“Women’s rights are human rights.” In other words, female rights are rights that all women and humans should have access to. However, unfortunately, in practice, these rights are not often protected to the same equal extent that others are, simply due to gender. It is important to educate ourselves on this topic so that we can work towards raising awareness and improving existing conditions. In honour of International Women’s Day, I wanted to write a blog discussing this very important topic.
What are Female Rights?
Female rights are rights and freedoms that all females have the right towards. This includes the human rights which were enshrined in the constitution by United Nations almost 70 years ago; such as the right to live free from slavery and discrimination, the right to education, and the right to earn a fair and equal wage. In addition to this, female rights also stands for those rights vital to female equality. The issue in our world today, is that we are quite far behind in implementing and practicing these rights in our countries.
Let’s look at some statistics to put this matter into perspective:
- According to the World Bank’s Women and Business Law 2022 report, around 2.4 billion of the women of working age are not offered equal economic opportunity. In addition, globally women still have only have three quarters of the legal rights offered to men.
- According to UN Women’s Commission, women make up 2/3 of the world’s “796 illiterate people.” However, data from 68 countries suggests that women’s education improves a child’s survival. It is also said that urban women, who are more likely to be educated, are less vulnerable to VAWG and infections such as HIV, AIDS, and Malaria (due to a difference in the margin of understanding).
- According to United Nations, nearly half of the married women lack decision-making power over their sexual and reproductive rights, and 1 in 3 girls aged 15-19 experienced some form of female genetic mutation in Africa and the Middle East.
How can we change?
As a world, we need to work towards a future where every women and girl can be able to have her human rights. This can only occur if everyone is educated on this topic so that we can raise awareness of it and work towards a more equal future. Discussions and conversations are important so that we can better understand the issues challenging female rights. Along with this mindfulness and understanding, it is also important to raise awareness of the significance of it, so that we can works towards change, for the future.
In a global realm, as countries are rapidly progressing towards working towards initiating change by international commitments and introducing new laws and regulations. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has set this goal even more distant, so it becomes even more important to work together for progress.
Sources Featured Image/ 1/2/3