GENDER EQUALITY

 

 Gender equality has been raised as a global issue since the early 19th century. In most civilizations, women were underestimated throughout history and this situation created the demand for such a topic in the world. Since women and girls represent half of the world’s population, they create half of the potential. Many people accept gender equality as a fundamental human right as well as a way to achieve peaceful societies with full of human potential and development. It has always been accepted that empowering women increases productivity and economic growth in a country. “Unfortunately, there is still a long way to go to achieve full equality of rights and opportunities between men and women”, said UN Women. Therefore, it is highly important to end all the forms of gender issues like violence, disparity, economic and political inequality etc. “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” said in the Declaration. This is still an issue in most of the Middle Eastern and Asian countries. It is not always fair to generalize the situation, but women are still complaining that they are underestimated and seen as the second sex in these regions. They are not allowed to speak their minds as they want. Even today, in 21st century, women cannot go to a mall if the husband does not allow or join in Saudi Arabia. So the situation is not really exaggerated. This is not the only area that women are suppressed. Another essential problem happening all around the world is not having equal opportunities in access to employment and to positions of leadership and decision-making at all levels. Even in most of the developed countries, women are not given opportunities or leaderships when it comes to business or politics. When we look around, we mostly see men leading businesses, factories, governmental works or even countries. If someone is going to be the president of a country, that would mostly be a man rather than a woman since they are seen as the symbol of power and justice. The UN Secretary-General, Mr. António Guterres has stated that achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls is the unfinished business of our time, and the greatest human rights challenge in our world.