10 Examples of Gender Inequality in the World

1. Lack of Mobility

Women are forbidden to drive in Saudi Arabia, despite numerous protests, and
must rely on their fathers or husbands to get from place to place. In countries like
Egypt and Bahrain, husbands have the right to stop their wives from leaving the
country while other countries require written permission from a husband to travel.

2. Freedom of Marriage

According to the U.N., 40 percent of young women in South Asia and sub-Saharan
Africa are married by age 18. Child marriage not only increases the chance of
complications of giving birth that often prove fatal, but also contravenes the
fundamental human right of choice of partnership. In Pakistan, women are
expected to accept arranged marriages and refusal can lead to “honor killings” that
typically go uncontested by the government.

3. Discriminatory Divorce Rights

In most of the Middle East, countries are governed by religious ideals and gender
inequality is pervasive. As men are typically viewed as superior, they can divorce
their wives relatively easily and even through mere oral renunciation. Women, on
the other hand, face many more challenges. In Lebanon, abused women do not
even have the right to file for divorce unless an eyewitness is willing to testify.

4. Citizenship

With the exception of Israel, Iran, Tunisia, and parts of Egypt, women in the
Middle East do not have the right to pass citizenship on to their children while men
have the ability to not only pass it to their children, but also to their non-national
wives.

5. Frontline Combat

While allowed to participate in the army, women are still not permitted to serve in
frontline combat in Turkey and Slovakia. As recently as 2016, this gender
inequality persisted in the U.K. as well.
6. Custody Rights

In some countries, the courts automatically grant custody rights to the father, and
women are left without any means of financial support. For example, in Bahrain,
family laws are not systematized, enabling judges to deny mothers custody of their
children.

7. Violence

Unequal legal rights make women increasingly vulnerable to violence. One of the
most obvious forms of violence against women in the world today is that of
spousal rape. India’s recent ruling that rape laws do not apply to married couples
clearly illustrates the sexual subjugation and violence to which women remain
exposed.

8. Professional Obstacles

Even in developed countries, women are at a disadvantage when it comes to

earnings. The highest-paying fields are still dominated by men, and on average,
women earn just 77 percent of what men earn for the same amount of work. At this
rate, it could take a full 45 years before this gender inequality disappears.

9. Restricted Land Ownership

In some countries, customary or religious law effectively prohibits the ownership

of land by females, even if their constitution claims equal rights. In many countries
like North Sudan, Tanzania, and Lesotho, land ownership and control tends to go
to the male head of the household. In Zambia, women and men are allowed to
acquire a registered land title, but customary land tenure is also recognized making
it unlikely for a woman to be allocated land without the approval of her husband.

10. Access to Education

Women make up more than two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults, and access to
education is especially a problem in Afghanistan where groups that oppose female
education attack many schools. Female rights are also compromised due to limited
awareness of what they should be entitled to, which could only be remedied
through greater access to education.