Gender Equality as a Human Right 2
GenderEquality as a Human Right
Genderequality preconditions development advancement and poverty reduction.Despite this, this concept remains elusive globally. Women and menshould be free to enjoy opportunities with dignity devoid of fear.However, gender inequality continues to influence women the mostbecause it affects their access to social and economic resources, aswell as, decision-making. With this, women empowerment has become animportant factor in the promotion of gender equality. The empowermentprocess emphasizes on the identification and redressing of powerdisparity providing women with the autonomy needed to manage theirindividual lives. In this essay, I focus on discussing genderequality as a human right related to women empowerment throughprimary concerns associated with reproductive health, economic,political, and education empowerment.
Theaddress of women empowerment and gender equality points out strategicinterventions required at every level of policy-making and programing(Sorj, 2016: 105). They include reproductive health, economicempowerment, political empowerment, and education empowerment.Firstly, through reproductive health, it is critical for women tocontrol their individual fertility towards equality attainment.Through the planning of their families, women will manage to plantheir lives by promoting and protecting their reproductive rights.With this, they will manage to participate freely and equally in thesociety. Further, women happen to experience more vulnerability toboth social and physiological reproductive health concerns comparedto men. According to Sorj (2016: 105), childbirth and pregnancycomplications account for a high percentage of deaths amongreproductive aged women. Therefore, the failure to offer information,conditions, and services that assist women in the protection of theirreproductive health leads to gender-based inequity. It also violatesthe rights of women associated with life and health.
Secondly,Cho (2014: 720) notes that six women out of ten constitute theworld’s poorest individuals. The economic inequalities continue toexist partially because women in most societies associate with unpaidwork found within their communities and families. Additionally,discrimination within the economic sphere is popular towards womensince men hold big positions in companies that are better paying.Thirdly, gender equality will not undergo achievement without theenforcement and backing of institutions that result from politicalempowerment. Arat (2015: 674) claims the global governments and otherlegal and social institutions have attempted to intervene on theissue but have failed to secure women equality related to basic humanand legal rights, in political or social participation, and inearning and employment. It is evident that men remain the preferredoccupants of most authoritative positions in the legal and politicalarenas with only 22% of women parliamentarians globally (Cho, 2014:722). Lastly, approximately two out of three women around the worldare illiterate (Cho, 2014: 724). Education deprivation restrictswomen from accessing opportunities and information related to theirrights. On the other hand, education empowerment among women benefitsthe communities ensuring that there is low fertility and infantmortality, along with better consequences for children.
Insummary, it is evident that the issue of gender equality is a growingconcern worldwide especially relating to the discrimination of womenand their rights in multiple fields. However, with the properevaluation of the issue through focusing on the main strategicinterventions, it is possible for gender equality to experienceattainment upholding the rights of not only women but also men.
References
Arat,ZK 2015, ‘Feminisms, Women’s Rights, and the UN: Would AchievingGender Equality Empower Women?’, AmericanPolitical Science Review,109, 4, p. 674
Cho,S 2014, ‘International Women’s Convention, Democracy, and GenderEquality’, SocialScience Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell),95, 3, pp. 719-739
Sorj,B 2016, ‘Connecting Economic and Social Policy: new approaches togender equality’, GlobalSocial Policy,16, 1, p. 105