Topic 2 International policies in gender equality
- In 2020, only 25 per cent of all national parliamentarians are women, a slow increase from 11.3 per cent in 1995.
- Between 1992 and 2019, women constituted, on average, 13 per cent of negotiators, 6 per cent of mediators, and 6 per cent of signatories in major peace processes worldwide.
- Persons of diverse gender identity and sexual orientation or who do not identify according to socially prescribed gender norms may face even greater discrimination and barriers to assistance in humanitarian settings.
- The United Nations is now focusing its global development work on the recently-developed 17Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Goal 5, to “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls“.
- The SDG Index includes a stand-alone spillover index, which covers three dimensions:
- 1) environmental and social spillovers embodied in trade;
2) economic, finance and governance spillovers (including tax evasion, financial transparency, or official development assistance);
3) security spillovers (https://data.em2030.org/2019-sdg-gender-index/explore-the-2019-index-data, accessed on 5.11.2021);
- Every country has its own SDG Index, on regulate period of time. Based on this index, the U.N organization promote strategies to help countries in reducing the gap in different sectors.
- In fact, gender equality is a core value of the EU (Articles 21 and 23 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights).
- In the vision of U.E. Commission, “gender’ shall mean the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for women and men” ( Article 3(c) of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence).
Remember
In this context, the main objectives related to promote gender equality among Europe are:
– Promoting equal economic independence for women and men;
– Closing the gender pay gap;
– Advancing gender balance in decision making;
– Ending gender based violence and promoting gender equality beyond the E.U;
(https://ec.europa.eu/info/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/gender-equality_en)
- Even that European Union is a global leader in gender equality due to the fact that : 14 of the top 20 countries worldwide on gender equality are EU Member States, European Commission’s work on a strategy for gender equality for the 2020-2025 period.
- The 2020-2025 “Strategy presents policy objectives and actions to make significant progress by 2025 towards a gender-equal Europe.
The goal is a Union where women and men, girls and boys, in all their diversity, are free to pursue their chosen path in life, have equal opportunities to thrive, and can equally participate in and lead our European society.
- There are some action guidelines that U.E have in mind in order to achieve its objectives in gender equality policies:
- Ending gender-based violence.
- Challenging gender stereotypes.
- Closing gender gaps in the labor market.
- Digital Education Action Plan and the implementation of the Ministerial declaration of commitment on ‘Women in Digital’.
- The ‘Women in Digital’ scoreboard will be used more systematically.
- The Updated Skills Agenda for Europe will help address horizontal segregation, stereotyping and gender gaps in education and training.
- The Commission proposal for a Council recommendation on vocational education and training will support improving gender balance in traditionally male or female-dominated professions and address gender stereotypes.