gender inequality in sierra leone
For most girls gender roles start being brainwashed into us from when we are born. Keywords: Sierra Leone, gender, artisanal mining, governance, genre, exploitation minire artisanale, gouvernance. The civil war and the Ebola crisis changed gender norms in favour of emancipation of women. In 2018, 19.8% of women aged 15-49 years reported that they had been subject to physical and/or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months. According to the Gender Inequality Index (GII), Denmark was the most gender equal country in the world in 2021. The female literacy rate has gone from 16.7 percent in 1996 to 23 percent in 2004 (MDGs Sierra Leone). Being that I am a female and I am Sierra Leonean, now I view the inequality and unjust treatment of females in the developing world as a major problem that needs an urgent solution. It proves a permanent truth that the more civilized the people are, the less inequality would be promoted. Gender equality is a term that is commonly misunderstood by many. We've received widespread press coverage since 2003, Your UKEssays purchase is secure and we're rated 4.4/5 on reviews.co.uk. USAID helps empower women in Sierra Leone through continuous sensitization, training in leadership skills, advocacy and planning and entrepreneurship. . The interests of the government in gaining political power over the best national economic interests meant practices such as rent-seeking were prioritised, another opportunity for rife corruption. Believers in equal rights for women are celebrating Sierra Leone's just-passed Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (GEWE) Act, which mandates equal pay for equal work, maternity leave, financial inclusion, and a 30% quota of women in government appointments and private institutions with more than 25 employees (AYV News, 2022). Some of these challenges include lack of economic independence, high illiteracy and entrenched customs and traditions, political violence and reprisals, the absence of progressive laws that protect and promote participation for women, and the lack of confidence to vie for public positions. There have been many problems with the SAPS including devaluation, where the value of local currency has been reduced in attempt to make exported goods more affordable but the knock on effect is that the prices of non-traded items are increased. The women of Sierra Leone have faced and still face grave inequalities, but this issue has started to have some solid improvement. In the course of the campaign for the Parliamentary and Presidential Elections in 2011, the current Equality is giving someone the same opportunity to make them equal. LEWAF's objective is to eradicate gender-based violence in Sierra Leone, dissolve inequality and ensure that societies treat women as valuable contributors deserving of dignity and respect. Since social norms has contributed to the definition of appropriate lifestyle through parenthood, childlessness in women was seen as a deviant from society, which further led to disconnection between parents and childfree women in many contexts. This public health emergency has significantly impacted the right to health and the right to freedom of expression in these three countries. Sierra Leone, saw her small income vanish overnight during the COVID-19 outbreak. Closing these gender data gaps is essential for achieving gender-related SDG commitments in Sierra Leone. But, the country is starting to turn around. In Sierra Leone, schooling and literacy are something not all women are able to experience and accomplish. The legacy of general liberal education under colonialism, whereby positions such as clerks needed to be filled by a literate individual perpetuates in the universal primary education of today where those rural unprivileged will maintain their place in poverty. On this International Womens Day, we celebrate all women, and particularly those leading the charge for equality. This will give justice to these girls and equality and civil rights will not be. The death of a young woman in Sierra Leone, almost immediately after undergoing female genital mutilation, has sparked outrage and revived calls to end the practice.. After independence the politics of the nation consisted of the dominance of one party or military rule, which continued to prevent creation of opposition and bred corruption. In penetrating and clear-eyed fashion, the authors re-analyze the four crucial cases that flirted with the possiblity of comparable worth." . For this score, we use the 72 gender-specific SDG indicators in the Women Count Data Hubs SDG Dashboard for the 193 UN Member States. The goal of the project is to empower women and girls to pursue their potential, free from violence and inequality, focusing on increasing their economic resources, train them on how to voice their priorities and participate in decisions that affect themselves and their homes and strengthen gender-based violence (GBV) response, coordination and referral pathways. In Sierra Leone, UNFPA works to ensure that programmes at the community level are positioned within and supported by sustainable national level institutions. The representations of how mothers are the caretakers of a home affect the younger generations perspective about gender roles because they base ideas and beliefs, With these policies implemented, females will be more represented and schools and narrow the gender gap between males and females and increase the enrollment rate of females in schools. The Government and people of Sierra Leone on Tuesday 28 February, 2017 joined the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) in the official launch of the Heforshe Campaign at the State Hall of the House of Parliament of Sierra Leone. These two characters saw the issues in the equality of the government. that early marriage and teenage pregnancy can have on the lives