Introduction
Sustainability is the process of living within the boundary limits of the readily available social, physical and natural resources in ways that allow human beings to be satisfied in their lives. Therefore, the sustainability concept can guide individuals through individual, national, and global decision-making processes. Thus, our discussion will tackle gender equality, and how it is challenged and various strategies applied to provide reliable solutions. Gender equality, also called sexual equality, is the state in which equal access to resources is achieved regardless of an individual’s gender (Shannon et al., 2019). Various perceptions at which resources are equally shared include; decision-making processes, job opportunities, education and evaluation of different behaviours. This essay aims to disclose various aspects of gender equality and state the challenges facing gender equality in the community, together with multiple strategies that can be implemented to solve these challenges. Gender equality has been encountered by various challenges that need to be addressed with high levels of seriousness to maintain the state of equal access to resources and opportunities without gender consideration.
Contemporary Sustainability Challenge
Several challenges hinder the positive progress of gender equality in the United Kingdom. Therefore, our essay will discuss one primary challenge affecting gender equality in the United Kingdom. Research conducted by UNEP’s Global Gender and Environment Outlook found that gender inequality is the primary challenge facing the distribution of resources in the country. This research also found that gender inequality posed opposing challenges to the advancement of the environmental dimension of sustainable development, eventually posing negative impacts on the rights of individuals to access a healthy and safe environment and control and the use of natural resources. This report suggested that, through gender inequality in the UK, women and young girls suffer a lot when it comes to the distribution of resources. The report’s statistics suggested that only 39% of women were working in the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors. Among the women working in the sectors named above, only 14% of the women were found to be landholders. This clarifies that gender equality in the UK significantly affects women since they access fewer opportunities than men. This research also found that the challenge of gender inequality leads to women and girls’ violence, which eventually results in unequal distribution of resources. It also results from tom sexual harassment, where women and young girls are subjected to online sexual harassment and rape cases. The challenge of gender inequality in the United Kingdom remains a persistent problem that has impacted involved individuals in different ways.
Impact of the Contemporary Sustainability Challenge on an Individual
Gender inequity has severe and long-lasting challenges to women and other marginalized genders in the United Kingdom since it causes psychological issues to the affected individuals. For instance, gender inequality is an aspect of discrimination among women in the United Kingdom. Therefore, gender discrimination results in unequal distribution of resources where women are given fewer chances of employment and access to education (Heise et al., 2019). This aspect makes many women develop experiences of mental health problems due to gender-based violence or discrimination. They also have developmental problems such as chronic stress since they are not given exposure to socioeconomic perspectives. According to the recent report delivered in 2020, gender inequity was found to have been causing mental health issues among the affected women. This report indicated that women are twice likely to experience anxiety disorders, panic disorders and the development of depression compared to men due to gender-based discrimination. Women are also subjected to gender inequality in the United Kingdom in places of work, where they are paid less money than men despite performing the same tasks in the organizations they represent. This shows that there is unequal distribution of resources in places of work which dramatically affects women since they would not wholly cater for their needs. The above-named negative impacts affecting women are caused by unequal distribution of resources, especially employment opportunities where women are given fewer employment opportunities than men with less payment. For instance, men work in own-account employment while women work by helping in household services or maybe in their relatives’ businesses where they are being paid less, which cannot satisfy all their needs. However, the negative impacts of gender inequality do not affect only women in the United Kingdom but also the community on the social level and even global level.
Impact of the Contemporary Sustainability Challenge on a Professional or Community
Women subjected to rape cases cannot participate in community-based programs, which poses a significant challenge to the positive progress of the community. For instance, women are denied chances for equal access to education, resulting in more uneducated women in society. The lack of educated women and girls in the community results in the absence of unemployed women in the society, resulting in a lack of qualified women who can work in positions that are specialized for women. Gender-based discrimination targeting women result in mental health problems encountered by women, posing a considerable burden to the community as it subjects these individuals to treatment operations. Therefore, the community is required to collect funds used to treat individuals with mental health issues. Due to gender inequality, the community cannot grow economically because women are not participating in working programs that can earn them money to cater for their needs. Instead, they cause a burden to their family members since they rely on them for a living, hindering the community’s economic growth. Gender inequality is also a significant challenge at the global level since the world does not have more women depending on themselves for a living. Recent research suggested that women only account for 38% of the human capital wealth in the world compared to men, who account for 62% of the human capital. In middle and low-income countries, women only own a third of the total human wealth (Wodon & De La Briere, 2018). As a result, many women worldwide develop mental health problems such as depression, low self-esteem, and anxiety disorders, hindering women’s associations globally. Various strategies can be deployed to solve the challenge of gender inequality at the individual, national and global levels.
