Gender inequality has been one of those issues that has managed to plague societies over what can be described as different eras. However, many societies continue to suffer with inequality issues to this day. And while constant efforts have been taken to reduce this gap, we are still far away from the equality scenario. To put this into perspective, International Women’s Day was first celebrated over a 100 years ago, and we still celebrate it discussing the same issues, albeit with more solutions.
UN’s ‘Planet 50-50 by 2030’ is a step to accelerate gender equality. Despite it being a subject that is well discussed, it is hardly well understood. I write this because most of us are hardly thoughtful, because of our ignorance, of how this ‘inequality’ transpires in our daily lives, or in remote distant societies. This ignorance needs to be tackled in more significant and result oriented ways.
Taking care of this ignorance also provides a solution in itself. Educating younger generations about these inequalities is important. In doing so, we not only make them aware of a situation that they might be considered normal, but we also inspire them to take steps to deal with the problem. Education is also a tool to cut this problem at its very core. While working towards growing education itself is imperative, but how do these issues become part of the current academic systems should also be visited. It cannot be lessons in history alone, so how should this thought be included.
This step will make a difference, and we have seen this. For many countries in the region, girls education has been set as a primary goal and that has helped in making women more independent socioeconomically. Having said that, these countries are still ones where the gap between males and females is the largest.
In conclusion, I would like to ask the question that I started this opinion with: What is it that we are really celebrating on a day like International Women’s Day. I think the answer is just not the fact that we are celebrating past achievements and hoping for a better future; but that we are acknowledging our shortcomings as a society. We are reminding ourselves that this cannot and should not be celebration for only a day. We need to remind ourselves that for the countless success stories for woman achievements, there are unaccounted stories of their struggle. A struggle that needs all to be involved in – Adlanders included.
