SDGs Goal 5 Gender Equality
SDGs Goal 5 is "Gender Equality" - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Gender Equality
SDGs Goal 5 is “Gender Equality” - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
Discriminatory laws and social norms remain pervasive, women continue to be underrepresented at all levels of political leadership, and 1 in 5 women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 report experiencing physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner within a 12-month period.
Globally, 750 million women and girls were married before the age of 18 and at least 200 million women and girls in 30 countries have undergone FGM (female genital mutilation). The rates of girls between 15-19 who are subjected to FGM in the 30 countries where the practice is concentrated have dropped from 1 in 2 girls in 2000 to 1 in 3 girls by 2017.
In 18 countries, husbands can legally prevent their wives from working; in 39 countries, daughters and sons do not have equal inheritance rights; and 49 countries lack laws protecting women from domestic violence.
One in five women and girls, including 19% of women and girls aged 15 to 49, have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner within the last 12 months. Yet, 49 countries have no laws that specifically protect women from such violence.
While women have made important inroads into political office across the world, their representation in national parliaments at 23.7% is still far from parity.
In 46 countries, women now hold more than 30% of seats in national parliament in at least one chamber.
Only 52% of women married or in a union freely make their own decisions about sexual relations, contraceptive use and health care.
Globally, women are just 13 per cent of agricultural land holders.
What’s been suggested?
Goal 5 Gender Equality has got the following 9 targets (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/).
5.1 End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
5.2 Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation
5.3 Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation
5.4 Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
5.5 Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decisionmaking in political, economic and public life
5.6 Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences
5.A Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws
5.B Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women
5.C Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels
Why that’s important?
The link above also had got a brief report Why It Matters
Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.
Women and girls represent half of the world’s population and therefore also half of its potential. But, today gender inequality persists everywhere and stagnates social progress. Women continue to be underrepresented at all levels of political leadership. Across the globe, women and girls perform a disproportionate share of unpaid domestic work.
Inequalities faced by girls can begin right at birth and follow them all their lives. In some countries, girls are deprived of access to health care or proper nutrition, leading to a higher mortality rate.
How far are we?
In addition to “Why It Matters” above, Progress and Info is updated for each year and Sustainable Development Goals Report shows the key points of the latest situation and prograss related to Goal 5.
More than 100 countries have taken action to track budget allocations for gender equality.
Violence against women persists at unacceptably high levels and has been intensified by the pandemic - Nearly one in three women (736 million) have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence at least once since the age of 15, usually by an intimate partner.
Over the past decade, the practice of child marriage has declined significantly, with the global proportion of young women who were married as children decreasing by 15%, from nearly one in four to one in five. In Southern Asia, a girl’s risk of marrying in childhood has dropped by over 40% since 2000. However, the profound effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are putting girls at higher risk of early marriage due to a combination of economic shocks, school closures and interruptions in reproductive health services.
Women in Northern Africa hold less than one in five paid jobs in the non-agricultural sector. The proportion of women in paid employment outside the agriculture sector has increased from 35% in 1990 to 41% in 2015.
On an average day, women spend about 2.5 times as many hours on unpaid domestic work and care work as men, according to data from 90 countries and areas collected between 2001 and 2019. The pandemic is adding to the burden of women’s unpaid work while squeezing them out of the labour force.
…Again, I will read studies and reports relevant to this goal and keep updating this post or even write an individual post for each subtopic!