【明報專訊】Equality should never be taken for granted, and we should remember 19 June 1975, on which men and women gathered together in Mexico City at the first World Conference on Women.
1. The Conference
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly made 1975 ''the International Women's Year''. That year the first Conference took place, which began on June 19 and ended on July 2.
Three aims of work on women's rights were identified at the Mexico City Conference:
1. to promote gender equality and completely eliminate gender discrimination;
2. to support women in participating in development;
3. to strengthen women's power in maintaining world peace.
At the Conference various resolutions to aid women were adopted. A work plan was adopted for securing resources needed by women in education, health care, housing and employment. Female participation in the General Assembly and the meetings of other UN bodies was encouraged.
2. Follow-up and UN Women
Three Conferences were held in Copenhagen, Denmark, Nairobi, Kenya (肯尼亞) and Beijing, China. At the 1995 Beijing Conference the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action was adopted. It shifted the focus from women to the broader concept of gender equality and relations between men and women in various aspects of life. In 2010, four UN offices were merged into UN Women, which began operation in 2011.
3. Women rights nowadays
The World Economic Forum issues annual reports on the global gender gap with regard to four areas - ''economic participation and opportunity'', ''education'', ''political empowerment'', and ''health and survival''. While gender equality is achieved in economics and health care, gender discrimination is still a problem in education and politics. Iceland, Finland and Sweden are the most gender-equal countries out of 136. The Philippines comes first in Asia and ranks 5th globally. China ranks 69th. Japan comes 105th because women are not well represented in parliament. South Korea comes 111th because there are fewer employment opportunities for women in the country and they are paid less.
More women have taken up political roles. South Korean president Park Geun-hye (韓國總統朴槿惠), German Chancellor Angela Merkel (德國總理默克爾), and IMF Chairperson Christine Lagarde (國際貨幣基金組織總裁拉加德) are among the world's female leaders. Women now have greater access to education. In Afghanistan, some woman-specific ''crimes'' including running away from home or ''intending'' to commit adultery have been abolished.
Still there are ''uncivilised'' and ''unreasonable'' practices against women. For example, a Muslim woman may not work without her husband's permission; polygamy (多配偶制) is common in the Islamic world; many Indian girls under 18 are forced to marry old men; female circumcision (割禮) is prevalent (普遍) in some parts of Africa. There have been extreme cases. Female tourists raped in the United Arab Emirates (阿聯酋) have been jailed for ''having extramarital sex (婚外性行為)''.
4. Counter-discrimination?
However, the rise of women's status has sparked debates about counter-discrimination against men. For example, in a divorce case, child custody is likelier to be granted to the mother even if she is less capable of taking care of the child. Female rapists are less likely to be convicted because male victims are less sympathised (被同情). The same goes in cases of domestic violence and spousal murder. In addition, in many countries, military service is compulsory for men but voluntary for women.
