Gender Inequality: Academic, Economic, Social and Pandemic Viewpoint

Abstract

The harsh and saddening reality of gender equality cripples the ideology behind human rights. The “modern” world, although moving ahead, is still far behind in providing equal standards to men and women, favouring the former. The paper explains the various types of gender inequalities in detail, broadly classifying them as: academics, economics, social and pandemic. The academic gender inequality highlights the alarming differences in literacy rate of males and females from the year 1901 to 2011 and its impact on the lives of women. Further, it is seen that dropout rates are higher in the case of females as compared to males. Thus, females are often underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. The paper also looks into the contribution of female authors vs. male authors in research areas. The category of the economics of gender inequality discusses the economic factors affecting equality. Inequality at the workforce, its causes and its impacts on the financial independence of women are discussed in the paper, highlighting the effect of women empowerment on GDP. The social factors of gender equality discuss the physical and mental health of women and the violence faced by them in the patriarchal society. In the situation of a pandemic, a rise in gender inequality is seen. The paper discusses the reasons behind this using three scenarios: Ebola virus pandemic of 2014–2016, Zika virus pandemic and the current coronavirus pandemic. Several measures that have been opted to reduce the gender gap are also discussed in the paper.