusions for women continue throughout adulthood. According to UN, a global and a reliable organization, today in 32 countries the procedures that women face to obtain a passport differ from those of men. In 18 countries women need their husband’s approval to take a job. The degree and causes of gender inequality vary throughout the world.

Causes

Research on gender inequality shows that a number of teachings in some of the religions are a great cause of gender inequality. Even though religion plays a very important role in every human, there are always some weaknesses in some religions which act as a cage to the women.

Lack of proper education is one of the major causes of gender inequality. This is because nobody can go far without adequate education level in the world of today. Many families do not pay proper attention to girl child. In this case, they end up not getting proper education. Here is a pie chart by UN showing the inequality in terms of education.

Poverty is another factor that causes inequality. For instance, if a female is applying for a job there would be some doubts on accepting her in the company. And if the woman is also poor there will be the lowest chances of her being accepted. Due to credit rationing, the poor often cannot afford the minimum initial investment in education or other investments, or cannot get insurance for their investments, even if they are profitable, since they lack collateral.

Consequences

According to Selim Jahan, Director of UNDP Human Development Report Office, gender inequality also has an impact on the lives of many women beyond the survivors. The fear of violence can prevent women from pursuing education, working or exercising their political rights and voice. It stops women to think, to do something and forces them to stay quite in the consequences also for the sake of religion and norms.

Perspectives

It is not possible to separate poverty and inequality as poverty leads to inequality. Moreover we can see how there is a difference in the amount of women inequality in different countries with different levels of literacy and growth. For example as per the ‘Express Tribune’, a Pakistani reliable news channel, in Pakistan the multidimensional poverty dropped to 38.8 per cent in 2014-15. And as for America the US Census declared that only 15.1% of the general population lives in poverty and now if we compare them both we can clearly see how the differences matter. According to Felix Naschold who has done extensive research, small changes in income distribution can have a large effect on poverty. A simple arithmetical example can help visualize this. Imagine a country where the share of national income that goes to the poorest 20% of the population increases from 6% to 6.25%. A change in income distribution of one quarter of one percent would barely affect the Gini coefficient, but for the poor this represents a 4% increase in their total income. Such a small redistribution would have the same effect on poverty as doubling the annual growth of national income from 4%, which is the projected growth rate of many African countries, to 8%, which is necessary to achieve the income poverty Millennium Development Goal. Internationally, gender inequality is prevalent in many areas of life, including education, employment, medical care, laws and violence. As per EU, a credible and a globally known political and economic union, in the countries with the highest unemployment rates women’s rate was even wider than men’s rate: it reached 27.2% versus 18.9% for men in Greece, 20.7% versus 17.4% in Spain etc. There are overt examples of inequality, such as a large discrepancy in pay between men and women, and more subtle examples of inequality, such as different interview questions asked of women than men.

As much as my government should stand up for discrimination against women, it is more supporting this idea. For example as per the largest and most reliable, English language newspaper in Pakistan, there are only six female judges in higher judiciary, none at Supreme Court. However there are no female prime ministers expect one in the past (Benazir Bhutto) who actually proved to be very useful for the country. In my opinion, the main reason of inequality in Pakistan is the lack of education. I believe there are not a lot of females working and fighting for their rights due to the lack of knowledge and for the sake of religion or norms. But where there’s knowledge we can see women stand up. As per ‘The News’, in 2019 an ‘Aurat (women) March’ was held in Pakistan. Many protests were held for the freedom of women. This is another step to gender equality.

There are some differences between the rates of inequality globally and in my country. So as per globally there is less inequality over all but my country being a poor one has higher rates of inequality with the issue of religion outlined the well.

As much as I am in favor of this idea, I am a woman which means I am also discriminated and I am also taught the fact that I am no more than man. But I realize that equality is a human right that every individual deserves and I do too. So I am a person who likes to fight for rights and this research increased my knowledge and showed me the statistics and resulted in me questioning my existence and rights as a women and realized how big of an issue it is which needs urgent attention. For example as per ‘The News’ I now know that there are only 6 female judges in the higher judiciary which is an alarming factor for me.

Solution/Course of Action

Maybe an organization, a campaign or laws can reinforce this idea. Eliminating all forms of practices against women rights for example fixed marriages and female infanticide. Now in my opinion an organization for example UN, is a big idea that can collect fund, raise awareness and has a council also has divisions in particular sectors, so this is the perfect solution for catering inequality on a global level. Then the campaigns are better for solving this on a national level because the smaller the area that the campaign is focusing, the faster it would be solved. Both of these solutions and actions should not only be taken for women but also for men. And also keeping in mind that these courses of action will take a long time to abolish inequality. Women should be given all rights but in a ways that it does not crossover a person’s religion. A campaign ‘HEFORSHE’ was started in 2014 by UN an intergovernmental organization, also made some changes thus proved as useful.

Conclusion

People should not be afraid of standing up for themselves for if we stay quiet, the wrong gets a way of developing and automatically turning it into culture or a tradition. Based on the information above, there are some governmental structural reasons as to why gender inequality still persists in countries.

Works Cited

1. EU. (2018). Gender Equality. https://ec.europa.eu/info/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/gender-equality_en
2. Jahan, S. (2018). Human Development Indices and Indicators 2018. United Nations Development Programme.
3. Naschold, F. (2000). Poverty and income inequality in developing countries: An overview. Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
4. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. (2016). Poverty reduction strategy paper.
5. The Express Tribune. (2015). Multidimensional poverty drops to 38.8% in 2014-15. https://tribune.com.pk/story/926258/multidimensional-poverty-drops-to-38-8-in-2014-15/
6. The News. (2019). Aurat March: Women demand rights, equality across Pakistan. https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/447416-aurat-march-women-demand-rights-equality-across-pakistan
7. UN Women. (n.d.). Gender equality.
8. UN. (n.d.). Gender equality: UN Women.
9. UN. (2017). Passport gender gaps.
10. UN. (2019). Gender inequality remains deeply entrenched in all regions of the world, UN report finds.