LAW SOCIETY
BOJANA BOGOJEVIC Law and Corporate Governance Lawyer, Post-Grad Specialist for Corporate Governance, UN Climate Teacher, and Author
GENDER EQUALITY IN GOVERNANCE
”
GENDER EQUALITY IS A HUMAN RIGHT, NOT A DECISION!”
O
n 1 January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at a historic UN Summit officially came into force. One of the SDG’s included SDG no.5 - Gender Equality at the heart for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. Human rights must be guaranteed and secured to every member of society. Without equal opportunities, conditions and restrictions for the respect and enjoyment of human rights, a democratically organised state cannot be implemented. It is important to highlight that Gender Equality entails that both men and women have equal opportunities for exercising human rights. If we look on life’s basics one must query: Do we really think women have the same opportunities, or are women still disadvantaged to male dominance in any field, lacking meritocracy into consideration. Are women equal? The answer is still yes in 2020. Women and men are most times victims of various forms of discrimination. Unfortunately, social, political, labour law and many other inequalities are still very much represented. Globally, 750 million women and girls marry before the age of 18 and at least 200 million women and girls in 30 countries have undergone female genital mutilation, FGM.
and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner within the last 12 months. Yet, 49 countries have no laws that specifically protect women from such violence. While women have made important in-roads in a political office across the world, their representation in national parliaments at 23.7 percent is still far from parity. In 46 countries, women now hold over 30 percent of seats in the national parliament in at least one chamber. Only 52 percent of women have married or in a union, freely make their own decisions about sexual relations, contraceptive use and health care. Globally women are just 13 percent of agricultural landholders. Women in Northern Africa hold less than one in five paid jobs in the non-agricultural sector. The proportion of women in paid employment outside the agriculture sector has increased from 35 percent in 1990 to 41 percent in 2015. Over 100 countries have taken action to track budget allocations for gender equality. In Southern Asia, a girl’s risk of marrying in childhood has dropped by over 40% since 2000.
In 18 countries, husbands can legally prevent their wives from working; in 39 countries, daughters and sons do not have equal inheritance rights; and 49 countries lack the laws protecting women from domestic violence.
The goal for introducing gender equality into the mainstream is the transformation of inequitable social structures into structures fair for both women and men. In the corporate world, some observe that companies that have a high representation of women in leading positions have been actively working on it for decades. In order for a single corporate policy to strive for gender equality to succeed, not only individual attempts by directors or individuals in managerial positions are sufficient, it is necessary to include the entire management.
One in five women and girls, including 19 percent of women and girls aged 15 to 49, have experienced physical
In 2006, the European Union EU adopted the EU Roadmap for Gender Equality, which sets out 6 priority activities within
The rates of girls between 15-19 subjected to FGM in 30 countries where the practice live and real have dropped from 1 in 2 girls in 2000, to 1 in 3 girls by 2017.
eYs Magazine, Spring 2020 | 18
