Group 5_C | SDG 5: Gender Equality

In today’s world, considerable progress has been made towards improving the condition as well as representation of women. Despite the progress being considerable, many challenges remain untackled. This is precisely the reason why United Nations (UN) decided to include gender equality as one of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The belief is that rather than considering gender equality simply as a fundamental right, it should be a part of the very foundation on which our sustainable development is built up. The definitions of goals detailed under gender equality range from ending all forms of violence, discrimination and harmful practices against women to ensuring equal opportunities, enabling use of technologies to empower women and improving their access to economic resource’s ownership. Another belief in including gender equality and women empowerment as a part of SDG was that when the world does not provide equal opportunities to women, it is essentially failing to utilize its 50% potential to the maximum and hence would not advance as much as it can. ^[1] [2]

Emergence of recent COVID pandemic across the world has only strengthened the need of action on gender equality. COVID induced lockdowns have increased the risk of violence against women, they have imposed additional household burdens while at the same time have put women at the frontlines of combating the pandemic as around 70% of frontline healthcare and social workers are women. ^[3]

Relevance in the Indian context

Irrespective of the area where a child grows in India, they are bound to witness some sort of gender inequality, be it in the society or in media or even in the stories they read in textbooks. Although minutely, gender inequality has always been interwoven in the very fabric of the Indian culture. Except in India, girls have higher rates of survival at birth than in any large countries of the world. ^[4]

Growing up too, boys tend to have relatively more freedom in day-to-day activities compared to girls who most of the times face limitations on their freedom, sometimes due to fear other times due to societal mentality. There are multitudes of risks and vulnerabilities that women face in their daily lives just because they do not belong to the other gender. Topics like child marriage, child trafficking, sexual abuse, teenage pregnancy have started coming to the spotlight in very recent times and it is only recently that we have started seeing a decline in these. Hence it becomes much more important that we do not let this momentum break and push these issues to their final and only acceptable conclusion – eradication of all such practices. Following facts lay bare the condition of gender inequality and the desperate need of improvement in conditions of women in the country:

1. 51% of all trafficking victims in India were children. Out of these over 80% were girls. ^[5]

2. Almost 1 in every 3 girls in India were wed before they turned 18. ^[6]

3. India has slipped 28 places and is one of the worst performers in Southeast Asia in gender equality. The gender gap in India has widened to 62.5% in Global Gender Gap report 2021. ^[7]

Figure 1: This figure shows the gender inequality based on various parameters ^[i]

Owing to the above-mentioned factors it becomes very important to have gender equality SDG in a country like India which lags in this issue. The effective of having gender equality on India’s economy is also backed by data which says that the Indian GDP would have been higher by almost 27% had the workforce participation been the same on the gender front.^[8]

Business Implications

Gender equality shapes a lot of policies for businesses and have a lot of direct and indirect impact in decision making. The SDG goal directly impacts the hiring, compensation paid to employees and the merit of employees. On the indirect aspect, according to a research article published by BCG ^[9], companies with gender diversity has improved decision making and higher resilience to withstand unanticipated changes. Even on the financial front, the research shows that gender diverse teams have seen 9 percentage points improvement in profitability. Hence gender equality is increasingly being championed by companies and the importance of the same is captured by Kofi Annan as he says:

“Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.”

Understanding implications via examples:

Proctor and Gamble as a company has taken many initiatives both within as well as outside their organization in order to ensure gender equality. Many of their campaigns are associated with their brand names which try and improve gender equality both in India as well as outside India. The equality is not constrained to one sector but is promoted across multiple areas like in schools and supporting businesswomen in their endeavors. They have also extended the targets for equality in their factory facilities. An important part of their campaign is also spreading gender equality awareness through social media in an attempt to spread awareness among the youth. Not only the present but the future goals of PnG towards gender equality seems ambitious.^{[10] [11] [12]}

In terms of gender quality Colgate Palmolive has taken measures within their organization ensuring unbiased advancement of women in the senior management level. Apart from these they have also incorporated various learning and development programs focusing not just on hard skills but also soft skills and leadership grooming for women. The company strives to achieve equal workforce in terms of gender, and this is also reflected in their recent hiring programs and numbers. In terms of community impact with respect to gender equality the company has a dedicated program focusing solely on upliftment of female athletes. Ensuring the right environment for the third gender is also an important topic which has been given due importance in recent years by the company.^[13]

If we analyze Johnson and Johnson and their initiatives towards gender equality, we observe that there has been a legacy where the company has taken gender equality as an important thing since a long time with their majority initial employees being women. Being in the medical industry the company has been pioneering the women’s health initiatives bringing innovation so as to ensure a better environment for the women and provide an equal state for them to blossom. In recent times it is seen that there has been a lot of importance given to nurture women for top management level and ensure equal representation at the top tier. ^[14]

