Survey Claims Women’s Fight For Rights Has Gone Too Far, But Where Is The Progress?

A recent survey collected gender equality opinions from people from about 32 countries including India, America, Chile, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, and Belgium. Out of these people, almost half of the people believe that women’s fight for equality and rights has gone too far.

The world is still adapting gender equality norms and the scenario is not completely positive. There are still cases of opportunities being denied to women and gender-based discrimination, a recent example being the anti-hijab protests going on in Iran. The cases of harassment and other crime against women have not yet got done but people supposedly believe that the struggle for rights and equality should be stopped as it has gone too far.

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Survey On Women Rights

A survey conducted by the Global Institute of Women’s Leadership of London’s King’s College and Ipsos UK on about 22,500 people belonging to the age group of 16-74 years revealed that about 41% of women and 55% of men from 32 countries in the world claimed that women have gone overboard with their fight for rights. These numbers included 52% people from Gen Z, 40% of baby boomers, 53% of millennial people and about 46% Gen X. These views are contrasting with the real world where women are still struggling to live a safe and fruitful life without unnecessary judgment and discrimination.

A very recent example of how women are treated in society is the US report that claims that sexual harassment cases in military academies were raised alarmingly last year. An example is the case of India’s Shraddha Walkar who was chopped to death by her boyfriend. Bilkis Bano’s culprits being released, actor Huma Qureshi being fat-shamed and all those daily cases of eve-teasing, sexual and physical abuse, trolling, and harassing are a testimony that we haven’t gone much far from where we started this struggle for rights and equality.

The survey included the opinion of Indians as well and about 15% of these people said that gender inequality does not even exist which is a ridiculous response when the Indian government is still not ready to accept same-sex marriage. The same survey showed a very different response from this where about 26% of people from India claimed that they confronted people in situations of sexual harassment and about 30% discussed gender discrimination in the workplace with their employers. If gender inequality does not exist as some people say, then where are these cases coming from?

The survey also revealed that about 53% of people said that gender equality will be beneficial for all genders which is true because women’s struggle is not only for their rights but also for the rights of other genders including men and the LGBTQ+ community. We should not forget that patriarchy affects all genders equally, if it has set boundaries for women, it has degraded transgenders, kept gays in closets and shamed them, and has conditioned men to become emotionless people with zero moral support and the complete responsibility of being the bread-winner. Patriarchy has badly affected all genders and that’s what women are fighting against, patriarchy and not men.

While one thing is true that women’s struggle for equality has been highly misinterpreted and misunderstood, to say that it has gone overboard will be false. Society still needs improvement when it comes to embracing the personal choices of women and other genders as well. The world still needs to learn to respect the boundaries, choices, decisions, struggles, and efforts of women.

Views expressed are the author's own