In January 2016, the United Nations (UN) began making tremendous efforts toward sustainability, the idea that current and future generations should have equal or greater access to social, economic, and environmental resources, through sustainability development, development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, that would finish by 2030. The nations created 17 goals, but not all countries have legal repercussions if they don’t actively work toward sustainable goals, although it is highly encouraged. One of the social goals that the UN wants to tackle by 2030 centers around gender inequality.
Women’s rights are increasingly at risk. Countries have taken away the right of bodily autonomy and access to education and healthcare, and more pressingly so, the death of women and girls has risen despite efforts made in the name of gender equality.
According to the World Bank, while the average score on the Women, Business, and the Law index rose about a half point, it was still recorded at 77.1. This means that women only receive 77 percent of legal rights compared to men. This includes last year’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to an abortion. Legal rights can also pertain to the right to education. The gender gaps in education can be quite wide; illiteracy rates are tripled for women when contrasted to men in some Middle Eastern and North African countries. Not only is the accessibility different for men and women, but so is the quality, with women’s education being poorer than men’s.
