Gender equality is when women and men enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all sectors of society, including economic participation and decision-making, and when the different behaviours, aspirations and needs of women and men are equally valued and favoured.

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Factors leading to gender imparity:

• The unequal treatment of women by religion has exerted a very strong influence on every society’s gender norms.
• All the key functions of organized religion, such as conducting religious ceremonies and heading the religious hierarchy, are reserved for men. No organized religion treats women equal to men.
• Countries where the majority of inhabitants have no religious affiliation display the lowest levels of gender inequality, and countries with the highest levels of gender inequality are those with high levels of religious affiliation.
• For millions of years, except in few matriarchal societies, the man has always been considered the head of the family. The provider-role he played was always seen superior to the nurturer-role that women played in a family. The man’s decision was always the final word. Gender parity was not a norm in families across societies.
• Marriages in which the woman earned more were less likely in the first place and more likely to end in divorce.
• Women who out-earned their husbands were more likely to seek jobs beneath their potential and do significantly more housework and child care than their husbands, perhaps to make their husbands feel less threatened. The norms in our families act as a huge deterrent to achieving gender parity.
• Stereotypical thinking and Patriarchal mindset is the biggest challenge.
• Declining child sex ratio (CSR), the practice of gender-biased sex selection, and child marriage.
• Domestic violence against women is also high.
• Women being exposed to violence by their partners
• Judicial remedies or police reforms, though absolutely necessary, are mostly curative, rather than being preventive.
• Benefits like maternity leave or related facilities will not be accessible to her in the informal sector

Measures needed:

• We cannot achieve gender parity if religion, one of the strongest forces in most societies, continues to turn its back on women.
• The agenda of creating a planet 50-50 cannot come true if religion, religious leaders, and faith actors remain outside the conversation.
• Need to create avenues and opportunity with conscious effort for empowering women rather than giving freebies.
• Gender Neutral laws.
• Implementation to full potential of laws is the key.
• Infrastructure to be put in place and proper efforts to go ahead.
• Favouring women gives rise to inequality in society so even men should be given avenues.
• Article 15 should be considered and positive discrimination should be there wherever needed.

Conclusion:

Achieving gender parity is not about organizing awareness programmes and pasting a few posters in offices. It is all about fundamentally altering beliefs upheld by the two strongest institutions of any society: the family and religion.