What's Gender Equality and 5 Things You Can Do To Improve Gender Equality Today

Gender equality benefits everyone, which is why it has been nominated as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) number five. The world has achieved progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment under the Millennium Development Goals (including equal access to primary education between girls and boys), but why women and men have the same rights only in 6 countries in the whole world?

Gender, according to the American Psychological Association, reflects the attitudes, feelings, and behaviours that a given culture associates with biological sex. The term "gender identity" is often conflated with sexual identity, but "gender" refers to whether a person is typically masculine and/or feminine as defined by their local culture. When we socialize men to not show sadness and fear, to be tough, strong and violent and when we socialize women to be emotional and orientated towards others, we contribute to a culture that leaves both men and women at a disadvantage.

Men don’t have to be violent only because they’re physically stronger by nature, and women, don’t have to be the victims of violence simply because they’re physically weaker. Women were not born to suffer and men were not born for making harm to other women and men. Women and men were created to contribute to the world together, owing the nature differences, which is significant in achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. We should treat everyone the same and remember that it’s only genetic predispositions that produce individual differences. 

Our differences have nothing in common with having the equal rights and access to the same opportunities

Each person has his own human rights and gender equality and the empowerment of women do not mean that men and women are becoming the same. Women have inalienable rights and there is nothing wrong with fighting for such rights, but when the battle goes beyond the ring, it can lead to the destruction of itself. The struggle for rights differs from the struggle for equality. The existence of the same rights is not equivalent to equality. We can fight for our rights, but not for equality. Equality is not something we demand for, rather it is something we must work for, if we want to have it. Equality is not a result of our existence, equality lies in how we develop ourselves. If we want to gain equality, we need to work out our essence to correspond to that of the person we want to be equal with.

Is it possible for women to be equal with men? 

A man through hard exercise can become equal or ‘more equal’ to someone who was naturally stronger than him. Man can be equal to other man or even better than him. It doesn’t mean that women can’t be intelligent and successful as men; it means that women can’t be physically the same as men by nature. Do women and men have equal rights? Absolutely yes! The problem is that people usually misunderstand the term and meaning of “Gender Equality”. Remember, it’s not about being THE SAME it’s about having the same rights and opportunities. For instance, in 2019, Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg and Sweden – scored 100 on the index, which means that women have equal rights in the 35 measured areas.

Is it possible to have the same rights and access to the same opportunities?

- Yes! 

Is it possible to be the same? 

The answer is – no!

Making long story short, inequality between the genders doesn’t just affect individuals – it affects everyone and every aspect of life! The first step towards gender equality is to remember that gender equality is NOT about being the same; it’s about having equal rights and the same opportunities.

Practical Exercise

5 steps of your contribution to the world towards Gender Equality

1) Write down what does the gender equality means for you, keep the definition of the gender equality, which you wrote in your mind and come back to it when someone wants to violate your rights and boundaries.

2) Write down the responsibilities in your family, find a gap and divide equally the opportunities in your institution, the name of which is “Family”.

3) Does your partner say what you MUST do only because you’re a man or a woman? Example: “Clean the dishes; it’s not man’s work” “Why don’t you keep your word, aren’t you a man?”

If your answer is “yes” – set the boundaries in the relationships and divide the responsibilities (step 2) no matter what your gender is. If your answer is “no” – congratulations! You set and keep the healthy boundaries in your relationships and you don’t allow anyone to tell you what to do emphasising inappropriate attention to your gender role in life.

4) If you’re a woman, ask yourself “Do I make less money than my male colleague?” If you answer is “yes” just go and ask for promotion, if you answer is “no” - congratulations girl, you know your rights and you don’t remain the silent.

5) Work together. Girls know best what their challenges are in education and it is imperative to involve them in the discussions to address the gap, but it’s impossible to achieve equality hating and blaming the opposite gender.

If we want to be treated equally in social, economic and all other aspects of society we should unite together, women and men.