Gender Inequality in certain vital measures of development: Sex Ratio, Life
expectancy, Literary level, Work participation, Decision Making and Political
participation
Introduction:
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were
adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty,
protect the planet, gender equality and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.
The world has achieved progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment including
equal access to primary education between girls and boys. Inspite of the progress, women and
girls continue to suffer discrimination and violence in every part of the world. According to
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/, Gender equality is not only a
fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation to a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable
world. Unfortunately, at the current time, 1 in 5 women and girls between the ages of 15-49 have
reported experiencing physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner within a 12-month
period and 49 countries currently have no laws protecting women from domestic violence.
Progress is occurring regarding harmful practices such as child marriage and FGM (Female
Genital Mutilation), which has declined by 30% in the past decade, but there is still much work
to be done to complete eliminate such practices. Providing women and girls with equal access to
education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-
making processes will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large.
Implementing new legal frameworks regarding female equality in the workplace and the
eradication of harmful practices targeted at women is crucial to end the gender-based
discrimination prevalent in many countries around the world.
Significance of addressing gender inequality
Women and girls represent half of the world’s population and therefore also half of its
potential. But, today gender inequality persists everywhere and stagnates social progress.
Women continue to be underrepresented at all levels of political leadership. Across the globe,
women and girls perform a disproportionate share of unpaid domestic work. Inequalities faced
by girls can begin right at birth and follows throughout their lives. In some countries, girls are
deprived of access to health care or proper nutrition, leading to a higher mortality rate. Women
and girls around the world continue to experience violence and cruel practices. Physical and
sexual violence affects women of all ages, ethnicities, socioeconomic status and educational
level. Child marriage also affects girls’ education. About one third of developing countries have
not achieved gender parity in primary education. In sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania and Western
Asia, girls still face barriers to entering both primary and secondary school. Disadvantages in
education translate into lack of access to skills and limited opportunities in the labour market.
Women’s and girls’ empowerment is essential to expand economic growth and promote social
development. The full participation of women in labour forces would add percentage points to
most national growth rates— double digits in many cases. Worldwide, 35 per cent of women
between 15-49 years of age have experienced physical and/ or sexual intimate partner violence or
non-partner sexual violence. 1 in 3 girls aged 15-19 have experienced some form of female
genital mutilation/cutting in the 30 countries in Africa and the Middle East, where the harmful
practice is most common with a high risk of prolonged bleeding, infection (including HIV),
childbirth complications, infertility and death. The Spotlight Initiative, an EU/UN partnership, is
a global, multi-year initiative focused on eliminating all forms of violence against women and
girls (VAWG). Gender equality is a fundamental human right. Advancing gender equality is
critical to all areas of a healthy society, from reducing poverty to promoting the health,
education, protection and the well-being of girls and boys. Investing in education programmes
for girls and increasing the age at which they marry can return $5 for every dollar spent Investing
in programs improving income-generating activities for women.
Global facts on gender inequality
Globally, 750 million women and girls were married before the age of 18 and at least
200 million women and girls in 30 countries have undergone FGM.
The rates of girls between 15-19 who are subjected to FGM (female genital mutilation) in
the 30 countries where the practice is concentrated have dropped from 1 in 2 girls in 2000
to 1 in 3 girls by 2017.
In 18 countries, husbands can legally prevent their wives from working; in 39 countries,
daughters and sons do not have equal inheritance rights; and 49 countries lack laws
protecting women from domestic violence.
One in five women and girls, including 19 per cent of women and girls aged 15 to 49,
have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner with the last 12
months. Yet, 49 countries have no laws that specifically protect women from such
violence.
While women have made important inroads into political office across the world, their
representation in national parliaments at 23.7 per cent is still far from parity.
In 46 countries, women now hold more than 30 per cent of seats in national parliament in
at least one chamber.
Only 52 per cent of women married or in a union freely make their own decisions about
sexual relations, contraceptive use and health care.
Globally, women are just 13 per cent of agricultural land holders.
Women in Northern Africa hold less than one in five paid jobs in the non-agricultural
sector. The proportion of women in paid employment outside the agriculture sector has
increased from 35 per cent in 1990 to 41 per cent in 2015.
More than 100 countries have taken action to track budget allocations for gender equality.
In Southern Asia, a girl’s risk of marrying in childhood has dropped by over 40% since
2000.
