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Gender, Environment and Corruption

 Gender, Environment, and Corruption

Gender, Environment, and Corruption (image: Getty)


Written by: Clare Sohn (high school student intern, June/July 2021)

Gender Inequality
In our world nowadays, gender inequality is a prime issue regarding the social process by which men and women are not treated equally. This can be in means such as but not limited to distinctions created by cultural norms, the prevalence in the society, and more. However, it creates a major divide in the 21st century as these distinctions are empirically grounded while others appear to be socially constructed. 

In everyday life, gender discrimination is present through multiple matters whether it be lack of mobility, professional lifestyles, citizenship, and an abundance more.[1] According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), in the workplace specifically, the top issues fueling gender inequality consist of unequal pay, or not even being hired in the first place. 

But why is gender inequality still present even if it has been a roaming concern since the early second century BCE? 

There are a variety of factors that play a role however, the primary and most simply stated can be as a result of the stereotypical norms that women and men are seen and expected to occupy. 

Environment
Speaking in the most literal dictionary definition, ‘environment’ means ‘surroundings’. Hence, we can identify the environment as the place in which we live and the climate around us. But how does it directly correlate to the issue of gender inequality?[2] 

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #5, gender equality, states that by the year 2030, the United Nations would like to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. This means equal pay, job opportunities, and more to ensure that all genders are treated equally with the same respect. 

Current issues we face regarding the environment are unfair rights to land, natural resources, and biodiversity. Simply explaining, women and men are not given equal powers to own land as men are usually prioritized. As a result, women’s accessibility to natural resources and biodiversity is limited resulting once again in a gap between the genders. 

Why is this an issue? 

As many perceive, the primary job of women is to take care of the family by providing water, food, and clean clothes. However, due to the unjust rights to land, and natural resources, women are unable to access land for the necessities hindering their productivity impacting food security in households. 

Presence of Corruption
From a broad perspective, corruption is present everywhere in the world as it ideally means ‘dishonesty for one’s personal gain’. As a result, there are gendered impacts of corruption. For example, it is evident that men and women experience corruption in different ways as women are particularly down viewed giving a rise to disproportionate rights to public services, and natural resources as mentioned earlier.[3] 

The primary reason presented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is due to the fact that women are less likely to speak up or file a complaint about injustice. “In all excitement about the potential of exploiting supposed feminine virtues in the fight against corruption, we might overlook the challenge of combating corruption in ways that respond to women’s concerns.” is the United Nations reaction to gender corruption. 

What are the actions that have been implemented to prevent gender corruption? 

Within the past couple of decades, the anti-corruption policy has been created to ensure that appropriate anti-corruption and bribery procedures are in place in the world to avoid inequality and justice.[4] For example, in 2010, the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. The Bribery Act has been put into place to help the nations better understand the law and other regulations regarding corruption. 

Hence, it can be viewed that the primary function of anti-corruption is to target bribery assigning responsibility to organizations engaging in dishonest and corrupt practices. 

Personal Intake
Being a high school girl, my views on the topic of gender inequality, and corruption may differ from others. However, the general consensus is fairly similar to the overarching theme that gender inequality is not morally right hence the corruption that comes with it can also be prevented to an extent. 

As the world is not a perfect place where people can change overnight, it will take time but I believe that there can be a decrease in corruption rates if gender gaps are narrowed. This would mean giving free and equal rights to women to take actions such as buying/owning land, easy access to resources, and more without being restricted due to their gender. It truly hurts me to see that gender corruption is still a major issue knowing that it has been present for decades which shows that clearly, not enough initiative is being taken into account. 

In order to help the world improve, I would recommend schools to educate students on what gender corruption is. Being a student myself, I have learned what gender inequality is, however, I only recently learned that corruption could exist simply between genders. By educating the people of the future generation on this serious matter, I believe that we can hope for a positive change as awareness on the subject will be gained. 

Of course, legislative acts, amendments, etc. can be made to help, nevertheless, I think that it will be beneficial to educate people in an everyday setting such as school. In conclusion, for the future, I aspire to look forward to a more clean and anti-corrupt environment with no separation between the segregation of gender with the implementation of further educating the public on this serious matter. 

References:

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