Gender Equality for Sustainable Development

Gender equity occurs when people of all genders are treated fairly in accordance with their needs. This is relatively hard to accomplish in a society where inequities in relation to gender still exist. These inequities stem from a variety of systems in place that discriminate based on gender due to the prevalence of patriarchal societies, that is, a society where a male-identifying person acts as the dominant authority. These inequities prevent people from accessing and obtaining resources, opportunities, and even rights.

Policies that reinforce inequities include not allowing women to vote, disallowing men from taking childcare leave, or denying transgender people access to a bathroom.  In today's society, the views on gender are upheld by a system of gender norms, rules or expectations created by society that tell humans they need to act a certain way because of their gender. 

For instance, looking at gender in a binary view, there is a rigid idea that male identifying people must be masculine (i.e. muscular physically and hard emotionally) and there is a rigid idea that female identifying people must be feminine (i.e. soft emotionally and thin physically). These ideas are gender norms which have been ingrained into society through the stigmas placed around the jobs and educational paths different genders tend to take (i.e. construction is seen as a job for someone who identifies as male and childcare is seen as a job for someone who identifies as female). 

These gender norms have resulted in biases ingrained into society about people of certain genders who attempt to enter fields of work in which their gender identity does not match the gender identity usually associated with that field of work.

Equality of opportunity between men and women is a key indicator of long-term social stability and economic prosperity. However, women still remain under-represented at work places, and strikingly so at the most senior levels; women only occupy 14% of senior executive positions globally.

To build a sustainable future, people of all genders must be included in solutions and decision-making for improved, economic, social, and environmental well-being. Education is the key to understanding sustainability and ensuring that people all over the world follow and push for sustainable practices. 

Changes are slowly being made to create equitable opportunities for both men and women in that educators around the world are starting to focus on gender equity in their courses; however, it takes more than that to change society's perceptions of gender and achieve gender equality.

Gender equality is crucial for every country and every society in the world. Moreover, it is a precondition for sustainable development. There is a space reserved on the garbage heap of history for discrimination of women and girls. It belongs there along with racism and slavery.

For governments, gender equality is not a policy option – it is a human right. For sustainable development, gender equality is the smartest tool available. Who doesn’t want to be on the right side – and the smart side – of history?

Women’s full and equal participation in all aspects of life benefits society as a whole. It drives economic growth and sustainable development. Failure to promote women’s participation in paid work is wasting half of humanity’s skills and capacity. No country can justify or afford that. However, we still live in a world where women find it difficult to enter the labor market, the business sector and politics. A world where women have less control over resources than men do.

Where women have a greater workload in the family than men do. We must get rid of all the factors that restrict women’s participation in the economic sphere. These include restrictions on women’s property rights and access to finance.

It is time to move from rhetoric to concrete policies. Quality education for all girls and boys is crucial if women are to hold political and economic power on an equal footing with men. Sadly, we live in a world where violence against women is still an issue in every country.

If we want equality between women and men in the family and in work life, we must also strengthen the role of fathers.  Men should also make use of their right to parental leave when they become fathers.

Men must also be part of the solution. They too must speak out against all forms of violence against women everywhere. The globe should move quite rapidly from poverty to prosperity. Gender equality must be an essential part of this progress.

Many countries still has a lot of work to do to achieve SDG 5 on gender equality. At the same time, we also need to remember that the world today is ridden with conflicts. Women’s contributions are essential for building resilience, for preventing and resolving conflicts, and for sustaining peace. 

There is a clear obligation rooted in #UnitedNations Security Council resolutions when it comes to women’s participation in peace and security matters. They are positive trends; we see that girls across the world are speaking up against outdated gender roles that hold them back. There is also growing awareness that all societies need to employ the best heads and hands in their development process – regardless of gender.

In conclusion – Important elements that create lasting change include breaking the cycle of poverty (in that, women form a higher percentage of the 1.5 billion people living below the poverty line than men), investing in education, promoting women's health, and ultimately transforming perceptions of gender in the form of challenging gender norms is urgently necessary.

It is grounded in human rights and in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Gender equality is the way forward. Again, this is not an option.  There can be no excuse for not achieving gender equality by 2030. If we are able to accomplish these things, we can support gender equity and move faster towards a sustainable future.