Monthly Spotlight: Gender Equality

According to the United Nations, these are the biggest hurdles to women's equality by 2030: 

1. Lack of women in leadership
   1. Women make up almost half of the US labor force
   2. Women outnumber men in earning bachelor's and master's degrees and are nearly on par in getting medical and legal degrees
   3. Men are more likely to rise to the highest-paying and most prestigious leadership roles
   4. Traditionally power structure traits are thought of as masculine and are not viewed favorably when they are exhibited in women
   5. Men still surpass women in having the networks to learn about opportunities and find mentors and sponsors to champion their advancement
   6. Balancing work and family can be a challenge that keeps women from attaining leadership roles
      1. Workplaces are still designed around a decades-old notion of gendered domestic roles.
   7. Just as the status quo is holding women back from leadership positions, it is holding men back from embracing caretaking and support roles.
      1. All genders benefit when individuals are free to make their own choices.
   8. With more women in top jobs, businesses benefit from the creativity of a wider range of talented leaders. It enables them to recruit and retain a more talented workforce.
2. Poverty & lack of economic opportunities
3. Workplace discrimination & inequalities
   1. Sexual harassment, hostile work environments, and subtle biases are still obstacles
      1. Outright discrimination persists, data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission show
4. An imbalance in unpaid care work
   1. 2/3 of the work is done by women and is valued at more than $1 trillion each year
      1. Women make up around 80% of paid domestic workers, meaning they often engage in professional caregiving and continue it at home without compensation.
   2. Each person spends an average of 245 hours on caregiving annually
      1. When valued at the low wages of the paid care workforce, that equates to more than $1 trillion.
      2. For women, the value of the unpaid care they provide is $643 billion.
   3. Asian women and Latinas spend more time than any other group providing unpaid care and support for family, friends, and loved ones – at an average of about an hour per day.
      1. Altogether, Asian women provide 3.5 billion hours of unpaid care, while Latinas provide 8.4 billion hours.
      2. Asian women and Latinas spend more time than other groups providing care to people they live with, likely reflecting the fact that Asian and Latino families are more likely to live in multigenerational households.
   4. Black women provide $4,250 in unpaid care per capita each year, totaling $80 billion annually.
   5. White women provide $4,540 in unpaid care per capita each year, totaling $476 billion annually.
      1. Black women and white women, meanwhile, average the most time of any group caring for people outside of their household.
5. Social norms & cultural practices
   1. Stereotypes and double standards in the workplace"
      1. Men are assertive vs Women are aggressive
      2. Men are direct vs Women are shrill
      3. Men are commanding vs Women are pushy
      4. Men are strong/powerful vs Women are domineering
   2. In 2019, the OECD estimated that the global cost of gender-based discrimination in social institutions amounted to USD 6 trillion, or 7.5% of global GDP. 
   3. Men and boys represent, among others, an essential lever for changing the issue of gender-related discrimination.
      1. Research focused on identifying norms of "restrictive" masculinities that restrain women’s empowerment and rights, and explained how they could be turned into more gender-equitable ones to support women’s empowerment.
         1. One approach, for example, could focus efforts on enabling both women and men to take parental leave, on the basis that engaging men and boys in a fairer distribution of unpaid care and domestic tasks could help shift mindsets and practices.
   4. Between 2019 and 2023, more and more countries around the world have tackled discriminatory social institutions, notably through legal reforms that protect women’s rights and grant them equal opportunities.
      1. Changes in social norms have resulted in both progress and setbacks; the acceptance of intimate-partner violence is decreasing, and attitudes toward women’s leadership in the economic and political spheres are improving.
      2. But other problematic views persist;  biases related to women’s economic empowerment seem to be worsening, with an increase in the belief that men should have more rights to a job when employment is scarce, and in views, that a woman earning more than her husband can be a problem.  
6. Inadequate access to healthcare
   1. Women spend 25% more of their lives in debilitating health than men, according to a report from the World Economic Forum and the McKinsey Health Institute
   2. A study in August 2024 revealed that doctors treat men and women differently when it comes to pain
      1. Women are 10% less likely than men to have their pain level assessed when they arrive at hospital, the study found
      2. Women also wait around half an hour longer than men to be seen by a doctor and are less likely to be given pain medication.
