Equality is Crucial for Democracy
Global attempts to weaken women’s rights continue to have profound consequences.
Politicians are fond of announcing that “we are entering a new era”. But the unfortunate truth is that this new era does not exactly seem to be a promising one as far women’s rights are concerned.
Not a single country is on track to achieve gender equality, according to the 2024 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Gender Index, the most comprehensive global survey of its kind.
Less than a decade ago, the SDG were established by the international community as part of the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development. This saw 193 countries collectively pledge to eradicate poverty and hunger, find sustainable development solutions, foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies and ensure human rights for all by 2030.
And yet in 2025 we find global solidarity in major crisis. Armed conflicts are proliferating, climate breakdown accelerating, and societies are becoming more hostile, more inward looking and less cooperative.
After years of consistent progess in gender and sexual rights, many parts of the world – including countries that had been championing women’s rights for decades – are now encountering renewed opposition to progress. Resistance – in some cases straight opposition – to equality is evident in efforts to challenge marriage rights, access to abortion, reproductive rights, sex education and anti-discrimination measures.
These rollbacks are taking place amid growing rates of violence against women in the public sphere whether be it politics, journalism or other sectors, including alarming increases in online violence and harassment targeting women and girls.
And yet equality is a crucial feature of democratic societies that protect and promote civil liberties and freedoms. Women's political empowerment is essential for ensuring that decisions are both credible and legitimate. Countries that are stable and democratic are ones that uphold basic freedoms including equality and the right of association and assembly, and in which women are an integral part of political and civic life.
When women and men share leadership and decision-making responsibilities, the positive impact extends across communities, countries and the wider international system.
Evidence clearly demonstrates that involving women in peace processes enhances the success of negotiations and strengthens the implementation and longevity of agreements. A UN study showed that women’s participation increased “the probability of a peace agreement lasting at least two years by 20 per cent, and by 35 per cent the probability of a peace agreement lasting 15 years”.
This year also marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration, a bold international agreement on the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Adopted by 189 countries, it set global targets including in areas such as equal political participation between men and women. Three decades later, despite some progress on issues such as legal protections, equality is still an elusive dream for many.
This is particularly acute in conflict-affected countries. According to UN Women, over 170 armed conflicts were recorded in 2023 and “approximately 612 million women and girls lived within 50 kilometers of these conflicts, a staggering 50 per cent increase compared to a decade ago”.
Instability, crises and democratic decay have created the perfect storm of a major backlash against women’s rights. One of the most extreme examples is that of the gender apartheid rolled out by the Taliban shortly after they seized power in Afghanistan in 2021. The regime has issued over 90 edicts to suppress women’s and girls’ rights, returning Afghanistan to the oppression of the 1990s.
Yet this backsliding does not just affect the countries facing conflict and fragility. An example is the pronatalist movement in Hungary where a series of pro-life policies have been introduced in the past years progressively limiting women’s reproductive choices. These initiatives, ostensibly designed to combat population decline, raise significant concerns about human rights, equality and reproductive freedoms.
We are days away from the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women which will take place at the UN HQ in New York City on March 10. The session will focus on the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and an assessment of current challenges affecting the empowerment of women as part of the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development. We cannot expect a huge amount of optimism at this meeting.
And yet amid the grim situation globally, glimpses of hope still exist, not least the tireless advocacy efforts by civil society organisations and individuals alike. We should remember inspirational examples such as Egyptian writer and women’s rights activist Nawal El Saadawi. She spent decades campaigning against female genital mutilation (FGM) and indeed, before her death in 2021, she saw both Egypt and Sudan finally ban the practice.
“Women are half the society,” she once wrote. “You cannot have a revolution without women. You cannot have democracy without women. You cannot have equality without women. You can't have anything without women.”
The global attempts to roll back gender equality and weaken women’s rights continue to have profound consequences. But while strategies, approaches and language can change, principles are unwavering.
