Gender equality: what it is, why it matters and how to achieve it

Whether at work, at home or in schools and universities, it is rare to find women who have never been victims of gender discrimination. Even with the visibility of the feminist cause and the creation of laws, fighting for gender equality is still necessary to ensure that women have their rights respected. Understand the origin of inequality and the importance of fighting it.

What is gender equality

Gender equality seeks that women and men have the same rights and duties, being a basic concept to build a society free of discrimination and prejudice. The objective, therefore, is that there is equivalence between genders in different spheres of social life. Women are still placed in a subordinate position in relation to men in different situations: at work, in sports, in politics or even in the division of domestic tasks.

Like other types of prejudice, gender inequality is a social discrimination that prioritizes the male gender over the female and non-binary genders. This inequality is rooted in society due to machismo and patriarchy, which place men as superior in various social relationships, ranging from work to the family structure.

Since childhood, people are taught to differentiate genders according to sex: while boys wear blue and play ball, girls wear pink and play house. Even if this differentiation does not necessarily mean a prejudice, it shows that, in society, social functions are also determined by gender.

Often, arguments such as “men and women are biologically different” or “gender equality is provided for in the law, there is no reason for this fight to continue” are used to delegitimize the discrimination suffered by women.

It is important to emphasize that biological differences should not be a parameter to define social rights – after all, with the exception of the sexual organ, men, women and people of non-binary genders are equally empowered. Furthermore, even though the constitution provides that everyone is equal before the law, this maxim is not respected in many situations – hence the need for a movement that demands that women’s rights be fulfilled.

Origin of inequality: patriarchy and submission

Historically, women have always assumed a subordinate position in society. While men had the right to study and political participation, women took care of the house and did not have an active voice in decision-making. Over the centuries, the woman was considered inferior, incapable and her image was always associated with that of the man.

Culturally rooted in patriarchy, female submission has existed since the beginning of life in society. Always associated with motherhood, the woman adopted a social role of obedience and subordination, which involved taking care of the house, children and her own husband. Even if, nowadays, this mentality has been partially deconstructed, today’s society still carries consequences of this thinking.

History, culture and education: how were women inferior?

Although it is difficult to highlight the exact causes of gender inequality, it is possible to trace factors that contributed to this discrimination being established in society. According to historian Joan Scott, gender inequality is caused by factors such as cultural symbols and normative concepts of society, transmitted through education and rooted in politics.

These elements are easily identifiable when thinking, for example, of great names in science, history or, going further, even mythological figures and deities. Generally, all those most prominent are men.

The positions of power and submission occur through a war (in which the winner dominates the loser), for economic reasons (whoever owns the capital dominates the others) or, even, by numerical difference (a group larger dominates the smaller group). However, none of these causes apply to explain gender inequality. It is for this reason that feminist writer and social theorist Simone de Beauvoir classifies this discrimination as culturally rooted.

The proof of this is that even women perpetuate the sexist and patriarchal discourse, even if unconsciously. According to the author, bourgeois women sympathize more with bourgeois men than with proletarian women, just as white women have greater empathy for white men than for black women. This happens because they identify with men more by economic situation or skin color than by gender.

Gender equality in Brazil

With few policies to reduce inequality between men and women, Brazil still needs to go a long way in order to achieve gender equality in the country.

Even with partisan quotas in politics, the Women’s Police Station and laws that make it mandatory to pay equal salaries to people in the same office and of different genders, women still face several obstacles to being represented in Congress, to getting help in case of violence or to enter and remain in the labor market.

Furthermore, when compared to other countries, Brazil is in a very bad situation for minority genders. In this topic, the country’s situation for women in politics will be discussed, as well as in relation to violence and femicide.

Brazil and gender equality: a long way to go

To identify gender inequality, it is not necessary to go much further. In fact, Brazil is a long way from achieving an egalitarian society for men and women.

