How important is Gender equality? How does it affects me, us? These are the questions I will try to answer in this article.
How important is Gender equality?
For a sustainable development I would say it is crucial. Why? Because it is part of Human Rights, because women and girls are half of the Globe’s population and therefore half of the potential, but more than that, this aspect affects all the others areas of improvement of the society
If we take a look at the Gender Equality Index that European Union published last year, we will see that this development objective influences more domains of the society in general. In particular, I will take the example of my home country- Romania- and I will focus on aspects related to Education and gender-based stereotypes in daily life so it becomes more clear how important equality is when we talk about genders.
How does Gender equality looks in Romania?
According to the same Index provided by The European Union. on a general level Romania has a score of 54.5 point out of 100 and it’s ranked on 25th place on the European level. Domains like work, knowledge, money, time, health or violence are analysed in this study. For all of these domains Romania has improved its scores over time but slower than the other European Union Member’s States therefore it is still under the E.U. average.
Beside the E.U. statistics, there are the national ones- they underline the importance of having a balance between personal and professional life- focussing mostly on making the parental leave as equal as possible so that both parents have the chance to develop in a constant rhythm their careers and they can also participate constantly in childcare activities. The same national statistics says that having a flexible working schedule despite the gender is part of the plan in achieving the goals for 2030.
When it comes to gender equality and Education, those from Association for Gender Equality and Liberty – A.L.E.G. have published a study focused on fighting gender-based stereotypes in Education and career. The main goal is to analyse which is the impact that they have upon the students. The most important aspects provided in the report are related to how are the gender-based stereotypes influenced by the teacher or by the activities developed in the school and its profile. Thus, in most of the schools the gender-based stereotypes are still an issue due to teacher’s communication skills or their pedagogical skills. If the teacher has an assertive and equal approach- the students cooperate better and they don’t strengthen those barriers.
On an European level in the Educational sector Romania has reached the point of having 26.7 ℅ of people aged 30-34 years old in tertiary education. Despite improvements in the sub-domain of segregation, the uneven concentration of women and men in different study fields in tertiary education remains a challenge.
How does it affects me, us?
I am one of those who thinks that gender equality is a fundamental human right. Advancing gender equality is critical to all areas of a healthy society, from reducing poverty to promoting the health, education, protection and so on So, what can we do? Invest our resources in equal relationships, do not contribute to the stereotypes and engage ourselves in campaigns related to the topic.
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