Sex ratio:
The sex ratio is the ratio of males to females in a population. In most sexually
reproducing species, the ratio tends to be 1:1. This tendency is explained by Fisher's
principle. More data’s are available for humans than for any other species, and the human sex
ratio is more studied than that of any other species, but interpreting these statistics can be
difficult. Like most sexual species, the sex ratio in humans is approximately 1:1. In humans, the
natural ratio between males and females at birth is slightly biased towards the male sex, being
estimated to be about 1.05 or 1.06 males/per female born. Sex imbalance may arise as a
consequence of various factors including natural factors, exposure to pesticides and
environmental contaminants, war casualties, sex-selective abortion, infanticides, aging,
gendercide and problem with registration. According to 2018est the sex ratio for the entire world
population is 101 males to 100 females. Depending upon which definition is used between 0.1%
and 1.7 % of live births are intersex. Human sex ratios, either at birth or in the population as a
whole, are reported in any of four ways: the ratio of males to females, the ratio of females to
males, the proportion of males, or the proportion of females. If there are 108,000 males and
100,000 females the ratio of males to females is 1.080 and the proportion of males is 51.9%.
Scientific literature often uses the proportion of males.
Factors effecting sex ratio in human beings:
Fisher's principle is an explanation of why the sex ratio of most species is approximately
1:1 which is outlined by Ronald Fisher in his 1930 book. The natural factors that affect the
human sex ratio are paternal age, maternal age, plural birth, birth order, gestation weeks, race,
parent's health history, and parent's psychological stress. The scientific studies are based on
extensive birth and death records in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe.
Remarkably, the trends in human sex ratio are not consistent across countries at a given time, or
over time for a given country. In economically developed countries, as well as developing
countries, these scientific studies have found that the human sex ratio at birth has historically
varied between 0.94 and 1.15 for natural reasons. The relationship between natural factors and
human sex ratio at birth, and with aging, remains an active area of scientific research.
Environmental factors
Various scientists have examined the question whether human birth sex ratios have
historically been affected by environmental stressors such as climate change and global
warming. Catalano et al. report that cold weather is an environmental stressor, and women
subjected to colder weather abort frail male fetuses in greater proportion, thereby lowering birth
sex ratios. But cold weather stressors also extend male longevity, thereby raising the human sex
ratio at older ages. The Catalano team finds that a 1 °C increase in annual temperature predicts
one more male than expected for every 1,000 females born in a year. Helle et al. have studied
138 years of human birth sex ratio data, from 1865 to 2003. They find an increased excess of
male births during periods of exogenous stress (World War II) and during warm years. In the
warmest period over the 138 years, the birth sex ratio peaked at about 1.08 in northern Europe.
Increase of sex ratio for 1 °C increase in temperature was approximately the same as the result of
Catalano team.
Effects of gestation environment
Causes of stress during gestation, such as maternal malnutrition generally appear to
increase fetal deaths particularly among males, resulting in a lower boy to girl ratio at birth.
Also, higher incidence of Hepatitis B virus in populations is believed to increase the male to
female sex ratio, while some unexplained environmental health hazards are thought to have the
opposite effect. The effects of gestational environment on human sex ratio are complicated and
unclear, with numerous conflicting reports. For example, Oster et al. examined a data set of
67,000 births in China, 15 percent of who were Hepatitis B carriers. They found no effect on
birth sex ratio from Hepatitis B presence in either the mothers or fathers.
Effects of chemical pollution
A 2007 survey by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program noted abnormally low
sex ratios in Russian Arctic villages and Inuit villages in Greenland and Canada, and attributed
this imbalance to high levels of endocrine disruptors in the blood of inhabitants,
including PCBs and DDT. These chemicals are believed to have accumulated in the tissues of
fish and animals that make up the bulk of these populations' diets. However, as noted in
the Social factors section below, it is important to exclude alternative explanations, including
social ones, when examining large human populations whose composition by ethnicity and race
may be changing. A 2008 report provides further evidence of effects of feminizing chemicals on
male development in each class of vertebrate species as a worldwide phenomenon, possibly
leading to a decline in the sex ratio in humans and a possible decline in sperm counts. Out of
over 100,000 recently introduced chemicals, 99% are poorly regulated.
Factors that could possibly affect the sex ratio include: Social status of the mother,
known to be a factor influencing the sex ratio of certain animals such as swine but apparently not
in humans and whether the mother smokes, whether the mother has a partner or other support
network, although this correlation is widely considered to be the result of an unknown third
factor and latitude, with countries near the equator producing more females than near the poles.
