Despite Advances in Women’s Rights, Gender Equality Lags Around the World

Sourcfe Link

Despite progress in codifying women’s rights into law, advances in gender equality around the world have been halting, at best. This, despite the additional attention that the #MeToo movement has brought to incidents of sexual assault and harassment in parts of the Global North.

In South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa made news in mid-2019 when he appointed a Cabinet that included as many women as men. Later the same year, the European Commission also achieved the European Union’s self-imposed goal of gender parity. The thinking behind gender parity in government is that with greater levels of representation, women policymakers and legislators will pay more attention to issues that are often ignored by men, like gender-based violence or inheritance laws that discriminate against women. Quotas are not a panacea, though. Even with increased representation, policymakers must figure out how to translate high-level policy changes to transformation on the ground, so that removing restrictions on education, for instance, actually translates into improved rates of girls and young women attending school.

In places like Rwanda, which also has gender quotas for political representation, the increase in political gains has not necessarily translated to social advances. Efforts to promote gender equality have not fostered an understanding of its importance, particularly among men.

And in places where women’s rights have advanced, they face persistent attacks. In the United States, a woman’s right to choose to terminate her pregnancy has been severely curtailed in some parts of the country. And U.S. President Donald Trump’s restrictions on American aid for organizations that provide or recommend abortion services has jeopardized health services for women around the globe. At the same time, abortion rights activists have made gains in unlikely locations. Argentina seems likely to pass a law legalizing abortion in the near future, and a referendum in Ireland in 2018 overturned a constitutional prohibition on the procedure.