The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 aims to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls worldwide. Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right but also a cornerstone of sustainable development. Achieving this goal addresses systemic barriers that hinder women’s rights, opportunities, and contributions to social and economic development. In addition to being a basic human right, gender equality is also a prerequisite for a world that is sustainable, affluent, and peaceful. Although there has been progress in recent decades, gender equality is still not expected to be achieved by 2030. Since they make up half of the world’s population, women and girls also have half of its potential. However, societal progress is stalled by gender inequity, which endures worldwide. Globally, women still make 23% less than men on average, and they perform roughly three times as much unpaid care and household work as males.

Discrimination in public office, the unequal distribution of unpaid care and domestic work, and sexual abuse and exploitation continue to be major obstacles. The COVID-19 epidemic has made all of these areas of inequality worse: complaints of sexual assault have increased, women have taken on additional caregiving responsibilities as a result of school closures, and 70% of health and social professionals worldwide are female. If current trends continue, it will take an estimated 300 years to eradicate child marriage, 286 years to eliminate discriminatory laws and close legal protection gaps, 140 years to ensure equal representation for women in leadership and power roles in the workplace, and 47 years to attain equal representation in national parliaments. To eliminate structural obstacles to reaching Goal 5, political leadership, financial support, and extensive policy changes are required. As a cross-cutting goal, gender equality needs to be a major priority for national institutions, budgets, and policies.

To what extent have we advanced?

Some sectors have improved as a result of international agreements to promote gender equality: women are now more represented in politics than ever before, and child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) have decreased recently. However, the dream of a society where all women and girls have complete gender equality and all social, legal, and financial obstacles to their empowerment have been eliminated has not yet materialized. In fact, given how severely the COVID-19 epidemic is affecting women and girls, that target is likely considerably farther off than it was previously.

Are there any further gender-related issues?

Indeed. Almost half of married women worldwide are unable to make decisions regarding their rights and sexual and reproductive health. Thirty-five percent of women aged 15 to 49 have been victims of intimate partner violence, which includes both physical and sexual abuse, as well as non-partner sexual assault. In the 30 nations in Africa and the Middle East, where the dangerous practice is most prevalent, 1 in 3 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 have had some kind of female genital mutilation or cutting. There is a significant risk of prolonged bleeding, infection (including HIV), problems during childbirth, infertility, and death. In addition to harming specific women and girls, this kind of abuse lowers their general quality of life and prevents them from actively participating in society.

Why should I care about gender equality?

The right to gender equality is a basic human right, regardless of where you reside. In order to reduce poverty and improve the health, education, safety, and general well-being of both boys and girls, gender equality must be advanced.

How can we proceed?

Girls can continue their education, support their female peers in doing the same, and advocate for their right to sexual and reproductive health care. Being a woman gives you the ability to confront implicit connections and unconscious biases that create an unintentional and frequently invisible barrier to equal opportunity. Whether you’re a boy or a man, you can support women and girls in their efforts to attain gender equality and value positive, healthy relationships. You may support educational initiatives to stop cultural customs such as female genital mutilation and alter detrimental legislation that denies women and girls their full potential and restricts their rights. The Spotlight Initiative is the most targeted effort in the world to eradicate all forms of violence against women and girls. It is a global, multi-year project that is a cooperation between the EU and the UN.

Goal 5 Targets

• Just 15.4% of Goal 5 indicators with data are “on track,” 61.5 percent are at a considerable distance, and 23.1% are far or extremely far off track from 2030 targets with just seven years left.
• Progress has been too gradual in many areas. If current trends continue, it will take an estimated 300 years to eradicate child marriage, 286 years to eliminate discriminatory laws and close legal protection gaps, 140 years to ensure equal representation for women in leadership and power roles in the workplace, and 47 years to attain equal representation in national parliaments.
  To achieve Goal 5, structural obstacles must be removed by political leadership, financial support, and extensive policy changes. As a cross-cutting goal, gender equality needs to be a major priority for national institutions, budgets, and policies.
• Approximately 2.4 billion working-age women lack equitable access to economic opportunities. Globally, around 2.4 billion women lack the same economic rights as men.
• Legal restrictions preventing women from fully participating in the economy are still in place in 178 nations. Globally, around 2.4 billion women lack the same economic rights as men.
• In 2019, one in five women between the ages of 20 and 24 had gotten married before turning 18. Girls | UN Special Representative on Violence Against Children, Secretary-General