Gender equality

A UN study shows there is presently a drastic drop in development funding particularly towards the Asia Pacific region due chiefly to gender related discrimination in the many spheres of activities in these nations.

Among other things the study calls for an increase in the sphere of development assistance specially targeting gender equality and women's empowerment.

According to an inside page article we carried yesterday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has also complained that global commitments on gender equality and empowerment of women in various international fora focusing on the role women have yet to be implemented.

The study reveals that the Asia Pacific region alone is losing between 42 billion and 47 dollars annually because of women's limited access to employment opportunities and another 16 billion to 20 billion dollars annually as a result of gender gaps in education.

It also disclosed that one in three women in the world is likely to be subjected to violence in her lifetime. All this point to the stark fact that despite the flowery cliches and beautiful catch words designed to mark International Women's Day every year the objectives are far from being achieved.

Women's emancipation and gender equality that have been advocated ad nauseam on the interactional stage notwithstanding, women in developing countries still lag behind in many spheres and are still relegated to the periphery if not thrust into the bottom of the totem pole in patriarchal societies in the Asian region.

The plight of women in India is a classic example of gender based discrimination, where in some cases the birth of female offspring in considered a curse by the family. There have media accounts where women had been even precluded from seeking justice after being gang raped due to entrenched prejudices and societal attitudes.

The backwardness of women in Asian countries and the barriers erected against them by society should be addressed by donor countries and the Governments forced to adopt reforms, before using the aid bludgeon against these countries.

Where do women stand today in the equation with men? Despite overt accommodation of women into male bastions even in the so called enlightened societies prejudices and complexes still linger.

There is even a wide school of thought that the people in the US which is the last word in liberalism would opt for a male as the next President perhaps due to an ingrained sense of security identified with male domination.

As the UN study shows women are still the 'weaker of the species' in most respects and are a vulnerable lot especially in the Asian context where underlining prejudices still tend to surmount modern concepts of liberalism and openness that go hand in hand with gender equality.

The study indicates that women still have a long way to go before they are treated as equal partners in the order of ascendency although the world has seen many women leaders.

In Sri Lanka too the subject of gender equality and women's emancipation has come to the fore from time to time and various Governments of late had devoted a separate ministry for Women's Affairs.

True our women are not subject to compartmentalisation as witnessed in some Asian countries and many of our women have reached the top in the various professions and other callings, overcoming male challenges, carving for themselves an identity that does all women proud.

There is still however much to be done to redress the many grievances and hardships endured by our women, mostly the working women who are being subjected to exploitation and harassment especially in 'sweat shops' to eke out an existence and provide for their families.

The tales of hardship and privations by some of our women employees in the Free Trade Zone should engage the attention of the Ministry and the relevant authorities and speedy redress granted. The empowerment of women must be a priority.