Gender inequality has stagnated for a decade, shows a United Nations study released today. Progress on gender equality has been reversed, making it unlikely that the world will reach the UN target of gender parity by 2030.
In its most recent report, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) examined this issue through its Social Gender Norms Index, based on data from the international research program World Values Survey (WVS). The research is based on 2010-2014 and 2017-2022 datasets from countries and territories covering 85% of the world’s population.
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The most recent analysis found that nearly nine out of 10 men and women have fundamental biases against women, and the proportion of people with at least one bias has changed little over the decade. The survey also found that nearly half of the world’s population believe that men make better political leaders. A quarter believe it is justifiable for men to beat their wives.
Experts summarized that prejudices prevent women from advancing in politics, business and work, that their rights are curtailed and that human rights are violated. Even though women are more educated and skilled than ever before, there is still a 39% wage gap compared to men.
“This is really alarming and explains why the world is far from achieving gender equality by 2030,” said Anam Parvez, director of research at Oxfam UK. “By 2021, one in five women were married before age 18, 1.7 billion women and girls live on less than $5.50 a day, and women continue to do three times as much unpaid care and housework than men all over the world.”