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 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 turn good intentions into change on the ground, so that removing restrictions on education, to take one example, actually leads to improved school attendance rates for girls and young women. Rwanda, for instance, also has gender quotas for political representation, but the increase in political gains has not necessarily translated to social advances for women, as 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. More recently, the public health measures taken in response to the coronavirus pandemic, particularly lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders, have further highlighted the particular challenges women face in developed and developing countries alike, from domestic violence to gender imbalances in child care responsibilities.
WPR has covered women’s rights in detail and continues to examine key questions about what will happen next. Will more countries institute quotas on female political representation? How will the U.S. global gag rule affect women’s access to reproductive health care? And what can governments do to protect victims of domestic violence during shelter-in-place lockdowns to battle the coronavirus pandemic? Below are some of the highlights of WPR’s coverage.
Our Most Recent Coverage
Former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo repeatedly pledged that by 2020, 30 percent of leadership positions in the country would be held by women. But as one government official acknowledged to the Mainichi newspaper in June, achieving that target this year is “impossible, realistically speaking.”
Confronting Gender-Based Violence
The #MeToo movement drew global attention to the scale of gender-based violence and harassment that women regularly face in developed countries. But a concomitant effort in the developing world has been slower to form, in part because accusations of violence and harassment are not taken seriously and the avenues to seek redress are not formalized.
What it will take to really eradicate female genital mutilation, in Why Sudan’s Ban on Female Genital Mutilation Isn’t Enough to Protect Its Girls
Why indigenous women in Canada are protesting a major gas pipeline project, in In Canada, Infrastructure Projects Are Endangering Indigenous Women and Children
Why a push to update Spain’s sexual assault laws might come up short, in Can a Divided Coalition Government Reform Spain’s Sexual Assault Laws?
Why India’s rape victims still face obstacles to justice, in How India Fails Its Rape Survivors
The Politics of Women’s Rights
Increasingly, the fight for women’s rights has become a mainstream political issue in many countries around the world. But legal advances don’t necessary bring societal change. And often hard-won gains face a backlash.
How including women in pandemic response task forces will improve outcomes, in The Importance of Gender Inclusion in COVID-19 Responses
Why Spain’s post-Franco advances for women’s rights are increasingly coming under fire, in Ahead of Another Election, Feminism Is at the Center of Spain’s Fractured Politics
Why state protections for women’s rights in China can be deceiving, in China Promotes a Narrow Definition of Women’s Rights
Reproductive Rights
The push by southern U.S. states to virtually eliminate access to abortion underscores the constant tension that exists around the issue of reproductive rights. But those debates are not limited solely to access to abortion, as women and women’s rights activists around the world push for access to a broad array of reproductive health services, including contraception and other family planning tools. The U.S. global gag rule has hurt some of those efforts, forcing reproductive health organizations operating outside the United States to choose between providing abortion services or accepting U.S. funds.
What is driving the push for decriminalizing abortion in New Zealand, in Can Ardern Successfully Decriminalize Abortion in New Zealand?
Why the U.S. now finds itself among a group of countries historically opposed to advancing women’s rights, in The U.S. Tries, and Fails, to Dilute a Global Agreement on Women’s Rights
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