The world often boasts about the technological progress that we have made. But when there are still regressive practices like patriarchy, how can we call ourselves a progressive society? Hate crimes, violence, inappropriate behaviors, prejudice, stereotyping, misogyny, discrimination-I could go on and on about the problems that women face regularly.
Despite all this, some men think that we don’t need feminism. In reality, I doubt whether they even know that feminism means gender equality. As simple as that. Only entitled people can be so blissfully ignorant and complain that “feminism is destroying the world for men.”
The Gender Social Norms Index, released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), measures how social beliefs obstruct gender equality in areas like politics, work, and education. It includes data from 75 countries and covers over 80% of the world’s population.
This analysis reveals that, despite decades of progress trying to close the gender equality gap, close to 90% of men and women hold some bias against women. About half of men and women worldwide believe men make better political leaders. Over 40% feel that men make better business executives and that men have more right to a job when jobs are scarce. 28% think it is justified for a man to be violent towards his wife.
Achim Steiner, administrator of UNDP, stated that “the work that has been so effective in ensuring an end to gaps in health or education must now evolve to address something far more challenging: a deeply ingrained bias – among both men and women - against genuine equality. Current policies, while well-intentioned, can only take us so far.”
Well, it seems that this very bias against women needs to be addressed, and something needs to be done about it. I mean, it’s really unfair that half of the world’s population suffers just because they were born a woman. And the effects this discrimination has can be long-lasting.
What’s more shocking is that this issue doesn’t seem to have an end. Not when incel culture is on the rise, and it has fuelled more hate crimes against women. A senior law enforcement officer described incel as an “emerging risk,” making up 1% of all referrals to the anti-extremism scheme in the year to March 2022 (77 cases), driven by concerns that mainly young men were falling for its message.
The number might have even gone up since then, and it’s really concerning for women. I mean, we hear about so many cases where men act violently when they are rejected, which raises the serious question about women’s safety.
While many issues plague women’s lives, it’s harrowing to think that in some countries women still have to fight for basic rights. Also, let’s not forget that each of these issues takes a different toll on women’s well-being. For instance, a large study analyzing over 7,800 brain scans across 29 countries found that societal gender imbalances physically change women’s brains.
It showed that women living in countries with higher gender inequality had thinner cortical thickness in brain regions associated with emotional control, resilience and stress-related disorders such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Researchers claim that when women experience inequality, it “leaves a scar on their brains.”
As if women weren’t already facing discrimination in real life, there is now an intense rise in online misogyny. According to a report, 58% of girls and young women (aged 15-25) across 31 countries had faced online harassment. The report surveyed more than 14,000 girls and young women worldwide.
Of those, 50% said they face more online harassment than street harassment. About 1 in 4 girls who had been harassed online felt physically unsafe. Despite such glaring and unsettling numbers, women get portrayed as the villain when they stand up against patriarchy or misogynistic men.
