Sustainable Development Goal 5: Empowering all Women and Girls - Gender equality towards more healthy generations

Opinion analysis by Alaa El Ghawi, Visiting Contributor

21/12/2021

The UN 2030 agenda consists of seventeen sustainable development goals (SDGs) that were agreed upon by the 193 UN member states in 2015. SDGs are much more interconnected to one another where the achievement of a certain goal is correlated to the attainment of another. First, let us see what the common definition of the SDG is: SDG addresses the needs of the present generation and tries to fulfill those needs at a condition that it will not hold future generations to achieve and sustain their own needs. It is important to ensure when achieving any of the 17 SDGs that it is not at the expense of the next generation. Fundamentally, achieving any of the SDGs will certainly perpetuate among generations if done correctly so that it can be sustained and wouldn’t be temporarily targeted.  Roseboom, T. J. (2020). According to the United Nations, the 2030 UN agenda focuses on what is called the 5Ps that constitute the basis of the 17 SDGs: 1) The welfare of people, 2) Prosperity that means sustained developments and growth, 3) Acquiring peace, 4) Acquiring international collaboration throughout the partnership, 5) Protection of the environment ecosystem, keeping the planet safe. My article will focus on the first aspect encompassing SDG5 which is gender equality. I will argue that achieving gender equality will lead to improved health at various levels by exposing the negative health outcomes of gender inequality. My thesis would be validated by exposing how gender inequality is manifested through violence, food, and education and their direct impact on health.

Violence:

   Women are majorly affected by the violent actions of men especially when referring to a married couple (Garcia-Moreno C, Jansen HA, Ellsberg M, et al). According to UNICEF 2015 the Violence against women, the severity of violence increased drastically through pregnancy this can be due to unmet sexual desires and the physical change that any woman can experience when pregnant. Pregnant women undergoing domestic violence can deliver prematurely leading to adverse effects on the newborn and severe disruption of hormones in their body. For example, increased levels of bloodstream circulating cortisol that can lead to serious health effects like diabetes, heart disease, etc. (Levendosky AA, Bogat GA, Lonstein JS, et al.) Domestic violence also affects children in the house that constitutes a learning machine, their personality is a mirror image to what happened in the house between their parents that are role models for them to imitate. For example, children exposed to domestic violence show less prosaical behavior, and their aggressiveness increases over time. Moreover, violence can be integrated into an individual exposed to violence in his childhood where he might exert it in his household for example. (Cameranesi M, Lix LM, Piotrowski CC). From what is previously said, breaking gender-based domestic violence will diminish all the health outcomes mentioned above.

Food:

      Gender inequality is also manifested through the allocation of food between men and women where in some countries women are malnourished and in other countries obesity is a sign of women beauty. (Kshatriya GK, Acharya SK). Although the manifestations of gender equality (food, violence, education) have a negative effect on women, the transfer of the damage from a generation to another is the key factor to expose here. For example, during gestation, malnourished or obese women will deliver offspring with a high probability of developing cognitive and behavioral issues as well as some diseases that include cardiovascular disease. ( Reynolds RM, Allan KM, Raja EA, et al and Roseboom TJ, van der Meulen JH, Osmond C, et al.).  It is clear that if food is allocated equally, healthy offspring will give their input effectively in the society, leading to healthier societies and good economical standing. (Roseboom, T. J. (2020)

Education:

       Although education seems to not be prevalent here, still in many countries, girls have less schooling than boys and 63 million girls worldwide are facing this inequality as claimed by Desai S and Alva S. Girls are often seen in some underdeveloped countries as caretakers of the children only so that they rarely follow any education path, that leads to unwanted health effects that could be prevented like poorer health at birth and mismanagement of the women reproductive system. The negative outcomes perpetuate meaning that less maternal education will lead to less educated children in the society. The lack of proper education will lead to a scarcity of specialist workers later in the job sector rendering a country undeveloped on different levels (Walker SP, Wachs TD, Gardner JM, et al.) A study conducted by Chen Y, Li H. showed that children living with an educated mother will acquire more complete growth and cognitive development compared to children born to an uneducated mother.

Gender inequality manifested by violence, education, and the allocation of foods exhibited some serious negative health outcomes that affected women in the short term as well as the children (next generation) in the long term. From that, we can infer that it is illogical to portray SDG 5 as a feminine issue only, because gender equality would not be sustained for the next generation as it is supposed to be (Roseboom, T. J. (2020). Policies of human rights should be visited and studied thoroughly in order to assess whether they need adjustment regarding gender equality since inequalities in gender remain prevalent till this century.                

 Reference page:

Garcia-Moreno C, Jansen HA, Ellsberg M, et al. Prevalence of intimate partner violence: findings from the WHO multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence. Lancet. 2006; 368(9543), 1260–1269.

Violence against women, UNICEF 2015. Retrieved from https://unstats.un. org/unsd/gender/downloads/WorldsWomen2015_chapter6_t.pdf.

Levendosky AA, Bogat GA, Lonstein JS, et al. Infant adrenocortical reactivity and behavioral functioning: relation to early exposure to maternal intimate partner violence. Stress. 2016; 19(1), 37–44.

Roseboom, T. J. (2020). Why achieving gender equality is of fundamental importance to improve the health and well-being of future generations: A DOHaD perspective. Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, 11(2), 101-104. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S2040174419000734.

Cameranesi M, Lix LM, Piotrowski CC. Linking a history of childhood abuse to adult health among Canadians: a structural equation modelling analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019; 16(11). doi: 10.3390/ijerph16111942.

Kshatriya GK, Acharya SK. Gender disparities in the prevalence of under nutrition and the higher risk among the young women of Indian tribes. PLoS One. 2016; 11(7), e0158308.

Reynolds RM, Allan KM, Raja EA,et al. Maternal obesity during pregnancy and premature mortality from cardiovascular event in adult offspring: follow-up of 1 323 275 person years. BMJ. 2013; 347, f4539.

Roseboom TJ, van der Meulen JH, Osmond C,et al. Coronary heart disease after prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine, 1944-45. Heart. 2000; 84(6), 595–598.

Desai S, Alva S. Maternal education and child health: is there a strong causal relationship? Demography. 1998; 35(1), 71–81.

Walker SP, Wachs TD, Gardner JM, et al. Child development: risk factors for adverse outcomes in developing countries. Lancet. 2007; 369, 145–157

Chen Y, Li H. Mother’s education and child health: is there a nurturing effect? J Health Econ. 2009; 28, 413–426.