Group7_B | SDG 5 : Gender Equality
Preface
The world celebrated the success of Kamala Harris as she created history by being the first female Vice President of USA. It took the US a whopping 233 years of electoral voting to get its first female Vice President, a glaring indication of how women across the world have been suppressed from disclosing their true potential.
Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs are a set of 17 global goals with specific targets and indicators prescribed by the United Nations. The 5th on the list of SDGs is ‘Gender Equality’ with 9 specific targets defined. Although the definition of gender has transitioned from 2 sexes to a spectrum of choice, this SDG pertains specifically to empowering women and girls through equality, inclusivity, distribution of quality education and ending violence against women.
Figure 1: Gender Equality SDG Objectives [2]
Social progress across the world has been hindered as half the world’s potential has been significantly suppressed in the name of social customs and traditional orthodox lifestyles. Even in the twenty first century women representation in parliaments are still at 25%, 1 in 3 women are subjected to domestic violence and 10 million girls are at the risk of child marriage [1]. The Covid 19 pandemic has accelerated unpaid domestic burdens and forced women out of the local work force. While countries like Canada, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand and Lichenstein have made great progress in initiating gender equality, countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and a host of other countries still carry a misogynistic mindset. In 2015 the United Nations acknowledged the global issue of Gender Inequality including it in the list of Sustainable Development Goals.
Figure 2: Countries by Gender Inequality Index [3]
Relevance to India
In India, gender parity is still too far a goal. According to reports of The Hindu, India has ranked 112 among 153 countries in the Global Gender Gap,2020. It has slipped 28 places to 140th among 156 countries in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2021, becoming the third-worst performer in South Asia.
Here are some of the reports on India from UN Women that highlight the importance of gender equality in India.
Ignoring the unavailability of data, most of India's performance towards gender equality falls under the poor category.
Gender data gaps and country performance
Despite the legal marriageable age for girls being 18 years, there is still a significant proportion of girls being married before they are even adults.
While seats held by women are almost 44% in Panchayati Raj Systems, which is significant in the upliftment of women at the rural level, a 14% seat in Lok Sabha is not as inspiring as it should be at the national level.
The above chart clearly shows that amongst all the legal monitoring of gender equality, the minor concern is shown in violence against women. Its impact is directly visible in the increasing atrocities against them. Ironically, almost 100% of results are displayed on the subject of just "talking" about gender equality, and not even 50% of its efforts bear fruit.
Also, this number has increased tremendously during the Covid -19 pandemic period.
The gender pay gap is also a significant issue in India. It intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic when women didn't get appraisals and bonuses. According to the ADP study "People at work 2021: A Global Workforce View", in India, only 65 % of women received pay raises/bonuses for increased responsibility compared to 70% of men.
Microsoft
- It also supports Girls Who Code and TECHNOLOchicas to narrow the gender gap and take a step towards women empowerment.
- It publishes free STEM resources, such as ACTION GUIDE TOOLKIT, to acquaint parents, guardians, and educators to motivate girls to take up STEM fields and narrow the gender gap prevalent.
- The Microsoft DigiGirlz program conducts tech workshops to gain hands-on experience in computer technology for high school girls.
Walmart India
- The retail store has recently felicitated 32 women entrepreneurs in its first-ever Walmart Women Entrepreneurship Development Programme in India, intending to diversify the supply chain.
- It currently has a pipeline of about 50 women suppliers on board.
According to the Hindustan Times, Walmart India is recognized among the 100 best companies for women.
Asian Paints
- To ensure women's safety in the workplace, an internal committee is designed for the Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (POSH). Its workshop is conducted for all the new employees.
- Special working privileges for women like Extended Maternity Break, Child Care Leave, Adoption/surrogate leave, and Sabbatical leaves have been provided.
Boston Consulting Group
BCG had launched a "Back to Home" program for women who moved out of the company to explore other opportunities and get them back to join the firm.
Deloitte India
Deloitte, over the years, has actively promoted worthy female executives to senior leadership roles. Currently, its Global Board of Directors is composed of 29% women. The firm also imparts comprehensive inclusive leadership trainings.
Deloitte recently released their first-ever Global Gender Impact Report that highlighted efforts by the firm to positively impact womens’ and girls’ lives outside the organization as well.
