What Is It?
It would take another 40 years for women and men to be represented equally in national political leadership, at the current pace. This, to me, is pretty shocking, just because gender equality is viewed as ”achieved” when it comes to high-level jobs, especially as this is more true in developed countries, where that ideology spreads (as everyone around you sees representation). This UNSDG is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
Because the side of life we see, as higher-income brackets, involves more representations of women, it is easy to write this goal off. Plenty of people extrapolate this to mean negative adaptations, like hating men or putting them down. The fact is, the goal strives for equality, not female idolization. Additionally, what is hard to picture for us is the reality of lots of people; many think that brutal, clear displays of misogyny are outdated and antiquated - in the sense that they don’t happen anymore - but that is simply not the case. It is a sad cycle - those who don’t see the extent of the extreme consequences of prejudice are those who have the power to take the most action. We are also guilty of this; as high-income consumers, it’s hard to imagine that 1 in 4 women are subjected to intimate partner violence in their lifetime. You likely have four women in your close family - a mother, grandmothers, or aunts... Think about them. But what we are fed is that there are more spots for women than men in job positions - we think there is progress. Sometimes, we think the scales have tipped to the other side and it is now unfair for the men. Overall, it feels like there’s a disconnect between what measures we see are being taken and what’s actually happening.
That is not to say that misogyny - or any kind of sexism, for that matter - is contained to one economic bracket. That is another issue altogether - though many high-income brackets may not experience the most extreme consequences of sexism, given the current laws catering to high-income corporate jobs, etc - micro-aggressions are very real and contribute heavily to sexIsm.
Micro-aggressions are small, everyday actions that are oppressive. For ender inequality, you might have seen this commonly on social media, with comments under a woman’s posts or arguments in said comments. The truth is, if you look hard enough, you’ll find that these kinds of comments are not hard to come by at all.
So this UNSDG is to address everything - from big, scary statistics about rape and abuse, to small micro-aggressions, as they all created a holistic picture of sexism. An important fact to note is that, again, it is about equality. Empowering women and girls - not putting men down. A man getting sexually assaulted can happen as well, and this goal contains the aim to mitigate that as well, as that is part of sexism.
How Does It Relate to Sustainability?
The truth is, this probably has the least to do with sustainability directly, out of the goals. This is not because gender inequality isn’t present in sustainability-related issues. Quite the opposite, actually. Think about a sustainability-related issue - for example, climate change. Think about an organization trying to save the polar bears, for example. it is guaranteed that there is a connection to gender inequality; what is the distribution of workers? What is the wage gap?
However, what I like to look at on the platform is how this goal actionizes sustainability. I also aim to be honest with you guys, and to me, there is little link between actionizing sustainability (and making it more accessible) and gender equality.
Of course, it is true that with increased tolerance and fairness, given the increase in equality, there will be more open-mindedness for sustainability. Any steps towards the UNSDGs are positive ones for sustainability. However, the correlation is particularly weak for this one.
However, there are a few ways to incorporate sustainability into the goal, rather than the other way around (which is usually what I look at). For example, a long-awaited step for equalizing gender is making sanitary products for women free. Whether this should be agreed upon is another discussion, of course, but it was proposed as menstruation is an involuntary mechanism that requires certain products, and for women in poverty, the lack of these products can lead to disease. This issue is further exacerbated by the “pink tax”, which is the increase in price for the products designed for women than for men, though they have the same function and functionality. A way to incorporate sustainability into the first issue is to investigate the sustainability of menstrual products, for example noting that sanitary pads are not very sustainable given their excess packaging and components. Things like using reusable products solve this issue from a sustainability standpoint, but create other psychological and health concerns.
Other than that, however, I believe this is a very important issue but can be taken separately from sustainability.
What Can You Do?
Again, I believe that these issues are quite disparate. So, to simply increase equality, there are many things you can do. Holding people accountable is the largest step you can take, as these aforementioned micro-aggressions can accumulate to hurt people, and build prejudice. If you hear someone make a nasty comment, not being afraid to step up and call them out can make such a large difference. Education also aids with this - many young children may say hints without knowing what they mean.
Hold people accountable
This is the largest step you can take, as these aforementioned micro-aggressions can accumulate to hurt people, and build prejudice. If you hear someone make a nasty comment, not being afraid to step up and call them out can make such a large difference.
Educate!
Large scale actions
Remember that any steps that are taken to the UNSDGs being met are steps in the right direction for sustainability. So while this post was a bit different, the fact is, this is important to the psychological nature of people, as well as the income equality issue, so it unmistakably plays into sustainability.
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