The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Report 2023 on the Social Gender Norms Index notes that gender bias is still entrenched in the world after a decade of stagnation. This index includes four dimensions: political integrity, educational integrity, economic integrity, and physical integrity.

Even today, 90% of the world’s population surveyed still harbors prejudices against women, almost 50% believe that men make better political leaders, and more than 40% believe that men make better business leaders than women.

The report also highlights the dichotomy between women’s educational progress and their economic position: “Women are more skilled and educated than ever, but even in the 59 countries where women are now better educated than men, the average gender pay gap is reaching staggering levels Size.” 39% in favor of men. »

While acknowledging that movements against gender equality are gaining momentum in many parts of the world, UNDP also notes that the proportion of people who do not have prejudice has also increased, whatever the indicator.

So much for the global portrait, but what about Canada?

According to the UNDP survey, 41.14% of Canadians have sexist prejudices, more than in New Zealand (27.91%), Sweden (27.91%), the UK (29.6%), the Netherlands (30.64% ), Australia (34.83%). , Germany (37.45%) and Norway (40.93%). Therefore, it is possible to do better. In addition to introducing laws and policies that recognize women’s rights in all walks of life and allow for greater representation of women in decision-making processes, which Canada is already doing, the UNDP recommends addressing societal norms directly through education to change attitudes.

It is interesting to note that gender bias data is compared to that across the world Inglehart-Welzel culture mapthat the countries with the least prejudice are those that have secular values ​​(indicating a largely restricted role for organized religion) and that emphasize high levels of individual autonomy.

On the other hand, countries where more than 95% of citizens have sexist prejudices belong to those countries that give more importance to religious teachings in their society and where parental responsibilities in organizing life are more pronounced at the expense of self-expression values . Countries with a high proportion of Muslims, such as Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Mali, Pakistan and Palestine, fall into this category, as do Christian countries such as Haiti, the Philippines and Rwanda.

This portrait seems to suggest that fundamentalist religious values ​​and gender biases that hinder women’s equality are closely related. However, there is hope. According to the inventors of the Inglehart-Welzel Culture Map, the latter is evolving: “As more people become wealthier, more educated, live longer, and bear fewer children, their offspring become more secular and more expressive of their moral values.” […]. Thus, humanity as a whole finds itself in the midst of emancipatory moral progress, despite persistent cultural differences. »

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