“Half of people worldwide still believe that men can lead politics better than women and beyond 40% believe that men run businesses better than women,” according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in the latest Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) report.
“Social norms that undermine women’s rights are detrimental to society at large, reducing the breadth of human development,” said Pedro Conceição, head of the UNDP’s Office of Human Development Reporting. .
Everything is changing
an amazing 25% think it’s reasonable for a man to hit his wifeaccording to the report, which reflects the latest data from the World Values Survey.
The report argues that these biases cause barriers that women face, manifesting in the disenfranchisement of women in many parts of the world with movement against gender equality attracted attention and, in some countries, increased human rights abuses.
The bias is also reflected in serious underrepresentation of women in leadership. On average, the share of women as head of state or head of government has remained at around 10% since 1995, and in the labor market, women make up less than a third of management positions.
Broken links in progress
The report also sheds light on the broken link between women’s advancement in education and economic empowerment. Women are more skilled and educated than ever before, but even in 59 countries where women are now more educated than men, the median income gap by gender remains 39 percent beneficial for men.
“The lack of progress on social gender norms is against a human development crisis,” said Mr. Conceição, noting that the global Human Development Index (HDI) fell to a record for the first time in 2020 and again the following year.
“People stand to achieve from guaranteeing freedom and self-determination for women,” he added.
The important role of government
The UNDP report highlights that governments have an important role to play in changing social norms about genderfrom the adoption of parental leave policies, which have changed perceptions of caregiving responsibilities, to labor market reforms that have led to a change in beliefs about women in the workforce.
“An important place to start is to recognize the economic value of unpaid care work,” said Raquel Lagunas, Gender Group Director at UNDP.
“This can be a very effective way to challenge gender norms about how caregiving is viewed. In countries with the highest levels of gender stereotypes against women, it is estimated that women spend six times more time in unpaid care work than men.”
SDG Goal 5: Gender equality.
Change can happen
The report highlights that although bias towards women continues to be prevalent, the data shows change can happen.
The increase in the share of people unbiased in any indicator was evident in 27 of the 38 countries surveyed. The report authors argue that to drive change towards greater gender equality, focus should be on Expanding people development through investment, insurance and innovation.
This includes invest in legislation and policy measures promote women’s equality in political participation, scale up insurance mechanisms, such as strengthening social protection and care systems, and encourage innovative interventions that can can be especially effective in challenge harmful social normspatriarchal attitudes, and gender stereotypes.
For example, fight online hate speech and gender misinformation According to the report, can help shift prevailing gender norms towards more acceptance and equality.
Direct Proposal Report addressing social norms through education to change people’s views, policies and legal changes that recognize women’s rights in all areas of life and be more representative in decision-making and politics.
