Tongue in cheek: UN gives list with a twist for top 10 countries that achieved gender equality

Gender inequality continues to be a fundamental impediment to human progress. Girls and women have made significant progress, but gender equality has yet to be achieved.

According to the United Nations, no country in the world has achieved gender equality, and no country will be able to achieve gender equality by 2030 based on current growth rates.

Twenty-five years after the United Nations' Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action pledged to "remove all barriers to gender equality and the advancement and empowerment of women," support for gender equality is strong around the world, but results are still lacking. 

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Simply put, women are caught in a vicious cycle of poor health, discrimination, and poverty. Their pain isn't over yet.
 

"One in every five women and girls under the age of 50 reported experiencing physical and/or sexual assault by an intimate partner within the previous 12 months," according to the United Nations. 

In September 2015, the United Nations created 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to eradicate global poverty, reduce gender inequality, and enhance literacy, among other things.

A total of 193 countries have pledged to work on it.

Despite the fact that a few governments and organisations claim to be tripling their efforts, 1.4 million women and girls are still victims of discrimination, abuse, and misogyny.

The UN said the "economic divide continues to reinforce the gender divide, contributing to higher rates of unemployment and illiteracy among women when compared to men,".

Facts and figures by the United Nations

At least 200 million women and girls in 30 countries have had FGM, and 750 million women and girls were married before the age of 18.

In the 30 nations where the practise is prevalent, the rate of girls aged 15 to 19 who are subjected to FGM (female genital mutilation) has decreased from one in every two girls in 2000 to one in every three girls in 2017.

Husbands can legally prevent their wives from working in 18 countries; daughters and sons do not have equal inheritance rights in 39 nations; and domestic abuse is illegal in 49 countries. 

Within the last 12 months, one in five women and girls, including 19% of women and girls aged 15 to 49, had been subjected to physical and/or sexual assault by an intimate partner.

Despite this, there are no laws in 49 countries that particularly protect women from such assault.

Women have made significant gains in political office around the world, but their representation in national parliaments is still far from equal at 23.7 percent.

Women now hold more than 30% of seats in national parliaments in at least one chamber in 46 nations.

Only 52% of married or in a union women have the freedom to choose their own sexual interactions, contraception, and health care.

(With inputs from agencies)