Business Implications
Diversity for a common cause in any business is the key to survival.
Businesses that actively stick to gender equality and make inclusive teams make better business decisions up to 87% of the time. Companies with less diversity make poor choices and run at a risk of going out of the market.
McKinsey & Company analyzed more than 1,000 companies worldwide and proved that organizations with greater diversity among their executive teams tend to have higher profits and longer-term value.
Companies with more gender and racial gaps (the discrimination doesn’t end here !) are 29% more likely to make less money. Thus they harm their bottom line by not supporting potential female employees in leading positions.
An example of how gender equality can make companies achieve heights is General Motors, one of only three companies globally to earn equal pay in the truest sense of the word. Data reveals that GM achieved an average unadjusted gender pay gap of 3% or less in all pay bands.
We are in the 21st century, and many women are on their way to empowerment and better thinking. It will be reluctant for these women to engage in business ties with such companies, thus losing potential clients.
Research shows that if women’s talents are acknowledged considerably, it can increase the GDP by USD 12 trillion. The International Monetary Fund highlights significant gains in economic welfare that exceed North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.
Companies go to extreme lengths to improve profit margins by 2 to 3%. Such a task can easily be overcome by using a gender-equal workforce reported to increase profitability by 5 to 20%.
Gender equality boosts innovation and influences a larger field of customers. Companies with female executives generate more patents than companies without any female executives. Gender diversity buys come clients along with their loyalty.
Lastly, various management teams are 70% more likely to capture new markets, according to the Harvard Business Report.
In the light of recent events during Covid -19 and how women suffered more than men because of the worsening economy. Many lost promotions, bonuses, and some even jobs. On the other hand, many women were encouraged to step out of their houses and don the hat of a working woman. Many companies which suffered losses are on their way to resilience. A quick and sure way to make this possible is to give women a chance and let the wonders reveal themselves.
Responses towards Gender Equality
The past decade has been highly positive in terms of the gaps that have been filled in the field of education, child marriage, healthcare, etc. The recognition of gender equality as one of the SDG goals has helped expedite the process to a large extent. The global proportion of young women married as a child has decreased by 15%, to quote a few. These are just some data points that make working for this dream worthwhile.
Global Response
Several successful initiatives have been monumental in bringing the desired changes. Famous faces like Emma Watson gathering applause from around the world for the HeForShe campaign, Malala fund, White Ribbon Alliance, UNICEF, and many other movements for gender equality have been trailblazers for a better future. Global leaders like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and even our own Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been vocal supporters and contributors towards the idea of achieving these targets by 2030.
India and Gender Equality
India has been working beforehand with programs like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (2015), Janani Suraksha Yojana (2005), and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (2015). These programs have contributed internationally by achieving the goal of equal enrolment of 100% for male and female children in primary schools in South Asia in 2012, which was only 74% in the 1990s. NITI Aayog, India's premier policy think tank, has developed the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP). This will help decrease the informational asymmetry in the ecosystem and provide better opportunities for women to learn, grow, become independent, and contribute to economic development.
Covid-19
Currently, the organizations and the people associated with the initiative fear the downfall that Covid-19 has brought to the whole program. According to the sustainability report of 2021, workload, attrition, domestic violence, and even fields like child marriage, where substantial changes happened, have increased globally, especially in lower- and middle-income families. These agendas, along with the parochial mindset and judicial laws of some countries, are still hindering the possibility of achieving these overarching goals.
Analysis
In today's world, gender equality is just an aspiration which we are aiming for and will have to overcome a lot of obstacles to achieve it. In fact, according to a report by the WEF it will take about 135.6 years[4] to achieve gender parity going at the current pace of closing the gap. The UN has specified 9 targets which need to be achieved in order for gender equality to become a reality and pertaining to them, there are few major metrics [5] which are being tracked. We will take a look at these to better analyze the present scenario.
Indicator 1 – Presence of legal frameworks that support equality.
These two graphs show that there is still a long way to go in terms of put laws in place which ensure that discrimination on the basis of sex doesn't take place. The implementation of these laws will certainly be another challenge on its own.
Indicator 2 – Incidence of physical, sexual or psychological violence by a current or former partner on women and girls aged at least 15 in the previous 12 months
These statistics show that there is an urgent need for & proper implementation of laws which take strict action against perpetrators of violence.
