Lack of political power
Women’s equal participation in political and public life is vitally important for democracy and the feminist movement. The proportion of women in parliaments has more than doubled since 1995, but women still make up a minority of political representatives: worldwide, almost three-quarters of parliamentarians are men. In the Middle East and North Africa, 84% of parliamentarians are men. Only 87 countries have ever had a woman leader.
It’s very difficult to bring about the ambitious political and economic reforms that the Beijing Declaration calls for without significant political power. The feminist movement also faces fierce ideological opposition from conservative political groups across the globe.
The policy and investment gap
Since the Beijing Declaration, more than 1,530 legal reforms have been implemented in countries across the world to advance gender equality. However, despite these advances in law, women still only have 64% of the legal rights of men.
Closing the gap in legal protection would not be sufficient, though. In order for gender equality laws to be effective, states need to invest in social and economic measures that facilitate women’s empowerment in practice (not just in law).
To address this, in its latest global progress review, UN Women recommends that states: “put gender at the centre of all policies and programmes, and improve data to measure change” and “make catalytic investments through national measures, such as budgets aligned with gender equality and progressive taxation.”
Armed conflict
In 2023, global military expenditure reached an all-time high of $2.44 trillion per year, double the level in 1995. In 2023, 612 million women and girls lived within 50km of an armed conflict.
Armed conflict is catastrophic for women’s rights and safety on many levels. Since 2022, cases of conflict-related sexual violence have risen by 50%; women and girls suffer 95% of these crimes. Moreover, women’s voices are often excluded from peace agreement processes: just 10% of peace negotiators were women in 2023.
Violence against women and girls
An estimated 736 million women (1 in 3 women globally) are subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both at least once in their life. This figure does not include sexual harassment. More than one in four women aged 15 and over have experienced intimate partner violence. On average, 140 women or girls are killed every day by someone in their own family.
Under the Istanbul Convention, and other international law instruments and UN declarations, it is accepted that gender inequality is a cause and consequence of violence against women and girls, and that structural change is needed to abolish it.
Worldwide, women have barely a third of the legal protections they need from domestic abuse, sexual harassment, child marriage and femicide.
In addition to closing gaps in legal protection, UN Women recommends states take: “a whole-of-society approach by adopting, financing and implementing comprehensive national action plans to respond to all forms of violence against women and girls by providing comprehensive services and scaling up preventing and advocacy.”
Living under Patriarchy 