Gender Social Norms Index 2023: Prejudices against women didn’t reduce in last decade; 90% people still hold gender bias: UN

Source: The post is based on the article “Prejudices against women didn’t reduce in last decade; 90% people still hold gender bias: UN” published in Down To Earth on 15th June 2023

What is the News?

The Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) 2023 has been released.

What is Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI)?

Released by: United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) 

Purpose: The index tracks people’s attitudes towards women in four dimensions: political, educational, economic and physical integrity.

– This helped in examining how biased beliefs can obstruct gender equality and human rights.

What are the key findings of the Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) 2023?

Gender Bias: Nearly 90% of people still hold at least one bias against women.

Political Participation: Around half the world’s population believe that men make better political leaders than women, and two in five believe that men make better business executives than women.

Countries with greater bias exhibit a lower representation of women in parliament.

On average, the share of heads of state or government who are women has remained around 10% worldwide since 1995, and women hold just over a quarter of parliament seats globally.

Women are grossly underrepresented in leadership in conflict-affected countries, mainly at the negotiation tables in the recent conflicts in Ukraine (0%), Yemen (4%), and Afghanistan (10%).

Indigenous women, migrant women, and women with disabilities face even more significant challenges in attaining political representation.

Economic Gap: Despite progress in education, gender gaps in economic empowerment persist.

The increase in women’s education has not translated into better economic outcomes.

In 59 countries where adult women are more educated than men, the average income gap is 39%.

Women in domestic chores and work: In countries with higher bias in gender social norms, women spend more time than men — nearly six times — on domestic chores and care work.

Gender-based inequalities in empowerment are partly because of biased gender social norms or the undervaluation of women’s capabilities and rights.

What are the hopeful signs highlighted by the index?

Overall progress has been limited. But there is an increase in the share of people with no bias in any indicator in 27 out of 38 surveyed countries.

The largest improvements were seen in Germany, Uruguay, New Zealand, Singapore, and Japan, with progress greater among men than women.

These major improvements in gender social norms were influenced by policies, regulations and scientific breakthroughs.