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For nearly two hundred years, feminists have fought for gender equality. Yet today, women enjoy only three-quarters of the rights that men have under law, according to a 2021 World Bank report. What’s keeping women from achieving equality with men and what progress they’ve already made.
Women are paid less and are more likely to be fired and sold into slavery
Despite clear progress in protecting women’s rights, they remain more vulnerable, especially in times of crisis. UN Secretary-General António Guterres, speaking at the opening of the 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2022, said that millions of women have had to choose between careers and domestic responsibilities, and millions of girls may not return to school after the pandemic to complete their education. He also expressed concern about the rise in violence against women human rights defenders and eco-activists. According to the UN, one in three women in the world suffers sexual or physical violence, and women and girls account for 72 percent of all detected cases of human trafficking.
Women earn nearly a quarter less than men, yet they do 76 percent of all unpaid care work for children and the elderly, the International Labor Organization estimates. During the pandemic year of 2020, the number of employed women declined by 4.2%, while men declined by 3%. As the authors of the World Bank report note, 100 countries lack a legal mandate to pay men and women equal wages for equal work.
What progress women have made in the battle for equality
World Bank experts assessed the gender equality situation in 190 countries between September 2019 and October 2020. To do this, they compared men and women in terms of wages, retirement age, entrepreneurial opportunities, position in the family, parenthood and other parameters.
Ten countries – Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal and Sweden – were at the top of the gender equality ranking. Women there have the same opportunities as men.
However, even in “gender-equal” countries they cannot boast of a large number of women holding high positions. Thus, in Europe only 7% of public companies are headed by women, in the USA this figure is 6%. The majority of women among executives in Norway, they manage 26% of publicly traded companies. According to Deloitte data, the majority of women on the boards of such organizations are in the same Norway (42.4%) and France (43.2%).
Experts of the International Labor Organization noted that the reduction of gender disparity in the labor sphere could increase the world GDP by $5.8 trillion by 2025.
According to historians, gender stereotypes were formed with humanity’s transition from hunting and gathering to farming and sedentary life. Gathering was practiced equally by both sexes. Then the agricultural revolution took place. And it turned out that men went to plow the field, and there had to be someone who cooked them food and fed them.
The “male breadwinner and female breadwinner” model began to be criticized in the mid-19th century, when women’s organizations appeared in Europe and the United States. First-wave feminists fought for political freedoms and access to education. The second wave (1960-1990) fought for career equality. Members of the third generation (1990-2008) addressed issues of sexual and gender identity. Today feminists fight against harassment and promote body positivity.
How the fight for gender equality leads to discrimination
Interestingly, in developed countries, the fight for gender equality is already leading to the infringement of men’s rights. For example, in 2020, the mayor’s office in Paris, headed by Anne Hidalgo, was fined €90,000 for the fact that 69% of senior positions in the city administration were occupied by women. And in Sweden, there is a “glass ceiling” for men who want to work as nannies, elementary school teachers, and janitors, according to research from Linköping University and the University of California.
In 2017, engineer James Damore and a colleague sued Google, accusing the company of “discriminating against conservative white men.” They accused the corporation of using illegal quotas to hire as many women and minorities as possible.
