Nations With Strong Women's Rights Progress Faster: Study

Women's rights are crucial to a nation's growth. This is proved right by researchers who say that countries with strong women's rights are more likely to have faster growth and better health outcomes than the countries who do not promote women's rights. The findings are from cross country analysis by five universities — Drexel University, University of Nebraska Omaha, University at Albany in the US, the University of Oxford in the UK and Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey.

Around 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced either physical or sexual violence in the hands of intimate partners. When talking about nations in general, national studies at many places show that nearly 70 percent of women have faced physical or sexual violence by intimate partners in their lifetime.

The study by these five universities, which was published in the journal BMJ Open also shows that the result is the same for even the poor countries.

Link Between Women's Rights And Sustainable Development

The study aimed at finding out if there's a link between women's rights and overall development of a nation. “The results confirm that even with a lack of resources if a country has a strong human rights structure, the health outcomes are better.” the researchers said. The researchers analysed databases for the period 2004-2010. These databases held information on health, human rights, economic and social rights for 162 countries.

Analysis of the data showed that strong economic and social rights were linked with better health outcomes, possibly because of the expenditure on health per head. Gender equality and hence women's rights are very important since no society can develop economically, politically or socially when half of its population is marginalised.

Inequality Holding Women Back Who Can Possibly Solve Critical Global Issues

According to the UN WOMEN organisation, from the economic crisis and lack of health care to climate change, violence against women and escalating conflicts, Women are not only more affected by these problems, but also possess ideas and leadership to solve them. This is the reason why gender discrimination that holds women back, is in some way, holding our world back too.  The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by world leaders in 2015 embody a roadmap for progress that is sustainable and leaves no one behind.

Around 137 Women Killed Everyday Globally Due To Domestic Violence

Though the parameters of gender equality are being promoted by almost every country, women' situation still does not touch a mark that we can applaud. Around 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced either physical or sexual violence in the hands of intimate partners. When talking about nations in general, national studies at many places show that nearly 70 percent of women have faced physical or sexual violence by intimate partners in their lifetime.  Women and girls collectively account for 71 percent of humans trafficked globally, where girls are three out of four children trafficked globally. Also, every three out of four girls trafficked globally, are trafficked for sexual exploitation. Also, 15 million adolescent girls have gone through forced sex at some point in their life. Out of these, nine million adolescent girls went through it only in the past one year.

Read More: UN Report: 13 Million Single Mothers Head Households In India