Eradicating the Gender Gaps in Politics

According to the UNICEF glossary, gender equality is the equal valuing by the society of the similarities and the differences of men and women, and the roles they play. It doesn’t mean that women and men will become the same but that women’s and men’s rights, responsibilities, and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female. According to the UN Women statistics, although women make up almost 54 percent of the world’s population. Power and decision-making remain overwhelmingly dominated by men. Although women’s positions have doubled from 11 percent in 1995, men still hold three-quarters of the seats. Less than 20 percent of the world’s landholders are women. 60 percent of the world’s hungry people are women. Women make up more than two-thirds of 796 million illiterate people and only 39 percent of rural girls attend secondary school. At large, the gender gap remains a deterrent to women’s access to decision- making, leadership, and politics.

A society where the girl child can strive and thrive despite her political ambitions or inclinations. A society where she can campaign with the full moral support and backing of everybody. Where gender parity becomes a norm and she plays on an equal leveling ground with others. Regardless of the challenges, United Nations has made significant progress in advancing gender equality by holding conferences to enlighten and sensitize world leaders on the essentiality of this cause as seen in the Mexico Conference of 1975, Copenhagen Conference of 1980, Nairobi Conference of 1985, and Beijing Conference of 1995 and through other Platforms of action such as Convention the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The Beijing Declaration was adopted unanimously by 189 countries as an agenda for women’s empowerment and is considered the key global document on gender equality. The implementation of the Beijing Declaration in different countries has not only eliminated hindrances preventing women from active participation in politics. It has also advocated for women to be given full access to education, healthcare, employment, and other facilities and platforms to be in power and achieve economic success. It is at the helm of campaigns to end child and teen marriage which is the leading cause of girl child school dropout. The delegates of United Nations Women have also risen to the challenge of proffering solutions to problems faced by women in politics by holding

conferences such as this one- YISMUN 8.0 to discuss possible ways to stop discriminatory measures against women in politics. However, all policies and initiatives arrived at in each conference will be brought to a nullity if countries do not implement them and work to eradicate such barriers.