According to the UN report, global gender bias has not significantly improved in the past decade due to multiple factors. Source: Freepik
According to a report released the United Nations (UN) this week, gender inequality has remained stagnant for the past decade.
It is unlikely that the UN’s goal of gender parity by 2030 will be achieved, as cultural biases and pressures hinder women’s empowerment.
The report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) used data sets spanning 2010–2014 and 2017–2022 from countries and territories that totaled up to 85% of the world’s population.
Despite women’s rights groups and social movements receiving significant public awareness, such as MeToo in the United States, biased social norms, alongside human-development impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic (such as a greater reduction in income for women), have stalled progress towards gender equality.
The report’s analysis showed that close to 85 per cent men and women hold fundamental biases against women, with little change over the decade.
In 38 of the surveyed countries, the amount of people with at least one bias against women barely decreased from 86.9 per cent to 84.6 per cent.
“Half of people worldwide still believe men make better political leaders than women, and more than 40 per cent believe men make better business executives than women,” says the report by the UNDP.
One of the most concerning statistics cited the UN is that 25 per cent of people believe a man is justified to beat his wife.
Despite the continued prevalence of biases against women, the report stressed that change can happen.
An increased share of people with no bias in any indicator was observed in 27 of the 38 surveyed countries.
The authors of the report stated that to increase changed towards improved gender equality, the focus must be on “expanding human development through investment, insurance, and innovation.”
This include investing in laws and policies that promote women’s equality in political participation, and encouraging innovative interventions that challenge harmful social norms, such as combatting online hate speech and gender disinformation.
