Photo: Frederico Martins
Defending gender equality will always be an issue under construction and subject to change. The numbers don’t lie and should be put under the microscope.
The current forecast for achieving gender parity worldwide is in 135 years’ time, according to a World Economic Forum report. According to Euronews, this deadline has been extended due to the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exacerbated existing inequalities and halted progress in several areas, including women’s economic participation and political empowerment. Therefore, if current trends continue and we don’t see a backlash, gender equality won’t be achieved until around the year 2159.
António Guterres went further. The UN Secretary-General warned of abuses and violations of women’s rights, saying that parity is growing more distant and that it will take 300 years to achieve equality. António Guterres argued in 2023 that ‘the rights of women are being abused, threatened and violated around the world’ and that ‘progress won over decades is vanishing before our eyes’. The Secretary-General of the United Nations has issued a warning to world leaders: equality between women and men in the world is becoming an increasingly distant goal.
Indeed, a World Bank Report in 2024 revealed that women, on average, enjoy only 64% of the legal rights available to men. This rate is lower than the previous estimate of 77%, when factors such as violence and access to childcare are taken into account. A European Commission Report 2024 highlighted the progress and challenges in the European Union. Among the legislative milestones for 2023 were the adoption of the Pay Transparency Directive and the finalisation of the EU’s accession process to the Istanbul Convention, which combats all forms of violence against women and domestic violence. Despite progress, the report points out that the gender gap in the labour market and in decision-making roles remains significant, and violence against women continues.
But the numbers don’t stop there. Every day, 20,000 teenagers under the age of 18 die in childbirth. Worldwide, more than 130 million girls are out of school and 63 per cent of illiterate adults are women. Every year 16 million girls between the ages of 15 and 19 become mothers, and stigma, lack of support for baby care and discriminatory laws exclude them from school. And every day 830 women die from avoidable, preventable causes associated with pregnancy and childbirth. Every 11 seconds, a pregnant woman or a baby loses their life.
More than 218 million women are unable to access modern contraceptives. One in three women is a victim of violence in her lifetime. Today, 200 million girls and women live with the consequences of Female Genital Mutilation.
It is therefore undeniable that we have a long way to go. In 2023, the issue of Portuguese Soul dedicated to ‘a better world’ interviewed Catarina Furtado. ‘I am a feminist. I love being a woman, but I don’t represent all women. I defend freedom. In my opinion, everyone should be a feminist because what is being defended is equal opportunities, equal access to decision-making positions, equal choices. Until this equality exists, we should all fight for it. Because the whole of society benefits. It’s not a question of opinion, but of being informed and fighting ignorance. Feminism is not the opposite of machismo, it doesn’t want to annul the role of men, but it does want to balance inequalities’.
Population, Health, Education, training and science, Digitalisation and information and communication technologies, Work and employment, Power and decision-making, Reconciling professional, personal and family life, Social benefits, Gender violence, LGBTI. These are the 10 points analysed by the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG).
This Portuguese organisation argues that it is ‘essential to take into account the differences between women and men when analysing a given phenomenon, a given policy or a given social process in order to develop more appropriate public policies’.
In short, according to the CIG, ‘gender equality means equal rights, freedoms, opportunities, choices, participation, recognition and appreciation of women and men in all areas of society. It is recognised today as essential to the process of sustainable, democratic development and the formulation of effective national development policies’.
In 1977, the United Nations established International Women’s Day and, internationally, the day is now celebrated on 8 March. The aim has always been to find a space to talk about all these issues, where it is possible to raise awareness and draw attention.
In 2023, Catarina Furtado identified education as one of the main solutions: ‘Because investing means preventing costs, not spending money. It’s about being smart and doing a serious job of evaluating the initiatives that have had a clear impact on achieving equal opportunities’.
In an increasingly global and challenging world, it’s important not to leave this issue to others. It’s important that we know how to use the issue as our own, that we are aware of the numbers and the data and, above all, that we know how to defend it against all attacks.