Gender Equality

The diverse involvement of women at local, regional and federal level has long been central to the political development of the US. Nevertheless, women are still significantly underrepresented in political office. Can this change now?

The change of government in Austria after the Ibiza affair on the one hand lead to a withdrawal of antifeminist (politically right) populist measures of the prior turquoise-blue government. On the other hand, existing structures of disadvantage and oppression have not been questioned by the successor government.

COVID-19 uniquely affects women. Here are many of the ways it does.

On 2 March 2020, Senegal reported its first case of coronavirus. This new form of COVID-19 has spread around the globe, with the declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March. The public health crisis is wreaking havoc upon all social and economic aspects of people’s lives in every corner of the world, including a notable impact on gender inequality. 

March is often celebrated as International Women’s Month with March 8 officially declared as International Women’s Day to shine the light on the different issues and inequalities women around the world face. This year’s theme is aptly described as “An equal world is an enabled world”, a fitting line to describe the various inequalities that women experience around the world and the need for us to acknowledge and work towards dismantling the structures of inequalities that exist. 

Inequality is the unfair situation in society whereby some people have more opportunities, money, and resources than other individuals in the same environment. Globally, the levels of inequality within and between countries have risen as much as the broadened gap between the haves and the have nots. Inequality mostly emerges from structural issues, centered on capitalism where the economy and the political system is controlled by a few individuals who are mostly men.