Millennium
Project
Global Challenges Facing Humanity
11.
Status of Women
How can the changing status of women
help improve the human condition?
Closing the gap between rhetoric and reality of how women are treated by
men around the world is not yet a top priority. Although many of the norms on
gender relations have found official endorsement in the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Beijing Plan of Action,
many countries still have laws and cultures that make women second-class citizens
and expose them to violence. Progress on women getting good jobs in politics
and business and equal salaries has been slow. Women in legislatures have increased
from 13.8% in 2000 to 18% in 2008. Women account for over 40% of the world’s
work-force but earn only 25% of the income. It is well documented that countries
with smaller gender gaps tend to have better economies, healthier children,
and superior welfare in general. The Scandinavian countries top both gender
parity ratings and general quality of life indicators. Improving the political,
economic, and educational status of women is one of the most cost-effective
ways to address the other challenges in this chapter. Even peacebuilders in
the field agree that women find common ground for peaceful resolutions more
easily than men.
Women are cutting through cultural hierarchies via Internet access to information
about health, finance, S&T, and education programs. Even Web sites like
iknowpolitics.org help improve women’s political skills. Girls’
secondary school enrollments are now about 90% of boys’ enrollments. If
current trends continue, however, UNICEF estimates that by 2015 over 50 countries
will not achieve universal primary education and more than 90 countries will
not reach gender parity in primary and secondary education.
The largest war on earth today as measured by death and casualties is men attacking
women, especially during armed conflicts. Establishing truth and reconciliation
commissions on violence against women in armed conflict would help end this.
WHO reports that after diseases and hunger, violence against women is the greatest
cause of death among women; one in five women will be a victim of rape or attempted
rape in her lifetime. Elementary and secondary school systems should consider
teaching martial arts and other forms of self-defense in physical education
classes for girls.
Since there are more women than men in universities in many countries that
limit women’s professional work, the “female brain drain”
could become an issue in countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia and Japan.
According to Plan International, childhood malnutrition has stunted development
of an estimated 450 million women; unsafe abortions and birth complications
are the leading causes of death for girls 15 to 19 in developing countries studied;
and over 100 million girls, some as young as 12, are expected to marry over
the next decade even though international treaties outlaw early marriages. About
80% of the 600,000–800,000 individuals trafficked each year are female,
in the “largest slave trade in history.”
Women should use their role in the family to more assertively nurture mutual
respect between men and women. A global gender gap integrated index should be
created to show trends of the whole picture as well as trends disaggregated
by age, education, political and economic participation, and health. Mechanisms
are needed to monitor violence against females and recommend interventions.
Legal rights of women (such as access to credit, land, technology, training,
health care, child care, and judicial systems accessible to victims of sexual
violence) are also needed, including educating men to fully respect women and
working with the media to change harmful gender stereotypes that influence the
choice of education, training or employment, participation in domestic and family
duties, and representation in decisionmaking.
Challenge 11 will be addressed seriously when there is gender parity in school
enrollment, literacy, and access to capital, when discriminatory laws are gone,
and when there are essentially equal numbers of men and women in parliaments
and cabinets.
Regional Considerations
Africa: The percent of
women in sub-Saharan African parliaments is 17.5%. One in 22 women in sub-Saharan
Africa is likely to die as a consequence of pregnancy, compared with 1 in 7,300
in industrial countries. The dropout rate for adolescent girls in Africa is very
high, as are systematic rape during armed conflicts and female genital mutilation.
Major cultural changes will have to be made to systematically change the prospects
for the average woman in Africa. Uganda eliminated school fees to help close the
educational gender gap.
Asia and Oceania: Some
17.3% of Asian national legislators are women and 15.4% in Oceania. At least 60
million girls are “missing” in Asia due to the abortion of female
fetuses, female infanticide, and deliberate neglect and starvation of baby girls.
China funds pension plans for parents with daughters to counter male-only child
preferences. Intimate partner violence in Thailand is the leading cause of death
for females between the ages of 15 and 24. Millions of young girls have been sold
as sex slaves in Asia. Most Muslim-majority countries scored among the lowest
in the Global Gender Gap Index. Women in Australia hold 7% of top corporate positions
and are paid half as much as their male equivalents.
Europe: While women represent 59% of
university graduates in Europe, their employment rate is only 57.2%, they earn
on average 15% less than men for every hour worked, and they represent 32% of
managers, 10% of board members, and only 3% of CEOs of large companies. Work/life
balance is still deficient, and women want improved support that allows them to
continue their professional careers, yet they worry about reduced quality time
for family life. About 500,000 women from Central and Eastern Europe are working
in the sex trade in Western Europe. The European Nordic countries top the Gender
Gap Index, and the EU pledged to fight discrimination and domestic violence against
women and to promote women’s participation in political life. Norway requires
that the boards of all companies registered at its stock market consist of at
least 40% of each sex.
Latin America: Although women’s
participation in Latin American parliaments increased to 22%, women are still
threatened by poverty, rising food and fuel prices, inequity, unemployment, lack
of access to health services, and violence due to “machismo” attitudes,
institutional weaknesses, and a patriarchal culture. Nevertheless, education is
improving, with women 15–24 years old in urban areas reaching 9.7 years
of education and women in rural areas reaching 7 years. Governments should change
laws about rape, sexual harassment, and equal pay for women.
North America: Women account for
16.8% of legislative bodies in the U.S. and 21.3% in Canada. Women executives
in the top 500 companies represent 13.6% in the U.S. and 12% in Canada. Nevertheless,
at least 86.4% of the U.S. companies had boards with at least one woman member,
versus 48.2% in Canada. In Quebec, Canada, state corporate boards by law will
have to be 50% female by 2012.
Graph:
Women in national parliaments (percentage)
Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union
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