Women Equality Literature Review

Equality means a robust economy, good politics, and a workforce that attracts talents from the whole population and a society that appreciates everyone (Karuppusamy, 2017). While the world has made great progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment under the MDGs, women continue to suffer violence, sexual harassment, and discrimination across the world. The issue of women equality in the society is quite diverse. Even though there are major similarities among various societies there are many differences that alter the opinion of the issue for each particular individual and society. In an effort to understand the barriers to achieving women equality in the society it is important to look at the bigger picture of the society’s perception of masculinity and femininity, leadership, the perception of boys and girls, caring and the roles of women in the society (Marecek, 2000).

It was possibly as a result of the spread of Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church in Europe towards 1000AD took a very negative view of women. Evil things were seen to originate from women and priests were required to stay celibate and leave their women. The rise of Protestantism later appeared to catalyze women equality. During that time everyone was required to read the bible themselves leading to increased instruction and literacy in women. Some norms in the society could bar women from some paid jobs and leadership and on the other hand, men could be excluded from child care that was viewed as a territory for the women. There are several recent statistics available on issues that relate to the status of women in the society and around the globe which can be reviewed for more detailed analysis Education: Over the last 40 years’ there have been large and extensive campaigns to invest in educating both boys and girls.

In several countries that UNDP has classified as low literacy and human development, women literacy ranges between 7-70% with gender gap being around 25% (i. e. % of educated men to % of educated women). They participate less than men in paid labor and once they do they earn about 75% of what men get in the same positions. Women work more frequently on a part-time basis and although this adds to their pay it is unlikely that the gender segregation of job and pay differences will change. Decision making and power: Majority of women around the globe lack economic power and this translates to lesser purchasing power and minimal decision making power. In less developed countries laws of inheritance and property ownership do not favor women which are a significant contributor to women’s low financial capability.

According to research few women are in top government cabinet ministerial and permanent secretary’s positions both in developing and developed countries (Toffoletti & Starr, 2016). The society is gravely ill-equipped to educate girls and women about these issues basically due to societal norms that entitle men to sex. In conclusion from various authors in order to eliminate the vice from the society, there is need to promote cultural transformation to uproot the ingrained seeds of discriminatory patterns of behavior and stereotypes and encourage respect for all individuals regardless of their sex (Fenley, 1988). In recent times social activists such as Tarana Burke have been part of the grass root campaigns to promote women empowerment through empathy among women who have experienced sexual harassment.