2023-06-24 11:18:39
Bloomberg Line — The world has made little progress in overcoming bias against women in the past decade, and roughly 9 out of 10 men and women still hold gender bias today.
This is revealed by the new report on the Gender Social Norms Index published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which indicates that 49% of the global population still believes that men are better political leaders than women , and 43% believe that men are better business executives. And worse still, “an alarming 25% of the population believes that a husband is justified in beating his wife,” said UNDP.
“These biases continue to fuel the obstacles women face, manifested in the dismantling of women’s rights in many parts of the world due to organized backlash against women’s equality, as well as escalating violations of rights. human rights in some countries”, the text states.
The new update of the index had two phases: data from 2010 to 2024, and from 2017 to 2022, taking into account the proportion of people without bias and the proportion of people biased by dimension for 80 countries and territories (representing 85% of The world population).
How do biases against women materialize?
“Social norms that undermine women’s rights harm society in general and slow down the expansion of human development,” said the head of UNDP’s Human Development Report Office, Pedro Conceição.
The report is clear in pointing out that these biases are also tangible in the enormous lack of representation of women in leadership positions.
For example, the percentage of women who hold the head of State or government has remained unchanged, around 10%, since 1995, and in the labor market women occupy less than a third of managerial positions.
UNDP emphasizes that women today have more training and skills than ever before. Yet in the 59 countries where women are more educated than men, the median earnings gap remains a staggering 39% in favor of men.
And it is that gender prejudices prevail in both men and women, but in a higher percentage in the former. Part of the results indicate that the percentage of people with at least one preconceived idea against women is distributed as follows by categories: in politics (57.34% women and 65.07% men); in education (24.93% and 31.23%); and in the economy (54.50% and 64.74%).
To do? The importance of public policies
The role of governments is also questioned and reaffirmed in the Gender Social Norms Index report, explaining that they have a crucial role in changing gender social norms, since the adoption of parental leave policies, which have changed perceptions around care work responsibilities, to labor market reforms that have led to a change in beliefs around women in the workforce.
“An important starting point is to recognize the economic value of unpaid care work,” explained Raquel Lagunas, director of the UNDP Gender Team.
She added: “This can be a very effective way of challenging gender norms. In countries with the highest levels of gender bias against women, it is estimated that women spend six times more time than men on unpaid care work.”
Moving towards gender equality is a must, say the report’s authors, calling on different sectors to focus on amplifying human development through investment, insurance and innovation. This includes investing in laws and policy measures that promote women’s equality in political participation, expanding safety mechanisms, such as strengthening social protection and care systems, and fostering interventions that are particularly effective in challenging norms. harmful social practices, patriarchal attitudes and gender stereotypes.
The final text also recommends directly addressing social norms through education and the implementation of policies that promote gender equality, and changes at the legislative level that recognize the rights of women in all spheres of life, and greater representation in decision-making and political processes.
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