In her weekly article, Gülseren Onanç, the Founding Chair of the SES Equality and Solidarity Association, argues that in a post-truth world, where lies are presented as if they were the truth, we need to amplify the findings of scientific, impartial research.
Do we choose to believe the lies that make us happy, or to pursue the truth, no matter the cost? In her Financial Times article, Jamima Kelly argues that politicians who lie, like Boris Johnson and Trump, are the product of societies that devalue truth. In the polarized political atmosphere, individuals say that they prefer to believe in lies that surround their circles rather than seeking the truth.
In a post-truth world, where lies are presented as if they were the truth, we need reports that reveal the truth based on scientific, impartial research. The Global Gender Inequality report published annually by the World Economic Forum (WEF) since 2006 is one of them.
The report brings to the fore a burning truth every year: gender-based inequality and injustice worldwide. The 2022 report was published last week. With this trend, the report predicts that we have 132 years ahead to achieve full gender equality worldwide.
The Global Gender Inequality 2021 Report, published last year, revealed that the world backslid for 36 years under the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 2020 report stated that 100 years are needed to achieve gender equality in the world; in 2022, this distance was 132 years. In other words, we can say that the world has regressed 32 years in the last two years compared to 2020. The report measures gender inequality under four headings: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. It aims to monitor progress in addressing inequality over time.
We wanted to take a closer look at this valuable report. I believe that defending the report is as important as revealing the truth. We must advocate for women’s rights by focusing on the truth, without surrendering to the false world created by some media outlets and social media. We will be successful in our struggle for equality if we give the truth its credibility without escaping to the convenience of populism.
Here are some of the titles we want to underline from the report:
Inequality stems from the lack of political and economic power. There seems to be around 95% equality in education, health and survival in the world. However, this falls to 60% regarding equality of opportunity in participating in the economy and 22% regarding political empowerment. It takes 151 years for full equality in economic opportunity and 155 years for equality in political empowerment.
There is no country in the world that has reached gender equality. The countries closest to equality are always the same, and Scandinavian and European countries lead: Iceland (90.8%), Finland (86%), Norway (84.5%), Sweden (82.2%) Ireland (80.4%) Germany (80.1%).
Women’s leadership in politics ensures equality. Five of the top ten countries in the ranking are led by women. Iceland, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand (84.1%) and Namibia (80.7%) are led by female prime ministers.
“The fate of geography” remains the same. North America and Europe are the regions most successful in achieving equality, North Africa and, the Middle East and South Asia regions are the regions that are behind.
A positive correlation exists between well-being and gender equality. Countries that provide a more equal setting have a higher per capita income.
The inequality of care services burdened on women’s shoulders is increasing. Women had to withdraw from economic life due to the burden of child care during the pandemic. This burden was placed on women’s shoulders.
There is a gender gap in wealth inequality. Women are at a disadvantage compared to men in terms of wealth accumulation throughout their working life. While the gender wealth gap in jobs requiring technical expertise is 31 percent, the percent inequality among those employed in high-level arenas rises to 38 percent.
The number of women in higher education is increasing, but women do not prefer engineering. In the last 5 years, the number of women who both attended higher education and graduated from at least one higher education institution has been increasing worldwide. However, students’ higher education fields continue gender discrimination. Accordingly, while women are more represented in fields such as education and health, there is a male predominance in departments such as information and communication technologies and engineering.
No progress in Turkey
Turkey, which is in the 124th place among 146 countries, is again in the lower league this year. When the report was published last year, Turkey had decided to leave the Istanbul Convention. It has been a year, and there is no progress in ensuring equality in Turkey.
According to the report, prominent topics in Turkey are as follows:
There is no empowerment in politics. While female heads of state in developed countries have an average of 15 years of service, Turkey’s only female prime minister has served only three years. Even during the 54th Government, when there was the highest female representation in the cabinet, there were only 4 female ministers.
Care services are on women’s shoulders. Housework and care services, also called “unpaid labor activities”, are burdened on women and girls in Turkey. In this respect, Turkey stands out as one of the three most unequal countries in the world in the distribution of care labor between the sexes.
There is a wealth gap. Turkey is among the economies with a wealth gap between women and men. In recent years, women’s poverty has emerged as an important problem. Having said that, in an essay on Violeta, the most widely read Chilean writer in the Spanish language, Allende says, “There is no feminism without economic independence.”
While I watch with envy the women’s revolution that has taken place in Chile in recent years, I watch with admiration that women in Turkey are fighting against this regression. The struggle against the decision of the President to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention on the Prevention of Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence overnight is also a struggle for the truth.
With the mobilisation to stop the cancellation of the withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, women’s rights organizations appealed to the Council of State, Turkey’s highest administrative court. The 10th Chamber of the Council of State decided to reject the request for a stay of execution by a three-to-two majority. Bar associations, women candidates, made excellent defenses with political elections and the State Council prosecutor defended the annulment of the decision.
The decision of the Council of State is a political decision. Yet women continue to tell the truth against the lies that dominate the political arena today. We will keep on fighting for justice and truth.