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SDG5 – Gender Equality

New Vocabulary

  • equality
  • equity
  • trafficking
  • exploitation
  • genital mutilation
  • reproductive health
  • empowerment
  • violence
  • vulnerable

Practice the new vocabulary

Vocabulary for Gender Equality (text version)

Match the words to their definitions

Words

  • trafficking
  • vulnerable
  • equality
    equity
  • reproductive health
  • exploitation
  • genital mutilation
  • violence
  • empowerment

Definitions

  1. when all people have the same opportunities and rights
  2. treating people fairly based on their individual needs
  3. the buying and selling of illegal goods (drugs, humans, etc.)
  4. using someone unethically where they get very little in return
  5. the removal of female sexual organs for non-medical reasons
  6. the well-being of a person’s physical and mental state when making decisions about sex and having children
  7. the ability of having control over one’s own life
  8. behavior that is intended to hurt someone physically
  9. easily harmed or hurt

Check your answers in footnote[1]

Activity source: Vocabulary for Gender Equality by Virginia McHardy, CC BY-NC 4.0

Gender Equality

According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (n.d.), Goal 5 Infographic:

Gender equality is a human right that allows all people to be treated equitably and fairly regardless of gender. Progress toward gender equality is not going well. Harmful practices like child marriage and female genital mutilation are decreasing, but not quickly enough. In fact 1 in 5 young women are married before their 18th birthday. Vulnerable women are susceptible to human trafficking and other types of exploitation. In some countries, they don’t have a say in their own reproductive health. Women still do not have equal opportunities in leadership and management jobs. If things continue like this, it will take 140 years for women to have the same number of managerial positions as men. Many women and other vulnerable genders do not have control over their health either and face violence. To fix this, we need to act quickly. It is important to challenge unfair beliefs, stop harmful practices, change bad laws, and support women as leaders. Investing in gender equality is needed everywhere to promote empowerment for all females.

Canadian Perspective

Goal 5, Gender Equality (text version)

Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls

Self-reported sexual assault and intimate partner violence in the previous 12 months, 2018

Almost 4 in every 100 women have been sexually assaulted. This is three times higher than the proportion of men.

In 2018, 12% of women aged 15 and older reported experiencing intimate partner violence[2] in the previous 12 months.

 

Table 1
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 1. The information is grouped by Selected characteristic (appearing as row headers), Percentage that reported experiencing intimate partner violence in previous 12 months (appearing as column headers).
Selected characteristic Percentage that reported experiencing intimate partner violence in previous 12 months
Women aged 15 to 24 years 29%
LGBTQ2+ [3]women 20%
Indigenous women 17%

Intimate partner violence among young women aged 15 to 24

In 2018, more than 4 in 10 ever-partnered[4] women aged 15 to 19 reported experiencing intimate partner violence in the previous 12 months.

Table 2
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 2. The information is grouped by Age group (appearing as row headers), Percentage that reported experiencing intimate partner violence (appearing as column headers).
Age group Percentage that reported experiencing intimate partner violence
15 to 19 years 43%
20 to 24 years 24%
25 years and older 10%

The proportion of women who reported intimate partner violence was four times higher among women aged 15 to 19 than among than women 25 years and older.

Note: The term “ever-partnered” refers to those who indicated that they had been in an intimate partner relationship at some point since age 15.

Note: Intimate partner violence is a form of gender-based violence and encompasses a broad range of behaviours, including emotional, financial, physical and sexual abuse committed by a current or former legally married spouse, common-law partner, or dating partner.

Distribution of household tasks

Women completed the majority of household tasks during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020

Table 3
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 3. The information is grouped by Household task (appearing as row headers), Tasks done mostly by women and Tasks done mostly by men (appearing as column headers).
Household task Tasks done mostly by women Tasks done mostly by men
Laundry 56% 16%
Meal preparation 48% 16%
Groceries 37% 30%
Household finances 30% 40%

Note: Numbers do not add up to 100% due to households that reported sharing the task equally.

Women and management positions in 2021

Women remain underrepresented in senior management roles.

Table 4
Table summary
This table displays the results of Table 4. The information is grouped by National Occupation Classification (NOC) (appearing as row headers), Proportion of men and Proportion of women (appearing as column headers).
National Occupation Classification (NOC) Proportion of men Proportion of women
Senior management occupations 69% 31%
Specialized middle management occupations 51% 49%

Community spotlight: Women’s Shelters Canada

Women’s Shelters Canada provides leadership, collaboration and a unified voice for shelters that support women and children fleeing violence across Canada.

