Rights vanishing in digital age
THE International Women’s Day (IWD) 2023 focuses on innovation and technology for ensuring gender equality and tackling the menace of online violence and other dangers that women face as also the need for quality education in the information age. The 67th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) opened on March 6 in New York with stress on closing this gap in information and communication technology (ICT). Turning innovation into a boon instead of a bane constitutes the new ideational challenges to countering the deeply entrenched patriarchal mindset and “creating new social, economic and cultural codes for a gender-equal future.”
Chair of the CSW67 Mathu Joyini, in her opening remarks, said digital technologies will have a profound effect on the lives of women globally since they would heighten the already serious gender inequalities, discrimination and violence faced by women. “Gender-based discrimination is a systemic problem that has been interwoven into the fabric of our political, social and economic lives and the technology sector is no different,” she said. The CSW67 is also slated to approach options for gender equality and empowerment of rural women and girls.
In a significant move, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Republic of Mozambique Veronica Nataniel Macamo Dlhovo, on March 7, chaired the UN Security Council (UNSC) and opened the debate on the theme of ‘women, peace and security’. It marked the anniversary of the adoption of the historic Resolution 1325 (2000). The UNSC’s engagement on women issues has been justified on the ground that women are the worst affected due to armed conflicts raging around the world, including the situation in Ukraine. In the third decade of the 21st century, women and girls face the brunt of wars, including sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), mainly due to their gender as well as marginalised status and exclusion from the decision-making process in matters of peace and security. As a tactic of war, rape has become a cheaper weapon than the bullet. It was highlighted in the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad. All indicators point towards a backwards slide.
The parameters about women’s status are the hardest hit in the global juggernaut of development, conflicts and vehement pushback by the entrenched patriarchy that refuses to see change as the law of life. In fact, the global campaign by the UN and other agencies seeks the minimal acceptance of the female gender as equal in all respects. There is a challenge of walking-the-talk for the elimination of gender-based bias, inequality and violence as root causes and manifestation of many of the global ills. The cardinal principle missing in global discourses, scholarly works, conferences and diplomacy is that freedom and equality are essential to human development.
In an ominous sign, the March 2023 report of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) shows that in the last 20 years, jobs and salaries for women have barely improved. As a corollary, the gender gap in the labour market graphically reveals that the job gap for women is a “stubborn and damaging reality of the global labour market”, especially in the developing countries. According to the ILO, almost 25 per cent women are unable to find a job, compared to 16.6 per cent of men. “It paints a much bleaker picture of the situation of women in the world of work…(it) shows that women still have a much harder time finding a job than men,” the ILO said. It is most worrying that for each dollar of labour income men earn, women earn only 51 cents. Moreover, there is a serious gender disparity in their earnings in low- and lower-middle income countries, “with women earning 33 cents and 29 cents on the dollar, respectively.”
The year 2022 has left a legacy of many negative parameters for women. As seen in the regressive policies of outlaws like the Taliban after August 15, 2021, and the usurpation of power in Afghanistan, they have pushed back decades of progress on women empowerment. Iran has emerged as another big trouble spot, though Mahsa Amini became the inspiration for widespread Iranian protests.
Recent cutting-edge research works in the Environmental Policy and Law journal show that by 2050, climate change would cause a loss of 4 per cent global annual economic output —$23,000 billion — wherein women and girls would suffer the worst. Due to their traditional roles, as a consequence of the disasters and the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-22, women have faced heightened risks of SGBV. They suffer from lack of protection and privacy and suffer mental trauma. The effects of climate change will only intensify their vulnerability.
The 2023 IWD focus on providing a safe digital environment for women is indicative of the global winds of change. Women are still a minority in the firlds of information technology, computing, physics, mathematics and engineering, accounting for less than 35 per cent of the global ICT workforce. In a reflection of the heavy odds faced on all fronts, women face grave risk from the ICT. The UN data shows that women are 20 per cent less likely than men to use the Internet, but 27 times more likely to face online harassment or hate speech when they do. “The world needs women’s expertise to address complex and interlocking crises, such as climate change, conflict, poverty, hunger and water scarcity,” said the President of the 77th UN General Assembly, Csaba Korösi.
Hopefully, the push at the CSW67 for “cracking the code” would lead to some bold and transformative ideas, inclusive technologies and accessible education avenues to make a decisive dent on the pernicious inequality, discrimination, marginalisation and unprecedented violence against women. The words of wisdom of the UNSG provide a beacon of hope. “Your focus this year on closing gender gaps in technology and innovation could not be more timely. Because as technology races ahead, women and girls are being left behind,” the UNSG said.
