The Ipsos Almanac

Women’s rights

June: the US Supreme Court overturns the Roe vs Wade ruling on abortion

19 December 2022

Women’s rights: still a challenge

2022 showed that trends towards more liberal values are not irreversible. The overturning of Roe v Wade in America means that up to 58% of American women of childbearing age – about 40 million women – live in a state that could deprive them of this right or drastically limit it. This decision shows the fragility of achievements and rights, particularly of women.

In France, for example, women had to wait until 1944 to vote and until 1965 to open a bank account on their own, manage their own property as they want and work without the prior consent of their husband, until 1975 to be able to have an abortion within a legal framework, and until 2000 to have equal access with men to electoral positions (French Parity Law requires that electoral list are 50% women candidates). Also in France, homosexuals ceased to be considered mentally ill only in 1990 and discrimination based on sexual orientation did not become illegal until 2003.

In most developed countries, people simply have not had to go through social struggles equivalent to those of their parents and grandparents in order to obtain new rights. However, there is a tension between developments that empower women and the questioning of their rights, while women are the world's most powerful consumers and their impact on the economy is growing every year.

Ipsos | Almanac | | Women's rights | Korea

Empowering women: South Korea and Indonesia

In South Korea, the number of women experiencing career interruptions decreased from 22% in 2015 to 17.4% in 2021. Some 47.9% of women had entered the labour market in 2010 compared to 51.2% in 2021 (vs. an average of 70% of men in the same period). Meanwhile, in 2016, 59% of women held the view that household chores should be shared equally by husband and wife, a figure which rose to 67% in 2020 (the increase is equivalent for men, from 48.1% in 2016 to 57.9% in 2020). Learn more on women's economic empowerement in South Korea here.

In August 2022 in Indonesia, the G20 Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment highlighted the importance of formulating and strengthening countries’ commitments to future steps, as well as developing concrete actions to close gender gaps and support women’s empowerment globally, particularly in a post-COVID-19 global economy. Indonesia promoted three priorities related to gender and women’s empowerment issues: the care economy post COVID-19; closing the digital gender gap; and women’s entrepreneurship. Indonesia also had the opportunity to share its stories about women’s empowerment in the special event “Indonesia’s Experiences in Women’s Empowerment”, which discussed Indonesia’s best practices in supporting women’s empowerment from the perspective of the private sector.

Saudi Arabia is one interesting example of cultural change

A few years ago, Saudi Arabia’s historic decision to allow women to drive was a flagship measure of the Kingdom’s reform agenda. It was a strong change and symbol in line with the ambitious “Vision 2030” and the National Transformation Program intended to “empower women and materialise their potential”. This increase in empowerment has impacted lifestyles, professional life, labour, economics and has even created a new occupation for women: selling cars to a new female clientele. According to the same vision, Saudi authorities announced that women would no longer need the permission of male guardians to apply for a passport, travel, register childbirth, marriage or divorce, study at university, undergo surgery or get a job, following decrees issued by His Majesty King Salman.

Ipsos | Almanac | Women's rights | Japan

Japan embodies the tension between traditions and women’s aspirations

In 2022, the World Economic Forum’s Report on Gender Equality revealed that Japan was 116^th out of 146 countries in terms of gender equality. Yet, unlike countries with similarly low rankings, gender inequality is not an obvious feature of everyday life in Japan. It does not manifest in overt, oppressive or aggressive ways. In fact, most Japanese women would likely be unwilling to trade places with Japanese men, who carry their own burden of gender-based expectations.

An advanced society in so many ways, Japan lags far behind other industrialised nations and its Asian neighbors in achieving gender equality. Yet, among Japanese men and women, there is seemingly ambivalence around issues of gender inequality in Japan. Contributing factors include the way that issues of gender inequality are framed, the cultural context, and how the institutional and social context reinforces ideas and practices, limiting ideas about what men and women can do and be.

A belief that gender differences are natural and necessary is deeply internalised, so that both Japanese men and women do not question the status quo. Yet, enabling all of Japan’s citizens to achieve their full potential in a more gender-equal society could unleash enormous benefits economically, societally, and individually. Without a doubt, greater gender equality is essential to achieving a more prosperous, more hopeful and healthier Japan. While the status quo may seem like the easier path in the short-term, Japan’s continued lagging behind on gender equality issues is creating missed opportunities and holding its people back from a far brighter future.

Questioning women’s rights and parity

Women’s rights are challenged across the world, not only in the US, but also in places such as Poland where – as of 2020 – abortion is only authorised in cases of rape, incest, or if the life of the mother is in danger. Or in Hungary, where – as of 2022 – women are forced to listen to the fetal heartbeat before a doctor is allowed to perform an abortion.

Carried out by Ipsos for the Women's Forum for the Economy & Society among 3,500 citizens of G7 countries, the third edition of the Barometer on Gender Equity reveals that 74% feel that there is inequality between women and men in terms of social, political and/or economic rights in their country. Men are less likely than women to agree that “gender inequality at work is a real problem” (74% of women agree vs. 59% of men) and that “women are less likely to succeed” (70% of women agree vs. 59% of men). In addition, many women continue to experience unacceptable behaviour at work and stereotypes clearly persist: 46% of respondents still think that "you can’t have it all, if you want to be a good mum, you have to accept to partly sacrifice your professional career”; and 31% of working women have felt strong pressure regarding choices in their reproductive or personal lives (being a mother or not, being single, etc.), a figure that reaches 37% for women in management positions.

All this proves that the road to real gender equality is still a long one, that advancements are much more fragile than we imagine, and that raising people's awareness of human rights is more significant than ever.