In 2020, during the pandemic, 65% of shelters reported decreases in admittance during the lockdown due to fears of COVID-19. Additionally, 71% of shelters reduced capacity in accordance with public health measures, but saw an increase in the severity of violence. When measures eased, 54% of shelters reported increases in admittance.

Sources: Statistics Canada, Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces, 2018, Labour Force Survey, 2021, Canadian Perspectives Survey Series, 2020; Women’s Shelters Canada, Shelter Voices Report, 2020.

Source: Goal 5, Gender Equality In Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals Report, 2022 by Statistics Canada, used under Open License

Discussion Questions

Use the new vocabulary words in these discussion questions. Ask and answer in partners or small groups:

  1. What does equality mean to you? Can you give examples of gender equality in your community?
  2. How is equity different from equality? Why is equity important when helping vulnerable groups?
  3. What is trafficking, and how does it affect women and girls? What can be done to stop it?
  4. What are some ways women might face exploitation in the workplace or at home?
  5. Why is genital mutilation considered a harmful practice, and how can we work to end?
  6. Why is access to reproductive health services important for women? How does it affect their lives?
  7. Can you think of ways to empower women in your society?
  8. What are some forms of violence against women? How can communities work to stop them?
  9. Why are some women more vulnerable to harm than others? What can be done to protect vulnerable groups?

Watch the video:

Watch Goal 5 – Gender equality (1 mins) on YouTube

Video source: UNStats. (2022e, July 7). Goal 5 – Gender equality [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kirtWKKAPNs

Gender Equality Video quiz (text version)
  1. True or false? It is common for a woman like Arulrahini to be a farm owner in Sri Lanka.
  2. The percentage of women who are in government leadership positions has only risen [Blank a]______ in 7 years.
    1. 22.4
    2. 26.2
    3. 3.8
    4. 8.2
  3. Match the numbers to the correct blanks to complete the sentence: Globally, only [Blank a] % of females aged [Blank b] to [Blank c] years old are allowed to decide how they want to take care of their own bodies. This includes only [Blank d] countries around the world.
    Numbers: 49, 15, 64, 57
  4. True or false? More women had jobs and worked after COVID-19 than they did before the pandemic.

Check your answers in footnote[5]

Activity source: Vocabulary for Gender Equality by Virginia McHardy, CC BY-NC 4.0

Key Targets for SDG 5

  • 5.1 End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.
    • 5.a Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws.
    • 5.b Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women.
    • 5.c Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels.
  • 5.2 Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.
  • 5.3 Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.
  • 5.4 Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate.
  • 5.5 Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.
  • 5.6 Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences.
Woman working with pliers and shop tools. Photo by Mikhail Nilov, Pexels license

Homework/Assignment:

See if you can find one of the following movies about women’s fight for equality:

  • Hidden Figures (2016)
  • On the Basis of sex (2018)
  • Suffragette (2015)
  • The Glorias (2020)
  • The Battle of the Sexes (2017)
  • North Country (2005)
  • He Named Me Malala (2015)

Write a short summary of the film and then write a reflection based on what you learned from the movie about gender equality.

You can read more about Goal #5 in The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022 from the UN.:

For instructors, please visit York University’s The SDGs-in-the-Classroom Toolkit for lesson ideas

References

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (n.d.). Goal 5 [Infographic]. Sustainable Development Goals. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal5

  1. 1. equality, 2. equity, 3. trafficking, 4. exploitation, 5. genital mutilation, 6. reproductive health, 7. empowerment, 8. violence, 9. vulnerable ↵
  2. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a form of gender-based violence, and encompasses a broad range of behaviours including emotional, psychological, financial, physical and sexual abuse committed by a current or former legally married spouse, common-law partner, or dating partner. ↵
  3. LGBTQ2+ is a category that includes people whose reported sexual orientation is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or another sexual orientation that is not heterosexual. It also includes persons whose reported sex at birth does not correspond to their gender, including those whose gender is not exclusively male or female (regardless of sexual orientation). ↵
  4. The term “ever-partnered” refers to those who indicated they had been in an intimate partner relationship at some point since age 15 ↵
  5. 1. false, 2. c, 3. Blank a - 57, Blank b - 15, Blank c - 49, Blank d - 64, 4. false. ↵
definition

License

DRAFT: SDGs for EAP Learners Copyright © by Donna Naylor and Virginia McHardy. All Rights Reserved.

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