Bain & Company has made gender parity as a strategic priority for the company. Womxn at Bain (WAB) is a community within Bain that aims to make Bain the best place to work for all members. Womxn signifies all women and gender non-conforming (GNC), thereby shattering the myopic view of gender. Through placing a WAB partner at every office, promoting dialogue and training, they try to achieve gender equality at Bain. ^[15] ^[16]

Boston Consulting Group champions gender equality as one of their top priorities. Their Women@BCG network works to provide a conducive environment for women to grow within the company. BCG was one of the first companies to accept and sign the Equal Pay Pledge promising equal pay to all genders. Even on the client side, BCG provides diversity, equity and inclusion consulting to guide decision making regarding these issues. ^[17]

Analysis:

India’s progress in terms of achieving the UN SDG has faced some roadblocks in recent times. This is evident from the fact that India’s rank in the 2020 came down from 115 to 117 ^[18] and a major reasoning for this was not faring well on the gender equality front.

Figure 2 ^[ii]

Figure 3 ^[ii]

If we observe the above data, we see that there is a significant number of women participation in lower tier of politics which this reduces significantly when we go to the national level. While there has been a rising importance being given to provide leadership grooming to women to go to top level in the corporate, it is very low if we consider political front. There can be many reasons that could be attributed to this like family pressure, lower acceptance from the political parties, lack of higher education etc. Although the growth rate has been slow, on the bright side of the tunnel we can see that the number is consistently increasing

Another major reason that has been halting India to progress rapidly in terms of gender equality is lack of financial education among them and constraints on managing their own finance. This makes women being dependent for their financial needs and hence hamper their overall autonomy and growth in a major way.

In the formal sector, there is a very low penetration of women in the higher levels of management with proportion of women in managerial positions and senior and middle management positions being less than 15%. ^[19] However, multinational companies are waking up to the need of having women in top management and steps are being taken for the same.

Figure 4: This figure shows proportion of women in top management ^[iii]

Women from low-income households work on agriculture farms or other low paying jobs in the informal sector. 97% of all women workforce is estimated to be in this section of the society. Even the women participation rate in rural India is twice of that of urban India. This signifies that majority of women workforce forms part of the low-paying unregulated rural informal sector. ^[20]

Another thing which has been observed during the pandemic is increased pressure on women who are sole earners of the family having to deal with a lot of financial and metal burden. Considering whether the work from home culture stays or not, it can have an impact on the women unequally.

The rampant inequality can also be traced in many other aspects too like education, differential pay, crime and violence against women, female foeticide, lack of women participation in a multitude of fields like sports, media, STEM etc.

Way forward:

Politics: Other developed and western countries have higher representation of women in politics. To ensure gender equality, the power to make decisions and shape national policy should lie in the hands of women. Political parties should nurture women leaders from Panchayati level and should give them representation at the national table.

Figure 5: This figure shows parliamentary representation of women across the world ^[iv]^[v]

Business: Apart from governments contributing to fight gender inequality, business too have a moral, social and economic responsibility to further gender equality.

Formal: Stakeholder activism through pressure on companies from customers, investors, society & government has made companies shift towards more gender equality policies. These should be extended to representation in managerial positions too. Also, workshops sensitizing employees to the benefits of gender equality leads to higher productivity for the company. ^[21]

Informal: With women having political say, it would be easier to formulate enforceable laws for the improvement of informal working conditions for women. Driving the bulk of the workforce inequality issue, laws to effectively regulate the informal sector should be formulated and implemented. Spreading awareness about financial literacy and government schemes would propel gender equality rapidly by making women self-sufficient.

Social: Rural India is still deprived of the awareness about this issue and the perception against women is improving only a very slow pace. Going forward there needs to be implementation on the objective parameters in terms of women participation across fields. There needs to be awareness and accountability so that enough women can be represented in important fields of society like media and jury.

Security: Security is one area where India has been rather infamous and needs a lot of improvement. The need for education regarding social issues for men is a very important aspect necessary in providing a safe environment for women. Apart from these, faster judicial actions are something which can prove to be very important factor to improve security conditions for women.

Though the road ahead is bumpy and requires a lot of work, it is what will make the ride ahead for India's development smooth!

References:

[1] https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/

[2] https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/5_Why-It-Matters-2020.pdf

[3] https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/E_Infographic_05.pdf

[4] https://www.unicef.org/india/what-we-do/gender-equality

[5] https://ncrb.gov.in/en/node/3454

[6] https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/child-marriage-women-india-census-data-2011-2826398/

[7] https://www.livemint.com/news/india/how-india-fared-in-global-gender-gap-report-2021-11617726598143.html

[8] https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/the-business-case-for-gender-equality-in-our-society-11573147376502.html

[9] https://www.bcg.com/capabilities/diversity-inclusion/gender-equality

[10]https://assets.ctfassets.net/oe48y40ukei6/6oYA8g2NCgD6GlhgqMhakd/2a21fa3b2cc230aa48784f861f1d28d1/2018_P_G_Corporate_Citizenship_Report_Executive_Summary.pdf