Swagata Sen
A clinical researcher by profession, I am an advocate of gender equality and women’s empowerment. I have created this platform to dismantle institutionalized gender discrimination and harmful social practices through systemic changes. Over the last few years, our contributors from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds were able to voice their concerns about a range of issues that are oppressive to women across the world. We are hopeful that our effort will help promote awareness and contribute to changing people mindset about gender roles and norms.
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Women’s Political Empowerment Has Significantly Declined: World Economic Forum
According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2021 by the World Economic Forum, this year, women’s political empowerment has significantly declined globally. The gender gap in politics is the widest out of the four key areas studied – Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. The Global Gender Gap Index or…
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Women’s Leadership Gap -A Critical Missing Piece
Women’s leadership gap – the lack of representation of women in leadership positions in both public and private sectors is a subject of research. In the United States, women hold only 19 percent of board seats, 15 percent of executive officer positions in Fortune 500 companies. The number of female CEOs at these companies is just…
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How Can We Dismantle the Social Construct of Female Beauty?
Women’s bodies and sexuality have historically been used as a commodity to sell everything on earth, from car tires to the household appliances! Women are often depicted as objects of visual and sexual pleasure across television, magazines, media, and entertainment industries. If we look around ourselves, we’ll find hypersexualized and unrealistically perfect female forms almost everywhere.…
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Understanding The Harmful Tradition of Breast Ironing
What is Breast Ironing? Breast Ironing is a harmful cultural practice that continues to perpetuate silently in different parts of the world for centuries. Once a girl’s breast starts growing during puberty, usually, the mother carries out the practice. Where is this custom prevalent? This is primarily practiced in West and Central Africa- Nigeria, Togo, Republic…
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Gender Equality Begins At Home : A Personal Reflection
As a mother of a boy and a girl, I was very conscious about never imposing social gender norms and stereotypes on my children. It was primarily because of my own childhood experience – I was expected to act, behave, and express myself in a certain way since I was nine or ten years old. Since…
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Laid Off? Don’t Miss This Opportunity To Grow
Being laid off in the middle of an economic and public health crisis is probably one of the most difficult experiences one can go through. While it’s understandable that after losing a job the entire focus of a person shifts to finding another job. But, this process could be extremely daunting, leaving one frustrated and depressed,…
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Importance of Introducing Gender Education In Early Childhood
Thanks to the increasing number of feminist movements and activism, globally women’s rights and equality have started gaining momentum over the last three decades. Women’s empowerment, now, is an important developmental agenda in most of the countries. All societies have gradually accepted that women’s equality and empowerment plays a pivotal role in the overall development of…
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COVID 19 pandemic : Unseen Impacts on Women
As the COVID 19 pandemic continues to disrupt lives around the world, most of the countries have enforced some form of lockdown or shelter-in-place to prevent the infection outbreak. Experts have predicted that COVID 19 pandemic would impact every individual in some ways or other. We’ve already witnessed its catastrophic impact on public health and the…
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Why Many Women in India stay Away From The Workforce?
According to the Global Gender Gap report 2020 by the World Economic Forum, India has one of the widest gaps in women’s economic participation and opportunities. India ranks 145th out of 153 countries in the economic participation index. Only around 25% of women, compared with 82% of men in India, work. Apparently Indian women choose…
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Why Can’t Women Escape Abusive Relationships?
Violence against women by their partners is prevalent in all countries, across different socio-economic classes. 1 in 3 women globally faces domestic violence. 1 in 5 women worldwide dies because of intimate partner violence. These are reported data – and we know that there is a huge number of women who can not even report domestic violence.…