of girls and their families. Equality can be a wonderful thing in kindergarten. Sudan is a developing nation that faces many challenges in regard to gender inequality. Photo:UN Women/ Cecil Nelson. (Photo: Market women protesters in Freetown). Under analysis by the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (World Bank 2005) it was found that 70% of Sierra Leoneans live in poverty. Later the essay will explore to what extent contemporary policy attempts, specifically Structural Adjustment Plans, have succeeded in breaking the poverty cycle and reducing inequality. How do we provide more awareness to forms of silent and normalized oppression? Information released online before January, 2021. The $40 million estimated tax lost to Sierra Leone from 2009-2016 with Sierra Rutile company is enough to cover the health care of over 67,000 Sierra Leonean women and children for one year under the country's Free Health Care Initiative. Humans frequently face adversity throughout daily lives, whether minor challenges or major hurdles; these problems include unretainable lost objects or the death of a beloved individual. The Women Count Data Hub is made possible by the partners of the Women Count programme, which include the Governments of Australia, Ireland, France, Mexico, Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,Alibaba Foundation and Elizabeth Arden. In Sierra Leone, progress has been made in expanding opportunities for women and girls to promote gender equality and empowerment of women. For example transfer of state resources to the elite. (2002). Nevertheless, gender inequality and denial of women's rights are still prevalent at all . I have seen Latina maids and European nannies, but I never thought about how those women could have been mistreated. This refers to the unequal treatment and lack of equal opportunities for individuals based on their gender, with women and girls often facing discrimination and disadvantage. Health promoters, many of them women, work with lead mothers to promote pro-nutrition actions among pregnant and lactating mothers for their own and their childrens benefit and to encourage mothers to attend prenatal and postnatal care. This book investigates gender equality and women's empowerment in Sierra Leone, focusing in particular on women's interactions with the state and its development partners. We're here to answer any questions you have about our services. If the breadwinner of the household passed away, the entire household would have less income and could be driven deeper into poverty. Imagine being someone who was free, but oppressed in other ways; to be unable to work the same way that a man was no matter how smart you were, to be forced into doing what ladies do; to be stepped over and disregardedall because of the gender you were born as. This year, Sierra Leone has been elevated to a partner country for Irish Aid, with funding for malnutrition and gender inequality including sexual violence. As seen throughout this case study, Ive learned that there is a significant difference of gender inequality in the developing world than those of western, more developed countries and displays just how there needs to be a change in this. Inequality is state of being unequal, particularly in rights, status and opportunities (UN 2015) this could mean in living standards, gender and many other metrics. Tax incentives resulted in massive revenue losses for Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone: Gender Inequalityby Chris Crane. Nevertheless, gender inequality and denial of women's rights are still prevalent at all levels in Sierra Leonean society even though the women for 50.8 per cent of the population. According to The global gender gap index 2021, Iceland has the highest gender equality, indexed at 0.89 whereas the United Arab Emirates has the worst gender equality Ranked at 22. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal government site. 29.6% of women aged 2024 years old who were married or in a union before age 18. UNDP Residence Coordinator, Sunil Saigal signs the HeForShe board. No plagiarism, guaranteed! Some of these challenges include lack of economic independence, high illiteracy and entrenched customs and traditions and the lack of confidence to vie for public positions. We specifically focus on gender equality as a means to significantly reduce inequalities and empower people living in extreme poverty to improve their lives. What surprised me the most were the cultural norms that accepted this unfair decision of females not being able to attend schools because of their gender. After these problems are addressed, it is easy to see how more education can provide a better world for the, Too often remarks such as selfish, self-centered, lacking in responsibility or cold were associated with childfree women (McQuillan et al., 2012). These aspects have not completely disappeared in the modern day; they are just not as blunt as before. Girls and women who are poor, live in remote areas, are disabled, or belong to minority groups continue to lag behind. Sierra Leone has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world - for every 100 000 live births, 890 women die during childbirth. Promoting and protecting human rights requires considerable cultural fluency as UNFPA works in some of the most sensitive and intimate spheres of human existence, including sexuality, gender relations and population issues. Many traditional cultures, including America, teach that men should lead in families, business, and government, but does that still hold true today? In Sierra Leone, a gender gap in education persists, particularly from secondary school onwards where lower levels of female participation are recorded, due in part to forms of violence and discrimination directed against girls. Issues of unequal opportunities for boys and girls continue to be exacerbated by factors such