Working to Address The Lack of Gender Equality in the World

The United Nations has made it a point to focus on a series of issues affecting people around the world. They have tried to eliminate poverty, barriers to education, as well as gender inequalities. And while the world has made progress on these issues, the goals are far from being met.

On March 6th, 2015, Al Jazeera reported on the United Nations Women agency, and on comments made by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who heads the agency. Mlambo-Ngcuka spoke about how no country in the world has fully reached complete gender equality. As we know, gender inequalities can take the form of discriminatory laws, unequal access to education, employment opportunities, equal pay, amongst other issues.

Many of the world’s countries have made a commitment to gender equality through international meetings. For example, at a United Nations women’s conference in Beijing in 1995, states pledged their commitment to this issue. With regards to the 1995 meeting, “The Beijing platform called for governments to end discrimination against women and close the gender gap in 12 critical areas including health, education, employment, political participation and human rights. For the first time, it recognized that women have the right to control their own sexuality without coercion, and reaffirmed their right to decide whether and when to have children” (Al Jazeera, 2015).

There is a Commission on the Status of Women that works to look into issues of equality. For example, speaking on these issues of equality, Mlambo-Ngcuka pointed out that women do not have equal access to education, health, as well as top political positions (such as heads of state positions). She was quoted as saying that “We just don’t have critical mass to say that post-Beijing women have reached a tipping point in their representation” (Al Jazeera, 2015).

It is imperative that we continue to advocate complete equality for genders. Equality must not be mere statements, but together with tangible evidence of equality. This means that we must end any forms of patriarchy, eliminate any barriers to education, health, employment, human rights, or other areas of needed equality. It is great to see the United Nations continuing to bring attention to issues of gender, but these ideas must permeate through both international and individual levels of society, meaning, the work is as important at the individual and family level as it is through the support of international organizations such as the United Nations.