The world is in agreement that women rights should be respected and this should be done through reducing discrimination against women and promoting gender equality. Whereas many countries around the world have made headways in doing this through coming up with legislation to make women rights a constitutional right as dictated by international law, there still remains lack of goodwill.
It’s this lack of goodwill in the broader society that continues to undermine initiatives meant to advocate for the rights of women around the globe. Let’s therefore take a look at the reasons why women rights should be respected and the different avenues that can be used to push for these rights.
Taking care of women has a ripple effect across the society
Whereas the family is usually the basic unit of a society, on many occasions, it’s the women who hold this unit together. This therefore means that if the rights of women are respected through giving them access to proper education, health services, employment opportunities and so on, you can be guaranteed that society will have empowered women who will take better care of their families and by extension, the society.
Taking care of women promotes sustainable development
Most of the sustainable development goals touch on issues that mostly affect women and these range from socioeconomic to political issues such as health, economic empowerment, gender equality, and so on. By ensuring that the rights of women are respected, we are making a step closer to achieving the sustainable development goals that countries around the world are targeting to achieve.
Women face too much discrimination
It’s socking to find out that women go through more discrimination throughout their lives from infancy to old age as opposed to men. Most of this discrimination has been propagated over centuries and across different cultures that it has become a norm. This discrimination will be in the form of parents preferring sons over daughters, more boys completing their education in comparison to girls, women lacking access to proper reproductive health services and so on.
Women contribute equally to the society
Recent statistics have revealed that women contribute more than half to the world’s economy and this is in spite of them being relegated to the task of raising their families. It’s women who play a more active role food production which is a major income earner however, this income doesn’t go directly into their pockets and will mostly benefit those higher up in the value chain.
It’s about time society started appreciating the important role that women play, and find different avenues to reward their contribution. On top of this list is encouraging societal goodwill through men accepting women as an equal gender and an end to discrimination. The better society takes care of women, the more society will benefit from their contribution.