Social factors
Sex-selective abortion and infanticide are thought to significantly skew the naturally
occurring ratio in some populations, such as China, where the introduction of ultrasound scans in
the late 1980s has led to a birth sex ratio (males to females) of 1.181 (2010 official census data
for China). The 2011 India census reports India's sex ratio in 0–6 age bracket at 1.088. The 2011
birth sex ratios for China and India are significantly above the mean ratio recorded in the United
States from 1940 through 2002 (1.051); however, their birth sex ratios are within the 0.98–1.14
range observed in the United States for significant ethnic groups over the same time
period. Along with Asian countries, a number of European, Middle East, and Latin American
countries have recently reported high birth sex ratios in the 1.06 to 1.14 range. High birth sex
ratios, some claim, may be caused in part by social factors.
Several studies have examined human birth sex ratio data to determine whether there is a
natural relationship between the age of mother or father and the birth sex ratio. For example,
Ruder has studied 1.67 million births in 33 states in the United States to investigate the effect of
parents' ages on birth sex ratios. Similarly, Jacobsen et al. have studied 0.82 million births in
Denmark with the same goal. These scientists find that maternal age has no statistically
significant role on the human birth sex ratio. However, they report a significant effect of paternal
age. Significantly more male babies were born per 1000 female babies to younger fathers than to
older fathers. These studies suggest that social factors such as early marriage and bear their
children young may play a role in rising birth sex ratios in certain societies.
Data sources and data quality issues
Reported sex ratios at birth for some human populations may be influenced not only by
cultural preferences and social practices that favor the birth or survival of one sex over the other
but also by incomplete or inaccurate reporting or recording of the births or the survival of
infants. Even what constitutes a live birth or infant death may vary from one population to
another. For example, for most of the 20th century in Russia (and the Soviet Union), extremely
premature newborns (less than 28 weeks gestational age, or less than 1000 grams in weight, or
less than 35 centimeters in length) were not counted as a live birth until they had survived 7
days; and if that infant died in those first 168 hours it would not be counted as an infant death.
This led to serious underreporting of the infant mortality rate (by 22% to 25%) relative to
standards recommended by the World Health Organization.
Chinese One Child Policy propaganda from 1982
When unusual sex ratios at birth (or any other age) are observed, it is important to
consider misreporting, misrecording, or under-registration of births or deaths as possible reasons.
Some researchers have in part attributed the high male to female sex ratios reported in mainland
China in the last 25 years to the underreporting of the births of female children after the
implementation of the one-child policy, though alternative explanations are now generally more
widely accepted, including above all the use of ultrasound technology and sex-selective
abortion of female fetuses and, probably to a more limited degree, neglect or in some
cases infanticide of females. In the case of China, because of deficiencies in the vital
statistics registration system, studies of sex ratios at birth have relied either on special fertility
surveys, whose accuracy depends on full reporting of births and survival of both male and female
infants, or on the national population census from which both birth rates and death rates are
calculated from the household's reporting of births and deaths in the 18 months preceding the
census. To the extent that this underreporting of births or deaths is sex-selective, both fertility
surveys and censuses may inaccurately reflect the actual sex ratios at birth.
Gender Imbalances
Gender imbalance is a disparity between males and females in a population. Males
usually exceed females at birth but subsequently experience different mortality rates due to many
possible causes such as differential natural death rates, war casualties, and deliberate gender
control. According to Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, two Pulitzer Prize-winning
reporters for the New York Times, violence against women is causing gender imbalances in
many developing countries. They detail sex-selective infanticide in the developing world,
particularly in China, India and Pakistan. Commonly, countries with gender imbalances have
three characteristics in common. The first is a rapid decline in fertility, either because of
preference for smaller families or to comply with their nation's population control measures.
Second, there is pressure for women to give birth to sons, often because of cultural preferences
for male heirs. Third, families have widespread access to technology to selectively abort female
fetuses. As a contributing measure to gender imbalance in developing countries, Kristof and
WuDunn's best estimate is that a girl in India, from 1 to 5 years of age, dies from discrimination
every four minutes (132,000 deaths per year); that 39,000 girls in China die annually, within the
first year of life, because parents did not give girls the same medical care and attention that boys
received. The authors describe similar gender discrimination and gendercide in Congo, Kenya,
Pakistan, Iraq, Bahrain, Thailand and many other developing countries.
Some of the factors suggested as causes of the gender imbalance are warfare (excess of
females, notably in the wake of WWI in western Europe, and WWII, particularly in the Soviet
Union); sex-selective abortion and infanticide (excess of males, notably in China as a result of
the one-child policy, or in India); and large-scale migration, such as that by male labourers
unable to bring their families with them (as in Qatar and other Gulf countries. Gender imbalance
may result in the threat of social unrest, especially in the case of an excess of low-status young
males unable to find spouses, and being recruited into the service of militaristic political
factions. Economic factors such as male-majority industries and activities like
the petrochemical, agriculture, engineering, military, and technology also have created a male
gender imbalance in some areas dependent on one of these industries. Conversely,
the entertainment, banking, tourism, fashion, and service industries may have resulted in a
female-majority gender imbalance in some areas dependent on them.
