On Gender Equality Worldwide

Dr. Shoba Sharad Rajgopal, Ph.D.,

Professor,

Department of Ethnic and Gender Studies,

Westfield State University,

Westfield, Massachusetts.

As an academic in the field of Women and Gender Studies it is easy for me to name the top performing country in the world with regard to gender equality. No surprise that it is one of the Nordic countries as these are the most female friendly nations of the world with regard to access to leadership positions as well as closing the gender pay gap. Indeed, Iceland has held the top spot on the world economic forum’s global gender gap report for over a decade now. It has had not one but two female heads of state as well, Halla Tómasdóttir in the 2020s after Vigdís Finnbogadóttir in 1980.

But does political leadership really matter considering that we in India had a woman head of state in the person of Indira Gandhi placed into office back in 1966, and yet remain ranked way behind today on the issue of gender equality. We may argue that enacting legislation against discrimination does yield fruit, as in the case of the Nordic nations which have very strong laws prohibiting gender based discrimination. What then is the position of the two largest democracies of the world, at least on paper, namely India and the US, with regard to ending gender discrimination? The US, under pressure from second wave feminist organizations like NOW had in fact brought in the vaunted VAWA, the Violence against Women Act, passed under the Clinton Administration in the 1990s. But it is increasingly under threat in that nation today. As a matter of fact, the US has still not passed the ERA, the Equal Rights Amendment that first wave feminists led by the intrepid suffragist Alice Paul had pushed for as long back as the 1920s. The ERA would have granted Constitutional protection against sex discrimination, but it has still not been passed in the increasingly polarized climate of that nation. So why would one expect a country from the developing world to be any different?

It may surprise people to learn that in fact the Indian Constitution of 1950 is a landmark Constitution considering that Article 14 prohibits discrimination based on characteristics including gender, race, religion, caste, or place of birth. But laws alone do not guarantee freedom from discrimination, as seen in the dangerous climate of discrimination in the nation today. The people of the country need to have a mindset that is geared towards tolerance and mutual respect. And for all our braggadocio about our hoary culture, we remain a nation where the streets are unsafe for women at night.

Why go that far? Even public transport is unsafe for women at night, as seen in the deadly assaults that have rocked the nation culminating in the heinous Nirbhaya case of 2012. The death sentence handed to the criminals concerned has not led to a drastic change of mindset in the nation either. Until these key issues are addressed, we will remain a nation where overcoming the gender gap ratio remains a pipe dream for those of us whose vision of the nation is based on the values expounded in the Constitutions of the two largest democracies of the world.

However, there is a silver lining here, even with the dark clouds surrounding us, and that was seen recently when the Indian Military Academy in Dehra Dun saw the breaking of a tradition of 94 years as 9 female cadets graduated with much fanfare. This followed a landmark Indian Supreme Court decision in 2022 that made it possible for female cadets to serve as officers beyond the medical services. This achievement for India as a nation is all the more important because it has happened at a time when the US has seen the shocking firing of several senior officers solely on the basis of their gender. It is a time when many states in that country are in the process of even dismantling Departments that focus on issues of gender and race. So even while we focus on the problems in our nation, we must also highlight what is going well. That is the only way to keep hope alive.