Pervasive bias and prejudice against women continue at an alarming—in fact, shocking—rate, according to the Gender Social Norms Index, released by the United Nations Development Programme.
Close to 90 percent of men and women in the 75 countries surveyed, where 80 percent of the global population live, still hold some sort of bias against women.
There have been decades of progress, of course. The world has taken great strides in ensuring that women can have the same access to basic needs as men do. “We have reached parity in primarily school enrollment and reduced maternal mortality by 45 percent since the year 1990,” the report authors write. Nonetheless, gender gaps remain obvious in other areas especially in those that challenge power relations.
And indeed about half of men and women feel that men make better political leaders, over 40 percent feel that men make better business executives, men have more right to a job when jobs are scarce, and 28 percent believe it is all right for a man to beat his wife.
While men and women vote at similar rates, only 24 percent of parliamentary seats worldwide are held by women. There are only 10 female heads of government out of a possible 193. Women in the labor market are paid less than men and are much less likely to be in senior positions: less than 6 percent of CEOs in S&P 500 companies are women.
And while women work more hours than men, this work is more likely to be unpaid care work, the report said.
Biases and prejudices are difficult to correct, because they have always been there and the individuals who have them may not even be aware of having them in the first place.
As we celebrate International Women’s Day today, whether we are male or female, let us vow to keep ourselves in check for deep-seated prejudices we may not even know we have about women. These prejudices may be affecting how we do our jobs, relate with others, raise our children and even see ourselves.
Women’s Day words may just be tokens, uttered without meaning every March 8, if we do not make our actions and world view congruous to what we profess to believe.