Gender Equality/ Sustainable Development Goal Essay

Reflect on global issues in healthcare (Gender Equality) and address the following in your presentation:

Briefly describe the Sustainable Development Goal (Gender Equality) and the identified vulnerable population.

Analyze current healthcare policies that impact Gender Equality.

Explain the reason why you selected Gender Equality on a global scale and why it is relevant to the vulnerable population.

Discuss why global Gender Equality laws should be implemented and achieved, including why there should be funding to implement Gender Equality.

Please include an intro and conclusion. 

*for reference - https://sdgs.un.org/goals. Gender Equality/ Sustainable Development Goal Essay

Introduction

All through the world, women and girls still face a lot of discrimination coupled with limited resources on the basis of their gender. The fight towards gaining gender equality is one that has been going on for many years. Gender inequality has brought lots of adverse effects to girls and women all over the world. It is vital that the potential of girls is honored because girls also have the ability to become anything and anyone they want. This paper looks into the role the Sustainable Development Goal 5, is playing to achieve gender equality.

Brief description of Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality and the vulnerable population

Gender equality is a major human right that many women and girls are not experiencing. It is vital that girls and women worldwide have equal opportunities and rights and live free of all kinds of discrimination and violence. SDG 5 is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals That the United Nations established in 2015. SDG 5 aims at achieving gender equality and empowering girls and women. It contains 14 indicators and 9 targets (United Nations, 2021). Gender Equality/ Sustainable Development Goal Essay

Out of the 9 targets, 6 are outcome-oriented. The first outcome is to end all forms of discrimination against girls and women globally. The other one is to end violence as well as exploiting girls and women. It also intends to eliminate harmful practices like child forced and early marriage together with female genital mutilation. The other outcome of SDG 5 is the increment in value of unpaid care and the promotion of shared domestic responsibilities. Additionally, it seeks to ensure that women fully participate in decision-making and leadership. The final outcome is ensuring there is universal access to reproductive rights and health (United Nations, 2021).

The other three targets are the means to achieve the other targets. They include the facilitation of women empowerment through technology; ensuring equal rights to economic resources; and the adoption, strengthening, and enforcement if legislation for gender equality. The UN hopes to achieve all the targets of SDG 5 by 2030. The vulnerable population targeted by this SDG are girls and women across the globe.

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Current healthcare policies impacting Gender Equality

An example of healthcare policy that impacts gender equality is the Affordable Care Act, casually known as Obamacare. Before this policy, women were required by insurance companies to pay higher insurance premiums compared to men. This was based on the premise that human tend to require more healthcare services because of pregnancy issues. However, with Obamacare, insurance companies are required to charge a similar amount no matter the gender.Gender Equality/ Sustainable Development Goal Essay

However, the Act,may present some areas of gender inequality in a way to the American healthcare industry. The policy views male reproductive health services such as Viagra standard parts of male healthcare. On the other hand, this is not the case for women. Contraception has not been put as an integral part of the healthcare of women despite their sexual activity. This thus presents a social inequality for women in the area of sexual health.

Reasons for selecting Gender Equality on a global scale and its relevance to the vulnerable population

I looked at a number of issues when I decided to choose gender equality on a global scale. Girls and women, who are most vulnerable to gender inequality represent almost a half of the world’s population, if not more. That means half of the world’s potential is at stake. At the same time, it in not something that only affects people of a certain nation. Rather, women all over the world are affected by it. Other than being a fundamental human right, gender equality is essential for achieving peaceful societies, characterized by sustainable development and full human potential.

According to many studies, women empowerment is associated with economic growth and productivity. Looking at gender equality from a global scale is relevant considering the fact that women and girls around the world experience the same challenges. Women all over the world face issues when it comes to equal access to education, job opportunities, and healthcare. This does not mean that men are not affected but the disparities are only common among women and girls. Most importantly, gender equality is something that the whole society benefits from. A world where opportunities are granted to everyone despite looking at their gender is greatly satisfying. Lastly, looking at it from a global scale helps in coming up with solutions that cater for whole people. Thus, despite the country one may go to, gender inequality will not be a story they would tell.Gender Equality/ Sustainable Development Goal Essay

Reasons why global gender equality laws must be implemented

            Gender equality almost seems like a lost course nowadays. Although some progress has been made, it still looks impossible to achieve it. To achieve gender equality, global gender equality laws need to be implemented soon because of the benefits that come with it. The first reason why these laws need to be implemented is that lives are depending on it. For the lack of resources and empowerment, girls and women face great risks that are even life threatening (Vokić, Obadić, &Ćorić, 2019).

Additionally, the implementation of these laws will help in ensuring better healthcare for the vulnerable population. At the same time, it will be good for many economies throughout the world. The impact of women on world economy cannot be overlooked. Again, the implementation of these laws will ensure there are better protections for the vulnerable populations. Generally, implementing these laws will result in world peace, which is vital for many things to happens.

Why funds should be available for the implementation of global gender equality laws

The implementation of global gender equality laws is not a cheap process. These global laws need to be passed and facilitated by different parliaments all over the world. Having effective parliaments is a vital part of achieving democracy. These parliaments need to be supported to ensure they operate democratically and transparently. Through parliaments, laws are passed that are vital to achieving gender equality. One of the ways of supporting parliament is through funding so that everything runs smoothly (Palmieri, 2018). Funding is thus a major part of the implementation of these laws to ensure every country is on board and speaking the same language. These laws need to be adopted by each country so that no country is left behind in the road to achieving gender equality globally.Gender Equality/ Sustainable Development Goal Essay

Conclusion

Gender equality issues cannot be ignored any longer. Women and girls everywhere are suffering due to gender inequalities. As such, the potential of girls and women has been trifled. The empowerment of girls and women is something that needs to be taken seriously given that they take up over half of world’s population. SDG5 has done a good job trying to achieve gender equality. Although we are not yet there, there is hope at the end of the tunnel.

References

Arora, P., & Desai, K. (2016). Impact of Affordable Care Act coverage expansion on women’s     reproductive preventive services in the United States. Preventive medicine, 89, 224-229.

Palmieri, S. (2018). Gender-sensitive parliaments. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics.

United Nations. (2021).  SDG Indicators. Unstats.un.org. Retrieved 9 February 2021, from             https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2020/goal-05/.

Vokić, N. P., Obadić, A., &Ćorić, D. S. (2019). Gender Equality Initiatives and Their Benefits.    In Gender Equality in the Workplace (pp. 75-104). Palgrave Pivot, Cham. Gender Equality/ Sustainable Development Goal Essay