   3. In 2019, a study of almost 7 million people in Denmark found that women were diagnosed when they were four years older than men - for hundreds of different health conditions.
   4. Research suggests that both women and men could benefit from more women entering the medical profession. For example, women may be better at communication and patient-centered care, engaging emotionally and spending more time with patients, one study suggests.
      1. Female medics may also better recognize the severity of symptoms in women, which are undiagnosed or at times misdiagnosed by male doctors.
      2. Female patients may also feel more comfortable discussing sensitive health issues or undergoing examinations by female doctors, leading to more informed and open discussions about their health.
      3. Other research shows that female doctors are more likely to adhere to clinical guidelines and are more likely to follow preventative care strategies.
   5. 6 conditions that highlight the gender health gap:
      1. Cardiovascular disease and heart attack -Women tend to have smaller hearts that often beat faster than men which means the diseases can look very different between the two
      2. Endometriosis -is referred to as “the missed disease” because so little is still known about it and it’s underdiagnosed; it affects 10% of women and girls of reproductive age globally but in the US only 2 in 10 cases are diagnosed and taking up to 7 years to diagnose (or even more)
      3. Autism -Around three times as many boys are diagnosed with autism as girls, and girls are often diagnosed later than boys, or not diagnosed at all, which can lead to mental health problems in adulthood, according to research; Medical gender bias contributes to this underdiagnosis in women, because girls often don’t present with the same behaviors and symptoms as boys – and they learn to disguise or “mask” those that don’t fit with social norms.
      4. ADHD -similarly mis- or under-diagnosed in females, is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In the US, less than 1% of women have a diagnosis of ADHD, but the number is growing rapidly, according to research; In 2023, analysis of a data set found the rate of diagnosis among women aged 23 to 49 almost doubled between 2020 and 2022, which the study said supports findings that women tend to be diagnosed later in life than men.
      5. Autoimmune conditions -Women account for the majority of people (80%) with autoimmune diseases, but it takes an average of five years for them to get a diagnosis, according to the American Autoimmune Association.
      6. Antimicrobial resistance -the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests women are more exposed to these so-called superbugs than men; The reasons for this vary from the fact women are more likely to take antibiotics in their lifetime and are more likely to be healthcare workers – coming into contact with pathogens – to the risk of exposure to pathogens during childbirth in non-sterile settings, lack of adequate sanitation for women in low and middle-income countries or exposure to bacteria in water when they are undertaking household chores.
7. Inadequate access to education
   1. Americans today carry over $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, over double what the total American student loan debt was just ten years ago, and this figure is currently increasing at nearly six times the rate of inflation
      1. Women carry this burden disproportionately more than men, as they hold nearly two-thirds of these loans (around $929 billion)
         1. On average, white men take out $29,862 in student loans, white women take out $31,346, and Black women take out $37,558
      2. women whose parents hold at least one bachelor’s degree borrow on average $29,676.30, while women whose parents hold only high school diplomas or below borrow on average $33,822.10, which is $4,145.80 more.
   2.  Parents of all boys are more likely to have money saved for their children’s college education than parents of all girls
      1. In a survey of over 1,000 American parents with children of one gender, 50% of all-boy parents reported having money saved for college while just 39% of all-girl parents reported the same.
      2. Additionally, parents of all boys were more likely to be more prepared and willing to pay for the entirety of their children’s education than parents of all girls
         1. 17% of all-boy parents said they planned to fully pay for the complete cost of their children’s education, compared to just 8% of all-girl parents.
   3. Women with associate’s degrees make on average $11,820 less than men with associate’s degrees, while women holding bachelor’s degrees earn $10,980 less than men holding bachelor’s degrees, and women with master’s degrees or higher earn about $13,130 less than men with those same degrees.
      1. These lower wages and the subsequent increased hardship in repaying student loans often result in the postponement of women’s personal and financial goals. Indeed, more than a third of women (34.2%) report that their student loan debt has forced them to delay buying a home; 21.7% said it caused them to delay marriage; and 22.6% stated it led them to delay having children.
