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For the past three years, Afghan women have been banned from work, universities, parks and gyms. State near the US are becoming more difficult to illegally or protect abortion. Fatal protests have shaken Iran after a young woman arrested for “inappropriate” clothing was taken into custody.
The Americans re-elected the president who opposed a female rival he called “retard,” “mental disorder,” and “dummy.”
Then there’s Andrew Tate, a self-declared misogynist influencer and Trump champion who believes “everything on earth was built on women who follow the men of their family.”
He arrived in the US from Romania last month after Washington officials pressed Bucharest to lift restrictions on his travels. He and his brothers have been detained in Romania since 2022 on charges that included sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
Against this background, hints for women’s equal progress are welcome. And when it happens, things look up. Slightly.
Over the past few years, he says he believes that the increase in share among people around the world is well-developed in promoting women’s rights.
However, that percentage fell from 53% last year to 48%. This is a study of 30 countries by King’s College London’s global Institute for Women Leadership and this week’s IPSOS voting company.
Similarly, we believe that equality efforts have so far suffered from discrimination, just like those who think they are at home to care for their children.
These reductions are welcome, but small. And while this study suggests that almost every adult in countries around the world thinks it is doing work on equality for women, that is clearly not the case.
Working women still earn 20% less than men around the world, and as of last month, only 27% of national lawmakers were women.
Even the rich OECD countries will take more than 46 years to close the gender pay gap with current progress, PWC data showed this month. And the gap actually widened in the European Financial Services Boardroom. There, EY says, in 2023, male directors are at least $100,000 more than female counterparts.
There is something else about King College research. A deeper look into the data shows that women’s attitudes toward equality are far from uniform. Progress has been declared throughout the G7 in Italy, the UK and other Western European countries. However, opinions in the US and Canada barely emerged, and things mysteriously fell backward in Japan. The share of those who believe that women’s equal efforts have led to discrimination against men has risen significantly.
The reason is not entirely clear. Perhaps the French view was galvanized by the horrifying incident of Dominique Pericot. Perhaps Trump’s election had an impact on the views of the United States. But one thing is clear. The bay between young men and women is still wary.
Among the so-called Generation Z under the age of 30, 57% of men believe that feminism has disappeared to date.
And 28% of young men think that men who are at home to look after their children are not a pain for men, compared to 19% of women. Half of women in this generation define themselves as feminists, compared to about a third of men.
This coincides with the growing political gaps open between 20 increasingly conservative men and more progressive young women. In fact, Metou’s movements are believed to have been a driver with a big gap.
The question is how to close it. I agree with feminist thinkers who want to more recognize the many problems faced by boys and men, from lack of education to the ambitious rates of homelessness, suicide, and loneliness.
Ultimately, gender equality cannot be seen as a zero-sum game in which women can only win at the expense of men.
This idea is rocket fuel for people like the Tate. They also threaten to unravel the progress that took decades to achieve. Sadly, today seems to be more established than ever.
