Women’s Rights and Gender Equality

Starting from feeling uncomfortable being catcalled on the street, being banned from higher education because they are deemed not to need higher education, being victims of female circumcision to being married off at an early age, women’s rights around the world are still being threatened, to get more complete information, click here.

Actually, what are the rights of women? Here’s the explanation.

What are Women’s rights?

Ideally, women have equal rights and opportunities with other genders. If it’s all the same, why is there a need for a special struggle for women’s rights? Many violations of rights and inequality of opportunities are experienced by women or are detrimental to many women, such as domestic violence, sexual violence, lower wages, and lack of access to adequate education and health services.

For hundreds of years, the women’s rights movement has campaigned to eradicate rules, attitudes, stigma and traditions that are not in favor of women. The women’s movement has developed in the digital era, such as the global #MeToo campaign highlighting gender-based violence, including sexual violence, and also the #Enactment of the Draft Bill on the Elimination of Sexual Violence which calls for rules to eliminate sexual violence in Indonesia.

Why is it Important for Women’s Rights to be Protected?

Woman = human. Women’s rights are human rights!

Human rights apply universally to all people. This means that everyone has the right to protection of their human rights and freedoms. The fulfillment of each of our rights must also be equal for all people, and free from discrimination.

Gender Equality in Education

In the context of gender bias, bias arises through belief in stereotypes of certain individuals or groups based on gender, which influence differences in treatment between men and women. Higher education participation does not continue with the high participation of women in economic activities. This means that despite gender participation in higher education, gender equality has not been fully achieved. The report further explains that this is closely related to the norms and practices prevailing in society regarding the roles of men and women, thereby affecting women’s opportunities related to education, professions, and access to infrastructure. Several factors lead to low gender equality, including too early a marriage age and an unequal distribution of child-rearing responsibilities. The report also mentions structural factors such as many women working in the informal sector and low productivity economic activities.

Equal rights in education This makes gender equality in education important. Gender equality in education can be achieved through three things, namely the right to education (right to education), the right to the educational process in an environment that supports gender equality (right within education), and the right to educational outcomes that support equitable achievement (rights through education) (EFA GMR 2003/2004). The right to education at this time may have begun to be achieved with the high participation in education by women. However, much still needs to be addressed regarding rights in the educational process. There are still many textbooks that do not provide examples and models that support gender equality.

One of the studies conducted in Indonesia and other Muslim countries found that even though the depictions of women and men were equal in number, the depictions were still biased (Assadullah, 2020). For example, in textbooks, female characters are more often depicted and placed in the context of domestic work, while male characters are in the context of professional work. This is an indication that in the educational process, gender stereotypes give rise to gender bias which operates through normative standards that encourage rejection and social sanctions (Heilman, 2012). Gender stereotypes regarding male and female professions in textbooks give rise to gender bias and norms regarding profession selection.