Indicator 3 – The practice of child marriage
Child marriage and its negative impact on the life of women is well known. While it has reduced over the years through strict mandates, this practice is still rampant among the poorer countries of the world.
Indicator 4 – Incidence of inhumane acts of violence among women aged 15-49
There have been many reported and countless unreported instances of disturbing acts of violence that women face - there is a need for global action & strict mandates to stop it from happening.
Indicator 5 – Time spent in unpaid domestic work
Discrimination in pay based on gender is rampant, as reported in multiple publications. It has been reported that women spend 2-10 times more time on unpaid work than men. [6] In recent years, there have been positive changes in this direction as more awareness is created. However, more still needs to be done to address it further.
Indicator 6 – Women in leadership roles : Political representation & in firms
Over the years, various gender stereotypes concerning women and their political representation have been successfully broken leading to emergence of strong leaders like Indira Gandhi. This has proven to be a progressive step towards ensuring gender equality in the society.
In addition, increased focus on inclusivity programs in the corporate field has been a driving force behind gender equality in the workplace. There has a positive shift in this regard over the past few years as well, with women occupying major leadership roles in organizations including CEO and MCHRO roles, especially in the most industrialized nations.
Indicator 7 – Access to sexual education and independent decision-making on their sexual life
This metric explores the importance of consent and the independence enjoyed by women in making decisions affecting her sexual life. While there is absence of clear data in various nations, this can be considered in line with the indicator of sexual violence earlier explored. Much work needs to be done in this direction to promote gender equality. One of the first steps would be to ensure imparting proper sexual education at appropriate age through the right channels. As seen below, this index is also yet to reach acceptable standards.
Indicator 8 – Land ownership
Female land ownership is lacking which in turn impacts the freedom of women to make their own decisions. While there are no legal issues related to the same (given that majority of the societies allow equal ownership of property), it is dismal to see inequitable distribution of available land in most countries in Asia and Africa.
Suggested Path Ahead
With the pandemic, the slow efforts being made towards bridging the gender disparity have also seen a set-back. But a few learnings that the pandemic made us realize is that equality is not what we should be running for but equity is the way to go ahead. Not everyone gets equal opportunities or has a similar background, therefore making policies equally is not the best way to do things.
Many studies showed that women loss of employment was steeper than men and very minimal efforts have been taken to bring them back to the workforce. To achieve the goal of gender equality by 2030, proactive steps need to be taken by corporations, government and all individuals in general. Corporates must take active steps to help bring the women force back by not only giving them equal opportunities but also making the work environment suitable for them to stay. Paid family leaves, flexible work culture, mis-carriage leaves and menstrual leaves are some ways that the corporations must look out for if they wish to attract and improve the retention rate of the women workforce.
On the education front as well, there have been increased drop-outs from schools for girls which in itself would lead to disadvantage in employment later on in life. To avoid this, government must provide special impetus to support girl child financially as well as by making it convenient for the girls to return back to school. According to the UN Report of 2021, only 42% of 131 countries considered are taking steps to aid the return of girls to school[8]
Sexual violence, trafficking and discrimination are also some serious issues faced by women which further demotivate them to be a part of the labour workforce and corporates. Stricter laws and measures to stop these must be implemented by the governments and encouraged at a world level by increasing awareness and talking about them.
Overall, gender sensitive policies and the financial budgeting to support their implementation are the way to go ahead which must be started immediately to reach their target by 2030.
Appendix
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_Inequality_Index#/media/File:Gender_Inequality_Index_2019.svg
[4] https://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/gender-equality-sdg-5/
[5] https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/women-and-the-sdgs/sdg-5-gender-equality
[6] https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/
[7] https://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/
[8] https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2021/
[9] https://wep.gov.in/about-wep
[10] https://sustainability.asianpaints.com/sustainability/pdf/Sustainability-Report-2020-2021.pdf
[11] https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/talent-management/closing-wage-gap
[13] https://data.unwomen.org/country/india
[15] https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2021/digest
[16] https://sdg-tracker.org/gender-equality
[17] https://www.oecd.org/dev/development-gender/Unpaid_care_work.pdf
[18] https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/gender-snapshot/2021/
Company reports
https://www.synergyconsultingifa.com/service-initiative/
https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/gender-balance-gir.html
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