Gender equality is the equal opportunities, rights, and entitlement of men and women in the civil and political life as well as compete as equal in the workplace and labour market by eradicating barriers to the success of women. (Bill, 2013). According to the UN women, gender equality does not require to be treated in exactly the same way to girls and boys, or women and men, but it need to imply an absence of prejudice or discrimination.
Status Quo of Gender Equality
Gender equality can be considered as a fundamental human right. Since 1948, gender equality was documented as one of the essential global norms with the universal declaration of human rights. This led gender equality to the international standards and action plans which have being settled by the 189 member states of UN at the 1994 UN Beijing Declaration and Platform for Actions. The global plans identify the constraints of women’s participation in the economic and gender policies of all member states hence it becomes a global issue since it was considered as global conflict. Therefore, most of the world nations have developed the gender policy papers and signed the international agreements on gender equality actions plan which they want to implement.
Global gender equality measures indicators such as “Global Gender Gap Index and “Gender Inequality index (GII) “were developed after the countries make a global agreement for achieving the gender equality goals. (Palencia, Malmusi, De Moortel, Artazcoz, Backhans, Vanroelen & Borrell, 2014). Appendix 1 describe the Global Gender Gap Index Report (2018) which rank 149 nations based upon their progress of gender equality in the four thematic aspects; economic, education, health and empowerment. Moreover, it studies the Artificial Intelligence (AI) related to the gender skills gaps. According to the report, Iceland is the most gender equal country since it has closed over 85% of its overall gender gap, followed by Norway (83.5%), Sweden and Finland (82.2%).
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Another countries, such as Nicaragua, Rwanda, Namibia, Philippines, New Zealand and Ireland are included in the top ten nations. Appendix 2 refer to the gender inequality index(GII) which measure the level of gender inequality in three main areas of human development such as reproductive health, empowerment and economic. The GII reveal the differences between men and women in the distribution of achievements. It also measure the cost of human development on gender equality.
The higher the GII value, therefore, the greater the inequality between women and men and the greater the loss to human development. (Gender Inequality Index, 2017). .According to Krook and True (2012) there are two vital requirements for the successful implementation of global gender equality. These are cited as the need to reconsider and politicize failings between the theory and practice of international standards as well as the need to endorse influences between developing global gender equality standards and women on the ground. In addition, gender equality should follow the ethical principles by abiding the anti-discrimination rules and needs to represent the social responsibility of the society by reflecting the diversity. Thus, gender equality can be implemented successfully. (Gatfaoui & Nekhili, 2013).
However, the progress and sustainability plans of gender equality have proved difficult to implement, as shown by slow progress. (Mills & Thenari, 2012). One of the reasons cited was that men control power in most of the organizations, but plans to endorse gender equality are aimed only at women who are seen as threatening (Ronnblom & Britt- Inger,2013) Hence, men conclude that they are discriminated against and therefore do not support gender equality initiatives as a power holders (Ronnblom & Britt- Inger,2013).
Many scholars have argued that the emancipation of women requires for strengthening women’s participation in all economic structures until gender equality is achieved (Ray, Gornick & Schmitt, 2010). It is also believed that slow progress is due to the individuals who are passionate and dedicated for achieving gender equality being labeled as “equality flagship” and being treated unfairly and discriminated against and thus stop fighting for equality (Soltani Syed, Liao & Shahi- Sough, 2012 ) .Therefore, until this labeling can be abolished and it is acceptable for both genders to discuss issues of gender equality openly, focusing on ensuring equality between men and women is important for gender equality policy.