8. Food insecurity
   1. About 10 million households with children in the U.S. are headed by single mothers, and 26.6% of these families live below the poverty line, compared to 14.9% of single fathers. 
      1. According to USDA’s most recent report, single-parent, female-headed households are also significantly more likely to be food-insecure than single-parent, male-headed households 
   2. There are countless socio-economic conditions that have led and continue to lead to food insecurity in women including acts of domestic violence, lack of education and resources, as well as belonging to low-income households.
      1. The lack of accessible and healthy foods adversely affects a woman’s daily diet, thus resulting in subsequent health consequences that can even impact women who are pregnant and breastfeeding.
   3. In most cases, even if food is accessible, food security still requires adequate nutrients that come from the meal.
      1. Because women’s health also includes aspects of maternal health, it is important to acknowledge nutrition with respect to prenatal health.
         1. Prenatal nutrients enable a woman’s body to maintain a safe and healthy pregnancy.
   4. Besides physical hunger and inaccessibility to food, researchers have demonstrated that there are countless social and psychological ramifications of food insecurity on women’s quality of life
      1. Due to the correlations between food insufficiency and domestic violence, we see that survival and healthy living are two separate concepts for women who are experiencing violence. Thus, this exemplifies the difficulty in maintaining a healthy lifestyle when there is this shift of focus, instead, of preserving a safe environment in order to survive.
   5. Single mothers and women living alone may be facing barriers that prevent them from taking action to overcome food insecurity.
      1. This can be due to high expenses of healthy food, lack of access to grocery stores, lack of proper health education, and most likely having to allocate their paychecks to other costs of living, such as various payments related to health, living, education, and/or transportation. This drives mothers to feel the need to prioritize their children and family’s needs first and in turn, neglect their own wellbeing.
9. Violence against women and girls
   1. Gender-based violence often goes unseen, untreated, and unchecked. One way to begin correcting the injustice of violence against women is to understand the different types of violence that women experience and then look for ways to best address each type of violence.
   2. Threatening to harm a woman as a means of controlling her behavior can easily devolve into physical abuse or sexual coercion. These acts fundamentally undermine the autonomy of women.  
   3. Often accompanying physical violence and sexual abuse is emotional, psychological, or economic violence.
   4. Around the world, women and girls are exploited or trafficked to meet demands caused by gender imbalances, sex tourism, and humanitarian crises. They often have little or no legal protection and are bound by economic constraints, limiting their ability to leave the situation. 
   5. Sometimes girls (i.e. child marriage) are married as part of a cultural practice. Other times, families living through crises incorrectly believe that marrying off their daughters is the best way to protect them from starvation or violence.
   6. Honor crimes are when women are punished by their brothers, fathers, and uncles for undermining the family’s honor, often simply because they were the victims of sexual harassment or assault. For example, women have been murdered for becoming pregnant out of wedlock after they were raped.
   7. Female genital mutilation or FGM is the cutting, piercing, or sewing shut off parts of the labia or clitoris; there is no justification, medical or otherwise
   8. Harassment can be unwanted advances, leering, verbal abuse, or nonconsensual touching. Harassment is humiliating and scary – one never knows if an off-color remark will escalate into a life-threatening encounter.
10. Inadequate funding for gender equality initiatives
    1. Of the 32 Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members, 20 focused less on gender equality in 2021-22 than in 2019-20. This is concerning and needs to be reversed as more countries are seeing a pushback against gender equality, and there is an alarming increase in poverty and inequalities.
    2. Gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls remain unevenly integrated across development themes and sectors. 
    3. Looking at areas recognized as essential to achieving transformative change for gender equality, sexual and reproductive health, and rights are fundamental. Worryingly, recent years have seen well-funded attempts to reverse progress in this area.
       1. While funding with the objective of supporting reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health has increased overall, aid in the specific areas of reproductive health care and family planning dropped in 2021-22.
