UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has said that no country has achieved gender equality and that not enough has changed for too many women, especially in the least-developed countries.
In a speech marking the occasion of the International Women’s Day on 8 March as well as the 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, Mlambo-Ngcuka said, “Gender parity must be reached before 2030, so that we avert the sluggish trajectory of progress that condemns a child born today to wait 80 years before they see an equal world.”
“There has been some progress in the last 20 years – although it has been slow and uneven,” she said, adding that “We are still a long way from achieving equality between men and women, boys and girls.”
“Today, on International Women’s Day, we call on countries to “step it up” for gender equality, with substantive progress by 2020. Our aim is to reach ‘Planet 50:50’ before 2030. The world needs full equality in order for humanity to prosper,” she added.
A UN infographic highlighted the challenges facing gender equality.
Despite the decrease in maternal deaths by 45 percent since 1990, 800 women die every day due to preventable pregnancy-related causes, 99 percent of them in developing countries, according to the infographic. Every day, women still spend around 16 million hours to collect water in 25 sub-Saharan countries. In politics, parliaments include only 22 percent of women, although the percentage has nearly doubled in the last 20 years. Regarding wages, women still earn 10-30 percent less than men for the same kind of work. In education, gender disparity widens in secondary and tertiary schools in many countries. Women also account for over 60 percent of the world’s illiterate. One in three women still experiences physical or sexual violence, while 46 percent of media stories reinforce gender stereotypes.