United Nations Involvement In Providing Gender Equality
Every day women are being victimized by sex trafficking, forced marriage, and obligated to have abortions because of the lack of laws providing them with rights. The problem lies in the fact that they lack the same amount of power which men possess regarding regulations for school, health care and jobs. The reason for this is because of family and cultural traditions, no financial support because of their country and demographic, health care and no way of receiving an education due to having other duties to get done at home.
In some of the worst cases, especially in Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive due to the man having power over a woman and in 2015 finally got the privilege to vote. In the Arab republic of Egypt a women needs permission from her husband in order to leave her house or she loses the right to get any financial support. In Nigeria a man is allowed to hit is wife by law in order to correct her based off the Islam Quran 4:34. In 5 countries women can not be in political office because men feel they would not be able to handle the work that comes with it. In the 143 countries in the world today only 76 of them have any laws that deal with domestic violence and only 57 incorporate sexual abuse. One in three women have been abused in some way and most of them have been affected by a coworker or a family member thinking that it is okay because of a social stigma which makes it so that violence with women is a universal problem in cultures. Globally woman on average earn only sixty to seventy percent of what a man gets for the same job but work seventy percent of the world's working hours.
The United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA) main goal is to further gender inequality and gain women empowerment in many developing countries. They have done this by bringing awareness about the consequences that come with gender based violence such as creating programs that help with psychological effects and rape kits to survive. The UN encourages women to live without violence by having therapists in care centers and information online.
In addition, the United Nations have taken initiative to eliminate Violence Among Women and Girls (VAWG) called the Spotlight Initiative. The organization aims to have gender discrimination as a main focus to achieve women's empowerment in line with the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. In A/RES/7251, it adopted the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), however, it never went into effect.
Another major organization is UN Women which helped women in India become local leaders and learn skills involved with government positions, as well as empowering women globally. The Indian women took part in decisions in their community which helped their families lives and those who are deprived in their area. This has only worked in India, but programs are in development now.
