The UN Development Programme’s Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) report has revealed that 25 per cent people in 80 countries think that husband beating wife is justifiable.
The report argues that these biases drive hurdles faced by women, manifested in a dismantling of women’s rights in many parts of the world with movements against gender equality gaining traction and, in some countries, a surge of human rights violations.
Biases are also reflected in the severe underrepresentation of women in leadership. On average, the share of women as heads of State or heads of government has remained around 10 per cent since 1995 and in the labour market women occupy less than a third of managerial positions.
The report further noted that nearly 90 per cent of both men and women or almost nine out of 10 men and women worldwide hold “at least one” fundamental bias against women.
It said more than half of the world’s population – 69 per cent- believes that men make “better” political leaders as opposed to women while more than 40 per cent of people reportedly believe that men are better business executives than women, the report noted, adding, that only 27 per cent of people believe that women having the same rights as men is essential for a democracy while, 25 per cent of people believe that a man beating his wife is justifiable.
The report also sheds light on a broken link between women’s progress in education and economic empowerment. Women are more skilled and educated than ever before, yet even in the 59 countries where women are now more educated than men, the average gender income gap remains a 39 per cent in favour of men.
The UNDP report emphasized that governments have a crucial role in shifting gender social norms, from adopting parental leave policies, that have changed perceptions around care work responsibilities, to labour market reforms that have led to a change in beliefs around women in the workforce.
“An important place to start is recognizing the economic value of unpaid care work,” said Raquel Lagunas, Director of UNDP’s gender team.
“This can be a very effective way of challenging gender norms around how care work is viewed. In countries with the highest levels of gender biases against women, it is estimated that women spend over six times as much time as men on unpaid care work.”