One study[63] found that the male-to-female sex ratio in the German state of Bavaria fell as low
as 0.60 after the end of World War II for the most severely affected age cohort (those between 21
and 23 years old in 1946). This same study found that out-of-wedlock births spiked from
approximately 10–15% during the inter-war years up to 22% at the end of the war. This increase
in out-of-wedlock births was attributed to a change in the marriage market caused by the decline
in the sex ratio.
The Northern Mariana Islands have the highest female ratio with 0.77 males per
female. Qatar has the highest male ratio, with 2.87 males/female. For the group aged below
15, Sierra Leone has the highest female ratio with 0.96 males/female, and the Republic of
Georgia and the People's Republic of China are tied for the highest male ratio with 1.13
males/female (according to the 2006 CIA World Factbook).
The value for the entire world population is 1.01 males/female, with 1.07 at birth, 1.06 for those
under 15, 1.02 for those between 15 and 64, and 0.78 for those over 65.[7]
The "First World" G7 members all have a gender ratio in the range of 0.95–0.98 for the total
population, of 1.05–1.07 at birth, of 1.05–1.06 for the group below 15, of 1.00–1.04 for the
group aged 15–64, and of 0.70–0.75 for those over 65.
Countries on the Arabian peninsula tend to have a 'natural' ratio of about 1.05 at birth but a very
high ratio of males for those over 65 (Saudi Arabia 1.13, Arab Emirates 2.73, Qatar 2.84),
indicating either an above-average mortality rate for females or a below-average mortality for
males, or, more likely in this case, a large population of aging male guest workers.[citation
needed]
Conversely, countries of Northern and Eastern Europe (the Baltic
states, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia) tend to have a 'normal' ratio at birth but a very low ratio of
males among those over 65 (Russia 0.46, Latvia 0.48, Ukraine 0.52); similarly, Armenia has a
far above average male ratio at birth (1.17), and a below-average male ratio above 65 (0.67).
This effect may be caused by emigration and higher male mortality as result of higher Soviet era
deaths; it may also be related to the enormous (by western standards) rate of alcoholism in the
former Soviet states.[citation needed] Another possible contributory factor is an aging population, with
a higher than normal proportion of relatively elderly people: we recall that due to higher
differential mortality rates the ratio of males to females reduces for each year of age.
In the evolutionary biology of sexual reproduction, the operational sex ratio (OSR), is the ratio of
sexually competing males that are ready to mate to sexually competing females that are ready to
mate, or alternatively the local ratio of fertilizable females to sexually active males at any given
time. Its difference from the physical sex ratio is that it does not take into account sexually
inactive or non-competitive individuals (individuals that do not compete for mates). On occasion,
regions with a high male-low female sex ratio, like Alaska, have shown a correlation with a
higher rate of reported rape.
Consequences of high sex ratio
There are several social consequences of an imbalanced sex ratio. It may also become a
factor in societal and demographic collapse. For example, the native population of Cusco, Peru at
the time of the Spanish conquest was stressed by an imbalance in the sex ratio between men and
women.[69] High ratios of males make it easier for women to marry, but harder for men. [70] In
parts of China and India, there is a 12–15% excess of young men. These men will remain single
and will be unable to have families, in societies where marriage is regarded as virtually universal
and social status and acceptance depend, in large part, on being married and creating a new
family. Analyses of how sex ratio imbalances affect personal consumption and intra-household
distribution were pioneered by Gary Becker, Shoshana Grossbard-Shechtman,[71][72] and Marcia
Guttentag and Paul Secord.[73] High ratios of males have a positive effect on marital fertility and
women's share of household consumption and negative effects on non-marital cohabitation and
fertility and women's labor supply. It has been shown that variation in sex ratio over time is
inversely related to married women's labor supply in the U.S.[74][75]
An additional problem is that many of these men are of low socioeconomic class with limited
education. When there is a shortage of women in the marriage market, the women can "marry
up", inevitably leaving the least desirable men with no marriage prospects. In many communities
today, there are growing numbers of young men who come from lower classes who are
marginalized because of lack of family prospects and the fact that they have little outlet for
sexual energy. There is evidence that this situation will lead to increased levels of antisocial
behavior and violence and will ultimately present a threat to the stability and security of society.
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