    4. Data shows that USD 108.4 billion of development finance from all actors currently has gender equality objectives, while an additional USD 271.2 billion is available but either lacks a gender equality focus or the focus is not reported. The amount of development finance available is potentially much larger
11. Legal barriers
    1. Most Americans are unaware that the human rights of women and girls are not secured in the US Constitution. This is despite the impacts being life-changing and wide-ranging.
    2. Girls are disproportionately affected by the absence of a solid legal foundation to challenge and combat harmful cultural practices such as child marriage, which remains legal in 37 states
       1. As of June 2024, 13 states have banned child marriage with no exception: New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Michigan, Washington and Virginia.
    3. Nine US states and the District of Columbia do not have laws prohibiting female genital mutilation (FGM). Of those that do have laws banning it, many do not outlaw girls being taken out of state to be cut. 
    4. For over a century, women have been calling for equality in the Constitution in the form of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). This is a proposed constitutional amendment, first drafted in 1923, that seeks to guarantee equal rights and legal protections in the US under the law, regardless of sex or gender. It also specifically prohibits discrimination on this basis.
    5. In June 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, finding that no right to abortion is implicitly protected or conferred by any constitutional provision. This ruling dissolved federal protections on reproductive rights. There has also been a litany of assaults on the rights of trans women. 
    6. Today, 85% of UN member states have a provision in their constitutions that specifically addresses gender equality. The US is not one of them. 
12. Lack of access to clean energy & sanitation
    1. Women and girls are the worst impacted by energy poverty. Their lack of access to energy to enable healthcare, education, food security, public safety, and economic opportunity affects their ability to live modern, dignified lives. 
    2. Women in many developing countries spend on average 1.4 hours a day collecting fuelwood and four hours cooking, in addition to other household tasks that could be supported by energy access.
       1. This limits their access to education and employment.
       2. Multiple studies show that after household electrification, women are 9 to 23 percentage points more likely to gain employment outside the home.
    3. Research shows that firms with at least 30% female leadership enjoy profit margins of up to six percentage points higher than firms with no women in the top ranks.
       1. Companies with women in their management also tend to invest more in sustainability and are more energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable. 
    4. The enabling environment for women’s participation in the energy sector includes gender-responsiveness in energy planning, policymaking, and regulation, and tracking and monitoring of progress.
       1. Energy policies and planning are often ‘gender blind’ and lack a gender perspective.

Information gathered from:

• American Association of University Women
• National Partnership for Women and Families
• International Policy Digest
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development -Gender discrimination in social norms
• World Economic Forum
• Princeton Foundation for Peace and Learning
• Food Research & Action Center
• American Medical Women's Association
• United Nations Population Fund
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development -Development Finance for Gender Equality 2024
• Equality Now
• Sustainable Development Goals Action (SDG Action)

• Closing the leadership gap: -American Association of University Women 
  • Individuals
    • Examine your own biases – and be an ally, mentor, and sponsor for women.
    • If you’re a woman, seek out skill-building opportunities and leadership training.
    • Learn to negotiate for salary and benefits at salary.aauw.org
  • Employers
    • Prioritize an equitable workplace.
    • Widen recruitment networks and candidate pools.
    • Do blind resume screening.
    • Support internal growth opportunities, continued professional development and skill training, and equitable retention and promotion policies.
    • Promote workplace flexibility policies that will enable all employees to find an appropriate work/life balance.
  • Policymakers
    • Support state pay equity laws and the federal Paycheck Fairness Act.
    • Ban salary-history questions for job applicants and prohibit punishment for workers who share salary information.
    • Pass state and local initiatives that promote parental leave and flex-time policies.
    • Support the federal Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act.
    • Support continued Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) salary collection and reporting requirements to root out pay disparity.
• Gender Equality Across the Sustainable Development Goals: -UN Women
  • Learn more about investing in women's rights as a pathway to sustainable development
  • Make your voice count by sharing the movements of gender equality that mean the most to you!
    • Investing in #GenderEquality is about achieving a world where all women and girls are empowered and can enjoy their human rights.
    • The latest #GenderData suggests that investing in women's rights can unlock immense economic gains for societies. 
