Women's Rights are Human Rights
It’s that time of year again. International Women’s Day. Where big corporations host chats about how important equality is to them, while frequently failing to put actions in place to enable equality even within their own HR doors.
So… What IS all the hoopla about? Why are women still harping on about this equality stuff? Well… To very briefly summarise by barely beginning to scratch the top of the surface I’ve included a few quick facts below:
There are 72 countries where women are barred from opening bank accounts or obtaining credit. (WeForum)
There is no country where men spend the same amount of time on unpaid work as women. (WeForum)
The research found that in a best-in-region scenario in which all countries match the performance of the country in their region that has made the most progress toward gender equality, $12 trillion a year could be added to GDP in 2025.(McKinsey)
It is a consistent fact that women work a double shift in advanced economies, too. In the United States, for instance, women still do almost twice as much unpaid care work as men. Even among individuals who earn the majority of their household’s income, 43 percent of women who are primary household income earners continue to do all or most of the household work, compared with only 12 percent of men. (McKinsey)
If no action is taken to counter the gender-regressive impacts of COVID-19, we calculate that global GDP growth could be $1 trillion lower in 2030 than it would be if women’s unemployment simply tracked that of men in each sector. That hit to growth could be even larger if increased childcare responsibilities, a slower recovery, and reduced public and private spending on services such as education and childcare force women to leave the labor market permanently. (McKinsey)
In the US, only 21.7% of a companies’ boards of directors are women. And that number is only slightly improved in the UK, at 27.2%. (Headstart)
42% of women in the workplace say they’ve experienced gender-based discrimination, including being passed up for important assignments, experiencing repeated, small slights, and being treated as though they weren’t competent. This makes women almost twice as likely to experience these grievances compared to men (22%). (Headstart)
Women are far more likely to experience sexual harassment in the workplace, whether they are in a position of power or not. (Headstart)
58% of all women murdered in 2017 were killed by an intimate partner or a family member (source. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2018).
Around 650 million women across the globe were married before the age of 18 (source. Unicef, 2018).
71% of all human trafficking involves women and girls – mainly for sexual exploitation (UNODC, 2016).
Over 2.7 billion women don’t have the same work opportunities as men, with laws restricting the types of jobs they can do (source. World Bank, 2018).
Women make up just 25% of parliamentarians worldwide (Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2019).
When women are involved in negotiations the probability of a peace agreement lasting at least two years is increased by 20 per cent, and 15 years by 35 per cent (Preventing Conflict, Transforming Justice, and Securing the Peace: A Global Study on Implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325, 2015).
Globally, gender parity stands at 68.6% and the bottom 10 countries have closed just 40% of the gender gap. (WeForum)
In terms of economic participation, the gender gap will take 257 years to close (compared to 202 years in the 2019 report). (WeForum)
And speaking of the wage gap… Did you know that:
Four in ten people (40%) don’t know that women have a right to equal pay for work of equal value. (Fawcett Society)
Only 36% of people know that women have a legal right to ask male colleagues about their salary if they suspect pay discrimination. (Fawcett Society) #righttoknow
And as always it remains vital to note that above facts and figures are a) only scratching the tiniest bit of the surface, and b) there are further significant (!) gaps within the category of ‘women’, specifically comparing white women (and in particular white women of certain economic or location based privilege) to women of colour in general and woc within certain economic or location-based circumstances in particular.
The inequality here in the UK - where we have granted progressed somewhat - is huge. Unnecessarily, extortionately costly, and impacting all women and men (whether they realise it or not). The impact and daily reality of inequality in many other parts of the world can range from the uncomfortable and unfair to the downright life threatening for women and girls.
So what can YOU do?
Educate yourself and those around you. Have uncomfortable conversations. Stay informed on your rights, and inform those around you of theirs. Share facts and figures, put pressure on politicians as well as your HR team. Demand more from work places, from government, from society in general as well as your friends and family. Don’t laugh at the tasteless joke at the Pub just because… It’s not funny. Don’t accept that you have to (or can’t) do something because “men are just useless at that part” or “boys will be boys”. And don’t accept women who actively push or support the misogynistic agendas that negatively impact boys as well as girls. Hold the women in those positions to account just as much.
And let’s at least TRY to make it a little better for our daughters and sons. This isn’t a one sided conversation.
