Gender Inequality Is Borderless, and so Is Violence Against Women

The United Nations “Path to Equal” report published in July 2023 provides ample evidence that the world is far from reaching the progress required on Sustainable Development Goal 5, “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” by 2030. For the first time, readers are presented with two indexes to statistically illustrate the global situation for women and girls in new dimensions. “The Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI) focuses on measuring women’s power and freedoms to make choices and seize opportunities in life. It is the first UN gender index to include violence against women and girls as a standalone dimension. The Global Gender Parity Index (GGPI) assesses the gender gap across four dimensions of human development: health, education, inclusion, and decision making.” 

Shocking findings include:

• Globally, women are empowered to achieve, on average, only 60% of their full potential, as measured by the WEI, and achieve, on average, 28% less than men across key human development dimensions, as measured by the GGPI.

• None of the 114 countries analyzed has achieved full women’s empowerment or complete gender parity. Moreover, less than 1% of women and girls live in countries with both high women’s empowerment and high performance in achieving gender parity.

• 3.1 billion women and girls—more than 90% of the world’s female population — live in countries characterized by low or middle women’s empowerment and low or middle performance in achieving gender parity.

No report on the development of women and girls can be considered complete without current data on adolescent birth rates, access to modern contraception, and completion of secondary and tertiary education. While it is difficult to read how much of the world’s female population remains disadvantaged by institutionalized and cultural norms, educational findings reveal the need for further governmental action, community engagement, and family support: 

• In 87 countries less than 50% of women have completed secondary education. 

• Tertiary education has followed a different pattern: In most regions, female enrollment now exceeds male enrollment — except in Central Asia and Southern Asia, where there is parity, and in sub-Saharan Africa, where 76 women were enrolled for every 100 men in 2019.

• In 107 countries, women account, on average, for 36.8% of graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

While the report provides us with the broad spectrum of women’s development and lack thereof, it is impossible to read without the frame of reference of where one comes from or has lived for any substantial amount of time. Global politics and the rights of women are my primary interests. Of course, this is only possible because I come from and have dual nationality in nations considered “highly developed” and have been afforded the privilege of my ethnicity as well as an upper-middle-class upbringing and access to higher education. 

Mexico is an outlier when it comes to women’s representation in government. 

• Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Rwanda are the only countries where women hold a majority of seats in parliament 

• In Mexico, legislated quotas for female candidates at the federal and state levels culminated in the historic 2018 election, with women winning 48.2% of parliament seats, 49.2% of Senate seats, and 45.0% of local government seats.

One cannot help but consider the impact of increased women’s representation in government. On Sept. 7, 2021, I cheered on my feminist Mexican colleagues and friends when Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled criminalizing abortion unconstitutional, setting a precedent that could lead to the legalization of the procedure across this country. 

However, representation in government and in decision-making does not guarantee that the decisions made speak for most of the population. Not one year later, I sat stunned in Phoenix, Arizona, when on June 21, 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, the constitutional guarantee of abortion access in the US, reversing half a century of court protection for this fundamental right.  

“The Paths to Equal” is extremely informative and adds new dimensions to the measurement of empowerment and equality for women and girls. The considerable effort made by the UN Women team to quantify where no effort has been made previously on behalf of women is admirable, especially in reporting violence against women and girls (VAWG) separately. In this area, the statistics are alarming worldwide. 

I could not help but look for further information based on personal history, so I checked the statistics on the countries where I currently live as well as those I lived in for four or more years. It is one thing to live with my own experience in some of these places but to know that it is the broad experience of the female population there is quite another.  

United States: (32 Shocking Sexual Assault Statistics for 2023)

• Over 40% of women in the US have encountered sexual violence.

• Approximately 70 women commit suicide every day in the US following an act of sexual violence.

• Statistics show that 1 in 6 US women will be raped annually in the US.

• Over 1.5 million women were raped by an intimate partner in 2019.

Mexico: (https://www.visionofhumanity.org/gender-based-violence-in-mexico/ )

• In 2022, 968 reported cases of femicides were reported, a 127% increase from 2015. It is largely believed that many femicides go unreported.  

• In 2023, Mexico ranks 11th in the number of femicides. (https://worldpopulationreview.com/ )

https://evaw-global-database.unwomen.org/en/countries/americas/mexico

• Lifetime Physical and/or Sexual Intimate Partner Violence: 24.6%. 

• Physical and/or Sexual Intimate Partner Violence in the last 12 months: 7.5%. 

• Lifetime Non-Partner Sexual Violence: 47.6%.

Singapore: https://evaw-global-database.unwomen.org/en/countries/asia/singapore

• Lifetime Physical and/or Sexual Intimate Partner Violence: 6.1%. 

• Physical and/or Sexual Intimate Partner Violence in the last 12 months: 0.9%. 

• Lifetime Non-Partner Sexual Violence: Official National Statistics Not Available

The Netherlands: https://evaw-global-database.unwomen.org/es/countries/europe/netherlands 

• Lifetime Physical and/or Sexual Intimate Partner Violence: 25%. 

• Physical and/or Sexual Intimate Partner Violence in the last 12 months: 5%. 

• Lifetime Non-Partner Sexual Violence: 12%.

Australia: 

• 1 in 3 women (31.1%) has experienced physical and/or sexual violence perpetrated by a man they know. https://www.ourwatch.org.au/quick-facts/ 

• 1 in 4 wom

• en (23%) has experienced physical or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner since age 15. https://www.ourwatch.org.au/quick-facts/ 

https://evaw-global-database.unwomen.org/en/countries/oceania/australia

• Lifetime Physical and/or Sexual Intimate Partner Violence: 22.8%. 

• Physical and/or Sexual Intimate Partner Violence in the last 12 months: 2.2%. 

• Lifetime Non-Partner Sexual Violence: 10%. 

Opinions will vary. Experience will vary. Facts are facts. It is not my intention to portray any country negatively, in fact, I have been privileged to live in these countries. The fact remains, however, that the disheartening and often life-threatening situation for women is universal and one cannot help but wonder why more is not said, let alone done, to improve it. Dr. Jane Goodall famously said, “It actually doesn't take much to be considered a difficult woman. That's why there are so many of us." If speaking up about this issue makes me a difficult woman, I can live with it. What I am unprepared to do is stand by without acting. What are you prepared to live with?