Solution 1 to the Challenge: Allow Women to Access Education
Giving women and young girls a chance to access education is one of the primary strategies that need to be implemented to significantly address the issue of gender inequality on an individual, national, and global level. When women are allowed access to education, they can acquire skills that would help them vie for equal job opportunities in the market (Hermann et al., 2019). Educated women participate more in community-based, state, and even global-level programs. Women’s education should start from the community level, where parents must enrol girls in education programs that would help them acquire valuable skills. State governments should also participate in women’s education by opening more schools around the community so that girls can easily access schools near them and do not have to travel long distances to access schools. State governments also enhance women’s education by allowing the schools within the country to enrol students from other countries and ensure that they gain a quality education that helps them gain quality skills and eventually make them ready to vie for job opportunities. Women’s rights should be protected in schools to avoid gender-based violations such as rape cases and online sexual harassment. This will give girls an excellent atmosphere while at school and hence thrive academically. Allowing women to access education plays an essential role in achieving gender equality.
Solution 2 to the Challenge: Give Women Platforms to be in Power and Achieve Economic Success
Giving women the power to achieve economic access is another primary strategy that can best address the issue of gender inequality from the individual to the global level. Globally, women have fewer opportunities to acquire political seats and become leaders (Ferrant & Thim, 2019). Therefore, state governments should focus on creating specific political positions that the women in the country represent. This will help in empowering women to be future leaders hence justifying the aspect of gender equality. Another critical factor is that women should be allowed access to employment opportunities. In working places, men and women should share the tasks because they are all human beings. The payment modes should be strategized such that men would not receive more payments than women despite performing the same functions (Karoui & Feki, 2018). This will reduce or diminish gender-based discrimination in the workplace. Globally, when should be allowed to access chances of employment in foreign countries provident that they have working experiences that fit their working class. In general, giving women the power to achieve economic access extensively plays an instrumental role in enhancing gender equality in a community, country and global level.
Conclusion
In conclusion, gender equality is essential at the community, national, and global levels. However, it has encountered various challenges that need to be seriously addressed to maintain high levels of gender equality. For instance, the main challenge facing gender equality is gender inequality which leads to unequal distribution of resources and opportunities where women are mostly affected. This challenge may be solved by allowing women to access education which helps them acquire valuable skills. It is also solved by empowering women to achieve economic success by enabling them to vie for political seats to make them develop leadership skills. Finally, state governments should put more effort into implementing strategies that would protect women’s rights and hence contribute to enhancing gender equality.
References
Casad, B. J., Franks, J. E., Garasky, C. E., Kittleman, M. M., Roesler, A. C., Hall, D. Y., & Petzel, Z. W. (2021). Gender inequality in academia: Problems and solutions for women faculty in STEM. Journal of neuroscience research, 99(1), 13-23.
Ferrant, G., & Thim, A. (2019). Measuring women’s economic empowerment: Time uses data and gender inequality.
Heise, L., Greene, M. E., Opper, N., Stavropoulou, M., Harper, C., Nascimento, M., … & Gupta, G. R. (2019). Gender inequality and restrictive gender norms: framing the health challenges. The Lancet, 393(10189), 2440-2454.
Hermann, J., Levy, J. K., Bose, B., Ríos-Salas, V., Mekonen, Y., Swaminathan, H., … & Gupta, G. R. (2019). Improving health with programmatic, legal, and policy approaches to reduce gender inequality and change restrictive gender norms. The Lancet, 393(10190), 2522-2534.
Karoui, K., & Feki, R. (2018). The impacts of gender inequality in education on economic growth in Tunisia: an empirical analysis. Quality & Quantity, 52(3), 1265-1273.
Shannon, G., Jansen, M., Williams, K., Cáceres, C., Motta, A., Odhiambo, A., … & Mannell, J. (2019). Gender equality in science, medicine, and global health: where are we at, and why does it matter?.The Lancet, 393(10171), 560-569.
Wodon, Q., & De La Briere, B. (2018). Unrealized potential: the high cost of gender inequality in earnings.
write