According to the Global Gender Inequality Report published in 2021, the country occupied the 93rd position in the ranking that seeks to analyze progress towards gender equality, addressing aspects such as economic opportunity, political empowerment, educational level, health and survival. This is the worst ranking of all countries in South America.

In addition to the poor ranking – 156 countries were analyzed -, Brazil has dropped one position since the last ranking, published in 2020. This means that, apparently, not only are new policies to reduce gender inequality not being implemented, but also the that already exist are not being effective.

Seeking the place of speech in politics

In 2009, electoral quotas that reserve a minimum number of candidacies in elections for women became mandatory. The law provides that each party must have a minimum of 30% and a maximum of 70% of candidates of each gender. Although this law is important for gender equality, it only promotes mandatory candidacy. This does not mean that this proportion will, in fact, apply to parliamentary seats held by women.

According to data released by Folha de S. Paulo in 2021, Brazil occupies the 142nd position in an international ranking that assesses female participation in politics in 192 countries.

Although women represent 52.5% of the electorate, in 2018, only 161 state deputies were elected (about 15% of the Chamber of Deputies), and the female representation in the bench of senators is 11.54%. In 2020, 898 councilors were elected, which corresponds to only 16.51% of the seats in municipal councils.

In a fight between husband and wife, if you get into the spoon, yes!

Although cases of rape or violence on the streets are more reported, it is at home and in the family environment that violence against women is more frequent. According to the Brazilian Yearbook of Public Security, in 2021, 230,160 women reported a case of domestic violence, which corresponds to an average of 630 daily reports.

While these data show a positive side – that, after all, women are, in fact, becoming aware of and denouncing violence – they also show that, despite public policies to reduce these numbers, they do not decrease.

The biggest difficulty, in these cases, is to change the cultural mentality that “in a husband and wife fight, you don’t get involved”. That is, if violence occurs in an intimate environment, it must be resolved between the couple – an extremely sexist and abusive thought.

In the same year, the Visible and Invisible Report, released by the Brazilian Public Security Forum, showed other alarming rates when the subject is violence against women. In 2021, 1.6 million women were beaten or attempted strangulation.

Among the women who suffered some type of violence, 48.8% of the victims reported that the most serious violence occurred at home, with 72.8% of the perpetrators of violence being known to the women (especially partners and ex-partners). And, even with exorbitant numbers of complaints, the survey still points out that 44.9% of women did nothing about the aggression.

Gender equality in the world

Even with different histories, cultures and peoples, gender inequality can be found in all countries. Proof of this is the World Economic Forum ranking, which scores and ranks nations according to the data obtained in relation to this topic.

According to the 2021 Global Gender Gap Report, it is estimated that parity will be reached 135.6 years from now. This represents a step backwards from the previous edition, which estimated a period of 99.5 years to achieve equality in the participation of men and women in the economy, politics and education.

Even Iceland – the country that ranks first on the list, with the lowest rate of inequality – scores significantly below the ideal, which would be full gender equality. The second and third places were taken by Finland and Norway, respectively.

The worst positions are from Iraq, Yemen and, lastly, from Afghanistan. Like other Middle Eastern countries, which also occupy the lowest positions in the ranking, these countries have deep-rooted cultural issues that place women in an extremely submissive position, thus hindering the development of gender equality in the world.

The world belongs to men

Among the four aspects chosen to analyze countries in relation to gender equality, the world ranking identified, in politics, the greatest disparity between the amount of participation of each gender. Of the 156 countries evaluated, 81 have never had a woman as head of state. On average, women occupy only 22.6% of ministerial posts and 26.1% of congressional seats. According to the ranking, these data represent a disparity of 77.7%.

Regarding economic opportunity, which is the second sector with the greatest gender inequality analyzed by the ranking, the World Economic Forum detected a gap of 41.7% between the opportunities offered for each gender. In addition, it found that women spend at least twice as much time on domestic and unpaid activities in…