Gender equality can’t wait – we must achieve it now for current and future generations

It will take 286 years to close gender gaps in legal protection and remove discriminatory laws against women, 140 years for equal representation in positions of power and at least 40 years to achieve gender parity in national parliaments. These numbers are truly alarming and calls for the world’s urgent action.

The latest report from UN DESA and UN Women, Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2022, is a wake-up call. It shows that at the current rate of progress, the achievement of all gender equality and women’s empowerment targets may take decades – even centuries – to materialize.

“I cannot accept a world that tells my granddaughters that gender equality must wait for their granddaughters’ granddaughters. We must insist on gender equality, everywhere, now,” tweeted UN Secretary-General António Guterres when the latest numbers were revealed last month.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, numerous conflicts and crises around the world, and the encroachment on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights have derailed the path to gender equality.

Globally, women are estimated to have lost $800 billion in income in 2020 due to the pandemic, and despite a rebound, their participation in labour markets is projected to be lower in 2022 than it was pre-pandemic. The number of women and girls living in fragile and conflict-affected countries in 2022 reached 511 million, almost doubling the number in 2019. Moreover, the ongoing war in Ukraine has aggravated food insecurity and hunger, especially among women and children.

In other areas, including progress in poverty reduction, women and girls are facing acute challenges. By the end of 2022, around 383 million women and girls will live in extreme poverty compared to 368 million men and boys.

In reproductive health, over 1.2 billion women and girls of reproductive age (15-49) currently live in countries and areas with some restriction on access to safe abortion.

Gender inequality has been allowed to flourish for generations. In order to counter this disturbing trend, governments must invest in the education of women and girls. While not enough by itself, achieving universal girls’ education has been proven to improve gender equality significantly. Each additional year of schooling can boost a girl’s earnings as an adult by up to 20 per cent with further impacts on poverty reduction, better maternal health, lower child mortality, greater HIV prevention and reduced violence against women.

Renewed international cooperation, partnerships and investments in the gender equality agenda, including through increased global and national funding, are essential to correct the course and place gender equality back on track.

“Gender equality is a foundation for achieving all SDGs and it should be at the heart of building back better,” said Maria-Francesca Spatolisano, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs of UN DESA.