  • Take a deep dive into the progress on women's rights and the Sustainable Development Goals with the UN Women's explainer which highlights four key takeaways from the Gender Snapshot report.
• Increasing girls' access to and uptake of STEM careers and education could help address the inequalities.-World Economic Forum
• Food Research $ Action Center Chat: Ending Hunger is a Gender Equity Issue
  • Strengthening Federal Nutrition Programs (like SNAP)
  • Closing the wage gap
  • Support Paid Leave Policies

• Gender-biases: People holding biases in 2021 by % of population: -OECD
  • 84% say abortion is not justifiable
  • 67% Housewife is as fulfilling as working for pay
  • 51% say children suffer if the mother works for pay
  • 44% say men make better political leaders
  • 41% say men have more rights to a job
  • 35% say men make better business executives
  • 32% say a woman earning more than her husband causes problems
  • 23% say beating their wife is justifiable for a man
• Sexual Harassment in our nation's workplaces: -US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 
  • 78.2% of sexual harassment charges were filed by women (2018-2021)
  • 62.2% of all harassment charges were filed by women
  • 40.8% of sexual harassment charges were concurrently filed with retaliation charges 
  • The most common issues- sexual harassment charges
    • Discharge- 48.3%
    • Harassment (non-sexual)- 33.2%
    • Terms/Conditions- 32.5%
    • Discipline- 10.3%
  • The top 10 states with the most sexual harassment charges (per 10,000 population aged 16 and over)
    • Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Kansas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Nevada, District of Columbia, and Louisiana
• Violence against women -UNFPA
  • 1 in 3 women will experience sexual or physical abuse by a partner at some point in their lives
  • 1 in 5 women were sexually abused as children.  
  • Globally, 44 percent of girls aged 15-19 think a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife.  
  • Forced marriage, particularly child marriage, affects 1 in 5 women globally and 2 in 5 women in developing parts of the world
    • Early pregnancy, the biggest killer of girls aged 15-19, is closely linked to child marriage.
    • 90 percent of mothers under the age of 19 who die from pregnancy or childbirth complications were married.  
  • The economic impact of violence against women -that is, potential loss- is valued at $1.5 trillion annually.
• Facts & Figures -UN Women
  • It is estimated that 60 percent of chronically hungry people are women and girls
  • Less than 20 percent of the world's landholders are women
  • Women make up more than two-thirds of the world's 796 million illiterate people.
  • Data from 68 countries indicates that a woman's education is a key factor in determining a child's survival.
• Gender gains and gaps in the US -Pew Research Center
  • Women made up 47% of the US civilian labor force in 2023
    • ​​​​​​​Up from 30% in 1950​​​​​​​
    • But growth has stagnated
  • Women outnumber men in the US college-educated workforce
    • Making up 51% of those ages 25 and older
  • About 1/3 of workers in the country's 10 highest-paying occupations (35%) are women
    • Up from 13% in 1980
    • Occupations: Physicians, Chief Execs & Public Admins, Dentists, Actuaries, Physicists & Astronomers, Lawyers, Sales Engineers, Pharmacists, Airplane Pilots & Navigators, Petroleum & Mining & Geological Engineers
  • In 2022, women were the sole or primary breadwinner in 16% of opposite-sex marriages, up from 5% in 1972.
    • Husbands and wives are roughly equal contributors in 29% of marriages today, compared with 11% in 1972.
  • In 2022, U.S. women typically earned 82 cents for every dollar men earned.
    • That was about the same as in 2002, when women earned 80 cents to the dollar. 
  • When it comes to the number of women elected to political office, 53% of adults say there are too few, 8% say there are too many, and 37% say it is about right.
    • Views of women in business leadership are similar: 55% of adults say there are too few women in these roles, 6% say there are too many, and 37% say there are about the right number.
  • Half of Americans say that being a woman hurts a person’s ability to get ahead in the U.S., while 24% say it helps, and 25% say it neither helps nor hurts.
    • Women are more likely than men to say being a woman hurts one’s ability to get ahead in the U.S. (58% vs. 40%)