as early marriage for girls, teenage pregnancies and harmful practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). The Sierra Leone Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Bill, which if passed into law by the House of Parliament would require the government to draw up an accompanying policy which is yet to be passed. However, work still needs to be done in Sierra Leone to achieve gender equality. Addressing harmful practices are also covered by raising awareness on both the potential short and longer-term health consequences, human rights violations of FGM, and the negative impact. It is impossible to discuss gender and the influences it has on one livelihood without acknowledging the other aspects of ones identity. The coastal-based capital and disconnections between rural areas and urban means investment in developing transport and ways to exploit the potential of the hinterlands has never been incentivised. This story takes place in Sierra Leone. Enduring Disorder and Persistent Poverty: A Review of the Linkages between War and Chronic Poverty , Peet, Richard. Yet despite the challenges posed by climate change and gender inequality, evidence shows that women are actively contributing to building resilient cities. Women make up much of the farming workforce, says Yeanoh. Ismail Kamara is a Mass Communications student at Fourah Bay College University of Sierra Leone who attended the launch event. 140 years ago, imagine being in bondage, oppressed, maybe even tortured; to have to go about your life constantly under the watch of someone else; to be bruised and beaten and brokenall because of the color of your skin. Equality comes with progress and progress takes time. Gender equality is not something one should have to worry about in this day and age, but sadly most woman in America have experienced these disadvantages. Women are neglected the right to an education due to discriminatory laws and the norms of society that go against the human rights of women. ", Last updated on May 22, 2009 by Ariel Berger. The description is composed by our digital data assistant. Women enjoy limited access to decision-making power, and access to and control over resources. - and in our heart there is the first peace we have known in 20 years., The article forced me to ponder about the existence of unfairness and injustice which inevitably and constantly hinders society because the individual discussed in the article experiences these factors in an unusual and rather extreme circumstance. Here you can choose which regional hub you wish to view, providing you with the most relevant information we have for your specific region. It ranks very low on the gender inequality index (which means it has high levels of inequality . Similar levels appear on the other mid-Asian countries too. As of december 2020, only 41.7% of indicators needed to monitor the SDGs from a gender perspective were available, with gaps in key areas, in particular: unpaid care and domestic work and key labour market indicators, such as the gender pay gap. This cycle of life has been around since . Unnecessary expensive healthcare perpetuates inequality also, it is the corrupt individuals within governmental organisations who gain the extra profit to spend on luxuries whilst the poorest suffer and fall further into poverty. Sierra Leone is the first African nation to fully transition from a paper-based reporting system to an electronic system for weekly aggregate disease reporting at the health facility level. Gender equality is globally the most common form of inequality and remains a major obstacle to the eradication of poverty. The term intersectionality as stated by Susanne Hochreiter offers a way to understand the multiple grounds of identity when considering how the social world is constructed. Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner. The Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPS) consisted of loans and later introduced Poverty Reduction Papers, which paralleled closely to the well-known Millennium Development Goals. Firstly, the only way to decrease the educational gap between males and females is to implement policies that decrease or completely remove school fees for girls and prohibit families from removing their daughters from school before the age of 18. Free resources to assist you with your university studies! In M. Berdal & D. Malone (Eds. Yet gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched across most societies. Go to the current USAID.gov website for up-to-date information, Archive - U.S. Agency for International Development, The Journey to Self-Reliance: Sierra Leone Roadmap, USAID Administrator Mark Green's Meeting with the Honourable Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, Ph.D., Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, USAID Administrator Green Announces PMI Launch and Expansion in West and Central Africa. UN Women Representative to Ethiopia, Africa Union and Economic Commission for Africa; Letty Chiwara commended the Government and people of Sierra Leone for their relentless effort in ensuring that women realize their full potentials. For example in the healthcare system, drugs which were given as aid ended up in pharmacies to be sold for profit, rather than dispersed to those most in need for free, as organisations like UNICEF had intended. Blunt as before away, the less inequality would be promoted away, the country starting. Womens Day, we celebrate all women, and access to decision-making power, and access to decision-making power and. In 1996 to 23 percent in 2004 ( MDGs Sierra Leone ) women and girls to promote gender equality empowerment! Widespread press coverage since 2003, Your UKEssays purchase is secure and we rated! And entrepreneurship just not as blunt as before answer any questions you have about our services gender. 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