Just 118 years to go to close the gender gap

Today, Twitter newsfeed caught me eye with the Euronews tweet “Just 118 years to go to close the gender gap” and the link. Of course, I followed the link to find out this article by Isabelle Kumar (2015). It features Global Gender Gap Report, which was published last week at the World Economic Forum. “The news is not terribly encouraging. There are an additional quarter of a million women in the global workforce since 2006 and we women now earn what men did a decade ago. At the current rate it will take 118 years to close this gap completely!” (Kumar, 2015).

Somehow this report remained largely unnoticed by most of the major media we tend to follow.  Here it is. There’s a lot of statistics and visuals you can find in the report including country rankings, country profiles, as well as different tools to comprehend gender gap among 145 national economies under analysis. One of those tools is really funny. This is age calculator that prompts you how old you will be by the time when allegedly there should be no gender gap. For me, I need to figure out how to stay alive till I’m 145 to see it.

Kumar (2015) says that the report takes a ten-year analyzes the dynamic of gender positions within four major areas, i.e. economic affairs, political field, healthcare, and education. As of now none of the countries under analysis has closed gender gap. Some of them a pretty close though. Guess, which countries are those? Of course, these are Nordic countries, such as Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden - the four countries with the smallest gender gap in the world according to the Report. Denmark is a little bit behind with its 14^th position in the overall ranking.

It won’t be a big surprise for many that most of the top countries are also high-income countries (World Bank classification) belonging to so-called Global North. Most but not all – that can come as surprise. The developing countries that rank relatively high according to the Report are Rwanda, Philippines, Nicaragua, Namibia, and South Africa are among first 20 countries with the smallest gender gap. Also, Mozambique, which is among poorest countries in the world, is ranked higher than U.S. or Luxemburg.

Another interesting way to look at the ranking is through the lens of predominant religion. Most of the top countries are manly either protestant or Roman Catholic or to great extent non-religious (WIN-Gallup International, 2012). The first Orthodox Christian country to appear on the ranking is Moldova with 26^th position. The first Muslim country on the list, i.e. Kazakhstan, is ranked 47. At the same time China, which is labeled as the most atheistic country in the world, is far from being advanced in gender issues with its 91^st position. In the 20 countries ranked the lowest majority of the population are Muslim. Just saying.

Kumar, I. (2015). Just 118 years to go to close the gender gap. Euronews. Retrieved from http://www.euronews.com/2015/11/23/just-118-years-to-go-to-close-the-gender-gap/

WIN-Gallup International. (2012). Global index of religiosity and atheism – 2012. Retrieved from http://www.wingia.com/web/files/news/14/file/14.pdf

World Economic Forum. (2015). The Global Gender Gap Report 2015. Retrieved from http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2015/#read 

No Country for Sex

Sex. Masturbation. Pleasure. These are words that must not be named, let alone discussed, understood and practiced without appropriate socio-religious sanctions. A country of 1.3 billion and counting, India does not like to engage with sex. Everybody does it of course. Nobody likes to talk about it. Because it is not a part of our culture to do so. Or so the upholders of culture in our country will have us believe.

Growing up in such a context means having to maintain a “safe” distance between sex and our sexual bodies. For a majority of teenagers and young adults in India the sources of knowledge and information about matters of sexuality are often their equally uninformed or misinformed peers. Schools in India are no better and often shy away from “educating” students about matters of sex and sexuality.

In recent years, sex education has been a particularly controversial topic in our country after “a parliamentary committee rejected a comprehensive sex education programme proposed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development” (Read more here). The latest display of our regressive attitude toward sex was when the country’s Health Minister demanded that sex education be banned in schools, and yoga be introduced instead. This is the same minister who also suggested that “fidelity in marriage is a better way to fight AIDS than condoms” (full article).

In response to this, a group of satirists came together and produced a video that showcases the hypocrisy surrounding sex education in our country:

As laughable as this video is, the reality is anything but humorous. The consequences are dangerously dire.The fact that we have among the highest rates of teenage pregnancies (owing to early marriages), HIV/AIDS cases, and sexual violence is an indication of the severity of the issue. However,as the authors from this week’s readings demonstrate it is important to not focus only on the negative discourse about sex. While these issues are of utmost significance and deserve attention, we also need to move towards a more positive discourse around sex and sexuality. That sexual rights are human rights; that pleasure is a right; that safe sex can be sexy; are all ideas that will help us move in this direction. As the founder of “The Pleasure Project” says,“ We can’t learn to say no, if we are not taught to say yes, and say yes to good safe sex.”

While India has a long way to go before we begin to approach sex positively and without fear and stigma, it is heartening to see some very positive movements on the ground. TARSHI (Talking about Reproductive and Sexual Health issues) is a non-profit organization that offers a sex-related helpline and believes that “everybody has the right to sexual well-being, to a healthy, enjoyable and self-affirming sexuality.”

Somebody, please, write something on sexuality!

Women and Democratization: The specific case of Mali

According to the UN Global  Issue (2015), women represent about 50% of the world population, and as such their voice matters in democratization. A real democracy, needs to emphasize women participation . It is mainly through democratic representation that women can make their voices heard. Women representation is stated in article 7 of the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)“…ensure to women, on equal terms with men, the right: (a) To vote in all elections and public referenda and to be eligible for election to all publicly elected bodies; (b) To participate in the formulation of government policy and the implementation thereof and to hold public office and perform all public functions at all levels of government”. Women’s role in democratization is also emphasized on the  2011 UN General Assembly resolution on women political participation (A/RES/66/130), which reaffirms “that the active participation of women, on equal terms with men, at all levels of decision-making is essential to the achievement of equality, sustainable development, peace and democracy”. Although some progress have been made in women representation, the expected results , which was an equal political representation of men of women, have not been achieved.

In Mali, for example, women are still facing obstacles regarding political representation in the government. According to the National democratic Institute (2014), there were only 14 women were represented at the malian parliament after the legislation poll in 2013, accounting for about 10 percent of the total members. Actually, this is the result of a malian law which states that men are the head of the households and their wives should be their subordinates. Although this obstacle, malian women are committed to be more represented in public life. They want more representation in the government.                                                                                                

Mali has suffered a political and humanitarian crisis after the military coup which ousted the democratically elected president Amadou Toumani Toure.The northern part of Mali was occupied by islamist radical implementing a harsh interpretation of the Islamic law. Many people, especially women fled the northern part of Mali.This situation has considerably changed the role of women. In addition to doing their traditional jobs ( cooking, cleaning and raising children), women became providers for their families in spite of their small opportunities in the society.                                                                                                                                                                  

A focus group was established to help the malian government understand women concerns about opportunities and the challenges they face. The group discovered that the scarcity of job was mainly due to problem related to the access to education of women, especially girls.The group emphasized the need of representation of women since political parties rarely accept women candidates.  “In developing the [electoral] lists, the party is putting the names of five or six men before putting the name of a woman,” said a young woman from Bandiagara. “I think it’s not fair. I want women to be on the list.”                                                                                

Nowadays, many malian women are involved in presidential and legislative elections because they want to have more female representation in the government to better defend their interests. They represent considerable voices that are affecting malian government structure. The process is slow, but promising. It becomes more and more evident that Mali will have a female president very soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PomDRV_Lhs                                                                       Reference

Global Issues.(2015). Retrieved from: http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/democracy/women.shtml     National Democratic Institution (2014). Retrieved from:                                      https://www.ndi.org/mali-women-focus-group