Almost nine out of 10 people hold “fundamental biases” against women, a new UN report has found, decrying a “decade of stagnation” that has led to a dismantling of women’s rights in many parts of the world.
Biased gender social norms—the undervaluation of women’s capabilities and rights in society—constrain women’s choices and opportunities by regulating behaviour and setting the boundaries of what women are expected to do and be. They create a major impediment to achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.
The Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI), recently published by the UNDP quantifies biases against women worldwide, capturing people’s attitudes on women’s roles along four key dimensions: political, educational, economic and physical integrity.
Key findings
New Zealand had the lowest rates of gender bias — 27.39 per cent — followed by Sweden at 27.91 per cent.
The index, covering 85 percent of the global population, reveals that close to 9 out of 10 men and women hold fundamental biases against women.
More than a quarter of the world’s people believe that it is justifiable for a man to beat his wife. A similar share (26 percent) of women over age 15 have experienced intimate partner violence. This rate exceeds 75% in Turkey.
“Social norms biases can influence patterns of violence against women and girls.19 People who believe
that violence is acceptable might directly enforce it or justify it. Social norms permissive of violence also
make it difficult for women to denounce and escape violence, since social acceptance constrains support mechanisms and discourages women from seeking a path out” says the report.
“Half the world’s people think that men make better political leaders”
Almost half the world’s people think that men make better political leaders than women do, and 43 percent think that men make better business executives than women do.
By objective measures, women are underrepresented in politics, public administration and business leadership. Only 11 percent of heads of state and 9 percent of heads of government are women,13 and women hold only 22 percent of ministerial posts. The majority of these ministerial roles are in the ministries of women, children, youth, the elderly, the disabled or social and environmental sectors.14 In the paid economy women hold only 28 percent of managerial positions.
Equality three centuries away
Progress toward gender equality is “vanishing before our eyes,” United Nations Secretary General António Guterres warned in March, adding that gender equality is “300 years away,” according to the latest estimates from UN Women, the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Guterres cited high rates of maternal mortality, girls being forced into early marriage, and girls being kidnapped and assaulted for attending school as evidence that hope of achieving gender equality “is growing more distant.”
“Women’s rights are being abused, threatened, and violated around the world,” Guterres said, naming a few countries in particular, including Afghanistan, where he said “women and girls have been erased from public life.”
Guterres also said that “in many places, women’s sexual and reproductive rights are being rolled back,” though he didn’t specify where.
You can read the full report here.