Ninety Percent People Globally Hold Biases Against Women: Study

It's 2020 and if you think Gender Inequality is in the process of vanishing, you are wrong. According to the Gender Social Norms Index released by the United Nations Development Programme, 90 per cent of men and women across the world hold some sort of bias against females. The number of people who held at least one bias against women rose by around eight percent between 2000-04 and 2010-14. Even after efforts to sustain gender equality at every place - from the corporate world to government positions, the bitter truth is - the world is not on the right track to achieve gender equality.

Key Takeaways:

• The report Gender Social Norms Index by UNDP stresses on the fact that social norms are central to the understanding of dynamics related to gender equality. 
• Social Judgment for being a woman acts as an invisible barrier in women's progress. Globally, 50 percent of people say they think men make better political leaders, while more than 40 percent feel that men make better business executives. 
• More than 50 percent of men said that they have more rights to a job than women. Moreover, more than a third of respondents found it "Acceptable" for a man to hit a woman. 
• Zimbabwe stood worst in gender equality where only 0.27 percent of people reported no bias at all. Close to 96 percent of people there did not support reproductive rights and the same proportion of people admitted violence against women as acceptable. 

The share of both women and men worldwide with moderate to intense gender biases grew from 57 percent to 60 percent for women and from 70 percent to 71 percent for men.

Should Men Have More Right To A Job Than Women?

Should men have more right to a job than women? Yes, said more than 50 percent of men globally. This is not just limited to opportunities in their career, but women also face issues in finding a partner who will support their career aspirations. The share of both women and men worldwide with moderate to intense gender biases grew from 57 percent to 60 percent for women and from 70 percent to 71 percent for men. Even in India, the number of men with no bias fell. Not only this, but even the number of women with no bias against other women fell in India. People who held at least one bias against women rose from 91.40 percent in the year 2000-04 to 98.28 percent in 2010-14.

Also Read: Young Or Old, Male Or Female: Everyone Is Prone To Biased Views

Societal Constructs Impeding Achievement Of Gender Equality

The index found that countries with higher social norm biases tend to have higher gender inequality. A lot has been done to achieve gender equality. For example, restrictions on voting, go to school and work in different economic areas were lifted, with the principle of equality typically granted in constitutions. But the goal of achieving gender equality hasn't been met yet because of the social biases. For example, a person is quite likely to mimic his/her parents' definition of paid and unpaid work and its association with a particular gender. According to the index, "What it means to be a man or a woman is learned and internalized based on experiences and messages over the course of a lifetime, normalized through social structures, culture, and interactions."Therefore, the way children have been brought up with social biases in society speaks a lot about how they will be dealing with inequality in the future, as adults.

Picture Credit- CEB Global

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