In the past ten years, no progress has been made in reducing gender stereotypes in societies, despite the emergence of women’s rights movements such as MeToo, according to a UN report.

“Social norms based on gender stereotypes are widespread in the world,” among both men and women, with “almost 90% of the world’s population espousing at least one stereotype” of the seven examined by the Program United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

“These biases are widespread among men and women, demonstrating that they are deeply rooted and affect men and women equally,” the report says.

Based on data from the World Values ​​Survey – an international research project that examines the evolution of values ​​and beliefs in the world – from 80 countries covering 85% of the world’s population, UNDP created the Gender Social Norms Index. These figures concern the periods 2010-2014 and 2017-2022.

According to the UN report, nearly nine out of 10 men and women hold fundamental prejudices against women, while the proportion of people who hold at least one prejudice has barely changed over the past decade. In 38 of the countries surveyed the percentage of people with at least one prejudice against women fell to 84.6% from 86.9% a decade ago

For example almost half of the world’s population (49%) still believe that men are better political leaders than women and only 27% believe that it is important for democracy that women have the same rights as men.

In addition, 46% of the world’s population believes that men have more right to work, while 43% that men are better business leaders. Also 28% believe that university education is more important for men

“We need to change gender stereotypes, social norms, but the ultimate goal is to change power relations between women and men,” commented Aroa Santiago, gender specialist at UNDP.

Also worrying are the views regarding violence against women, with a quarter of the world’s population believing that a man is justified in hitting his partner.

These prejudices are “obstacles” for women and lead to “violations” of their rights.

“If we do not address societal gender stereotypes, we will not succeed in achieving gender equality, nor the goals of sustainable development,” warns the report.

“Social norms that limit women’s rights negatively affect society as a whole, retarding the progress of human development,” commented UNDP Director Pedro Conceição.

“The whole world will be a winner if women’s freedom and power are guaranteed,” he emphasized.