The World Economic Forum is tracking gender equality, on an annual basis, through the global gender gap report. To achieve gender parity, on a global scale, documenting the existing inequality conditions and its progress, from one country to another, is imperative.
Tracking Gender Equality: The 4 Conclusive Indexes
The 2020 Global Gender Gap report has indicated the four indexes that can measure gender gaps. The indexes that can assess the current situation are:
- Political empowerment: This index indicates the progress towards women and girls empowerment. It is the measurement presenting the highest gender imbalance. Obviously, women have insufficient representation in countries’ political landscapes. A fact, which indicates that politics is mostly a man-centric territory internationally.
- Education attainment: Documenting education accessibility among genders shows imbalance as well. The gap appears to differ from one educational stage to another. However, frequent deterioration circumstances are: discrimination due to gender; taking on household duties; and proceeding on marriage under the coming of age.
- Health and survival: This index has been closed by 95.7%. However, health care accessibility, including reproductive health care, is not given on many occasions. The increase in terms of life expectancy does not suggest health care accessibility; and, more importantly, should not be confused with quality of life.
- Economic participation and opportunity: The gender gap in the economic and labor market expresses disparity on another level of women’s lives. In addition, the wage gap phenomenon builds up to the financial and economic conditions; and affects women by undermining their independence.
SDG 5 and the COVID-19 Setback
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a set of objectives developed to reshape the world into a prosperous and peaceful place. Hence, fostering gender equality is imperative. The objective that represents this purpose is Sustainable Development Goal number 5 (SDG 5). Despite the progress made the past decades, the COVID-19 pandemic was a step back. In particular, the coronavirus outbreak weighted down gender inequality; furthermore, there was a magnification in terms of incidents related to gender-based violence.
iED as an advocate of human rights, observes how the matter of gender equality progresses. Hence, tracking gender equality is imperative. In addition, our Institute acts upon this subject through participation in many European projects. If you would like to team up with us on this subject, you can contact our team of professionals.
