The Root Causes of Gender Inequality

Gender inequality exists when one sex is routinely more or less privileged than the other, with consequences that extend throughout society. Inequality based on gender discrimination keeps women and men, including people along gender identity and sexual orientation spectrums, in poverty, limits the ability of countries to grow economically, and hinders democracy. This is why it is important to understand the root causes of inequality and how to combat it.

The inequality gap between sexes is rooted in patriarchy and the unequal distribution of power, which leads to discrimination against women and girls. Gender discrimination has many different forms and occurs in every part of the world, with disproportionate effects on girls. It starts at birth and is pervasive through life, limiting their potential in the home, in school and in the workplace. Gender equality is a fundamental human right and it can only be achieved by challenging discrimination and creating environments in which everyone, regardless of their gender, can thrive.

Although the world has seen a decline in some forms of discrimination, such as racial discrimination and racism, there is no doubt that global gender inequality continues to grow. Gender discrimination is pervasive and has a variety of effects on societies and people, which include economic disadvantage, poor health outcomes and increased vulnerability to conflict and disasters. These effects are particularly acute for women and girls, who are more likely to live in countries affected by conflict and war, where they are more likely to be excluded from school, be killed or injured in attacks, have fewer opportunities and less access to resources.

This inequality gap is a complex phenomenon that can be caused by many factors, including the differences in economic development between nations, cultural attitudes toward women, and differences in laws on equal rights. In addition, the growth of the world’s population has a powerful impact on inequality trends. This inequality gap is also sensitive to changing assumptions about how to measure inequality and the relative importance of gendered outcomes. For example, a simple average of country statistics may overstate global trends because it weights countries equally but ignores the effect of increasing population size on the world’s share of each outcome.

The global trend of rising inequality can be largely explained by the fact that more unequal nations are growing faster than more equal ones, which pushes global inequality overall upward. Nevertheless, the fact that gender gaps are shrinking in most countries is also important. This is because countries with more equal levels of development and societal norms supporting gender equity are more likely to develop rapidly and enjoy lower inequality levels than those that are less egalitarian. These gaps will continue to shrink as developing countries move away from their colonial past and adopt new laws that support gender equity.