Gallopedia Highlights- Week # 126

Dated 27^th June- 3^rd July, 2010

This week’s report consists of 24 surveys. 2 of these are multi-country surveys. 9 polling organizations have been represented.

ASIA zone-3 national polls & 1 Multi National poll:
West Asia: Turkey

Middle East & N Africa: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine

South Asia: Pakistan, India

Northeast Asia: China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan

Southeast Asia: Indonesia

AFRICA zone- 2 Multi National polls:

West Africa: Nigeria

Central Africa: Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi

EURO-AMERICAS zone-18 national polls & 1 Multi national polls:

East Europe- Russia, Poland

West Europe- France, UK, Spain, Germany

North America- U.S.A, Canada
Latin America- Argentina, Mexico, Brazil

Australasia: New Zealand, Australia,

CYBER WORLD: 1 poll

Commentary:

TOPIC OF THE WEEK
CHANGING PERCEPTIONS ON GENDER EQUITY

(Pew Research Center): Fifteen years after the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women’s Beijing Platform for Action proclaimed that “shared power and responsibility should be established between women and men at home, in the workplace and in the wider national and international communities,” people around the globe embrace the document’s key principles.

Almost everywhere, solid majorities express support for gender equality and agree that women should be able to work outside the home. Most also find a marriage in which both spouses share financial and household responsibilities to be more satisfying than one in which the husband provides for the family and the wife takes care of the house and children. In addition, majorities in most countries reject the notion that higher education is more important for a boy than for a girl.

Yet, despite a general consensus that women should have the same rights as men, people in many countries around the world say gender inequalities persist in their countries. Many say that men get more opportunities than equally qualified women for jobs that pay well and that life is generally better for men than it is for women in their countries. This is especially so in some of the wealthier nations surveyed. And while majorities in nearly every country surveyed express support for gender equality, equal rights supporters in most countries say that more changes are needed to ensure that women have the same rights as men.

A special in-depth 22-nation survey by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, conducted April 7 to May 8, looks at views on gender equality, done in association with the International Herald Tribune. It suggests that while egalitarian sentiments are pervasive, they are less than robust; when economically challenging times arise many feel men should be given preferential treatment over women in the search for employment.

This is especially true in the predominantly Muslim countries surveyed as well as in India, China, South Korea and Nigeria. In these countries, solid majorities agree that women should be able to work outside the home; yet, most also agree that men should have more right to a job than women when jobs are scarce. For example, about six-in-ten in Egypt (61%) and Jordan (58%) say women should have the right to work outside the home, but even larger shares (75% and 68%, respectively) say the priority should be for men to have jobs.

Majorities in every country polled agree that women should be able to work outside the home. In 17 of the 22 countries, most say they completely agree with this assertion, including at least three-quarters in Brazil (88%), Britain (84%), the U.S. (81%) and Germany (79%).

Solid majorities in virtually every country surveyed say that women should have the same rights as men. This opinion is nearly unanimous in Western European and Latin American countries, as well as in the U.S., Poland, Lebanon, China, India, and South Korea; at least nine-in-ten men and women in these countries express support for gender equality. Only in Nigeria does a majority (54%) reject the idea that women and men should have equal rights.

In 19 of 22 countries, majorities say that a marriage where both husband and wife have jobs and take care of the house and children is a more satisfying way of life than having the husband provide financially while the wife cares for the household.

Publics across the countries surveyed offer mixed views on whether men should have more of a right to a job than women during tough economic times. Majorities in 11 of 22 countries surveyed reject this idea, and this is particularly true in the U.S. and Western Europe. In Nigeria as well as in many Asian and predominantly Muslim countries, however, most respondents say that men should receive preferential treatment when jobs are scarce.

Publics in 18 of 22 countries disagree with the notion that a university education is more important for a boy than for a girl. And in 10 of these countries, many strongly reject this idea; majorities in Lebanon (84%), Brazil (78%), Argentina (72%), Britain (71%), France (70%), Mexico (65%), Germany (64%), Spain (62%), the U.S. (60%), and Kenya (59%) completely disagree that is it more important for a boy to receive a university education. Still, a solid majority in India (63%) and about half in Pakistan (51%), Egypt (50%) and China (48%) say that a university education is more important for a boy than for a girl, and sizeable minorities in several countries agree.

In four of the seven countries where the question was asked, clear majorities of Muslims say that women should have the right to decide if they wear a veil. This view is most widespread in Turkey, Indonesia and Lebanon.

Opinions about who has a better life – men or women –are mixed. In 10 of 22 nations, majorities or pluralities say that, all things considered, men have the better life in their countries. In 10 others, more volunteer that there is no difference than say that life is better for one sex than the other. Only in Japan and South Korea do pluralities say that life is better for women in their countries (47% and 49%, respectively).

SOURCE:http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1639/global-survey-gender-equality-women-rights-job-priority-education-girls

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