Gender gap due to cultural diversities:

What is inequality index?

The Gender Inequality Index (GII) is an index for measurement
of gender disparity that was introduced in the 2010 Human
Development Report 20th anniversary edition by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP).
According to the report, Iceland took the top spot for the eighth
consecutive year, closing more than 87 per cent of its overall gender
gap, followed by Finland at second and Norway at the third place.
Pakistan’s scores on the four pillars of the global gender gap index
have not improved much from last year, both on the economic
participation and opportunity Pakistan scores at 143rd rank and
education attainment at 135th, as the country has not changed from
last year, the report said.
Pakistan’s poor ranking presents a bleak portrait of the state of modest
progress made on female empowerment and gender equality. In
Pakistan, discrimination against woman starts since her birth. In most
families, a boy is considered more important compared to a girl.
While girls face restrictions at all stages of their lives, they are,
mostly, not allowed to take independent decisions in their lives. Too
much emphasis is put on the way women dress and not on the way
men stare at them for their appearance. Women are asked to cover up;
many women are not allowed to leave their houses without
permission. Women exist among countless restrictions whereas men
are born with a licence to do as they please.
Girls are constantly fed lessons on how to live in society, and until
those changes, there will be no real change in treatment of females in
Pakistan. The horror of honour killing haunts the narrative of women
empowerment, which would remain ineffectual unless there is a
change in mind-sets. A majority of women cannot move beyond the
status patriarchy assigns to them, thereby remaining excluded from
developing necessary skills to be part of the workforce. Employment
is also a very important fact to be considered in gender
discrimination. In Pakistan, 98 percent top managers in banks and
other financial institutions and industrial units are males. This clearly
shows that women are not treated equally as candidates for top
management positions. Males are given priority over females in a
country where females are more in number. Government should
introduce laws that prohibit gender discrimination and offer remedies
for such behaviour in employment as well as in educational and
financial institutions. Although there are signs that male behaviour is
changing and gender discrimination is decreasing, yet a great deal
more needs to be done. Solid measures need to be taken so that
females feel free to take decisions about their life.
To change the mind set of society, the process has to begin at home. It
starts with the mother; in every home, mothers need to educate their
sons. Teach your sons what to do instead of forcing girls to learn what
not to do.