Key Features Of The Sustainable Development Goal Of Gender Equality

Key Features Of The Sustainable Development Goal Of Gender Equality

1. Main aim of the chosen SDG:

The aim of the critical analysis is to discuss about the aim and key features of the Sustainable Development Goal of gender equality. The aim of the SDG is to promote gender equality and empower all the female groups. Some of the goals that were highlighted were to promote women’s equal participation in decision making and prevent violence against women. The significance of the SDG is that it focused on the burden for the women during the pandemic too and revealed the impact that the pandemic can have on issues such as unpaid domestic and care work. Key Features Of The Sustainable Development Goal Of Gender Equality

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2. Main features of the current crisis relating to the SDG:

The SDG of gender equality will focus on addressing the current crisis of gender disparity and violence against women. The current challenge is that the violence against women has intensified during the pandemic. According to United Nations (2022), one in every three women is subjected to physical and sexual violence in their lifetime. It has increased further during the pandemic. In addition, the report highlighted that around ten million females will be at risk of marriage in the early age in the next 10 years and another 100 million is projected to become child bride. The report by AIHW (2020) revealed that around 6, 39, 000 Australian women experienced incidence of sexual assault in the next 10 years. As it is a major wellness issue that can contribute to physical injuries, mental health effects and disruption to day-to-day activities, SDG 5 aimed to address disparity for the women group. The women will be empowered by changing community attitudes and beliefs against sexual violence. Online dating services and social media application increases the incidence of sexual violence and the targeting the use of these technologies is important too.

The SDG 5 also aims to address physical violence against women. The key highlights of this issue are that it affects mostly Indigenous women, young women and the pregnant women group. Domestic and sexual violence is a public health threat in Australia. Reports show that one in every five women and one in every twenty men have been sexually assaulted in Australia, thus showing that the issue is more pronounced in females. In addition, around 1.6 million women have experienced physical or sexual violence by their partner. Because of the above incidence, the rate of hospitalization has increased too. There is a need to focus on more vulnerable groups so that gender quality is maintained and health equity is maintained for all. It is a significant crisis as violence against women is estimated to cost $21.7 billion a year. By focusing on the factors associated with gender inequality, physical violence can be addressed too as those factors are consistent predictors of violence (VicHealth, 2017)Key Features Of The Sustainable Development Goal Of Gender Equality.

Apart from social and economic cost, violence against women can influence health outcomes too. Women who are victim of physical violence have experienced physical concerns such as bruises, abrasions, fractures and broken bones. In addition, it has increased the risk of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV. Incidence of violence has been associated with chronic mental health consequences such as sleeping and eating disorder, self-harm, suicide attempts and poor self-esteem. Women have been found to engage in harmful behaviour such as substance use and harmful alcohol use (Oram,  Khalifeh & Howard, 2017).. Thus, the SDG 5 is likely to minimise physical, behavioural and mental health consequences for women by addressing gender inequality issue.

The Crisis Of Gender Disparity And Violence Against Women

3. Role of groups in Australia in addressing the crisis:

To make the goal sustainable and achieve positive outcomes in the future, it is crucial to interpret what have been done so far to address gender inequality issues and violence against women in Australia. In the past few years, actions have been taken at state level as well as territory level to prevent violence against women. National level action was taken by the Council of Australian Governments by the development of the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Their Children 2010-2020. Due to the effect of this National Plan, two leadership organizations were founded that looked at violence issues for women. In accordance with the National Plan, strategies for the promotion of gender equality and women’s safety were also implemented (VicHealth, 2017)Key Features Of The Sustainable Development Goal Of Gender Equality.

In addition to national level action, community based initiatives were also implemented in Australia to act against violence. One important mass participation was the annual candle   light vigil by the Safe Steps Family Violence Response Centre. This event was planned after the murder of a Melbourne women named Jill Meagher in 2012 (Safe Step, 2020). Social media was used as a platform to increase awareness about the impact of violence against women. The advantage of text message and social media apps is that it is an important construct for cues to action, reinforcement and social support. To achieve the goals of the SDG 5, there is a need to conduct evaluation of past social media campaign and identify strengths and weaknesses (Manikam, 2018).

The Australian government is strongly committed to addressing domestic violence and sexual assault. The initiative involves spending over $50 million dollar for partnership against domestic violence initiative. Following this, around 230 innovative projects were implemented against different types of violence at national and international level. In the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), ACT women’s plan was implemented to provide support and assistance against violence. However, despite the implementation of these initiatives, incidence of violence still persists and there is a need for reform in terms of action plan and community based initiatives (Australian Government, 2010)Key Features Of The Sustainable Development Goal Of Gender Equality.

Personal and professional development to address the crisis:

To address the crisis of gender inequality issues, I would try to meet all victims of physical violence and try to listen to their concerns. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the exposure to risk of physical violence for women has further increased. The access to support became harder for women too. I have planned to get in touch with the victims and listen to their concern. By close interaction and personal interview with the client, the aim is to identify gaps in service and what issues do survivors face in getting support.  In accordance with the above, I will try to advocate for the group. I will get in touch with activists and other social workers who could help such victims. The above initiative could empower disadvantaged women group and improved the possibility of informed responses (World Health Organization, 2020).

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As a member of the health professional group, the professional action that can be taken to address violence against women is to empower the victims by encouraging them to actively report about such incidence. In addition, I would try to actively report about physical violence issues too. The patients will be introduced to their rights and why reporting about violence can protect them from future. The problem with majority of patient group is that they are afraid to report about such violence. However, I will try to use the professional and ethical standards of work to report about violence. Leskošek et al. (2017) argues that all health workers have the obligation to report violence and cooperate with the multi-disciplinary team to address the issue. Disclosure about violence is an essential step to start with preventive steps and the procedure is necessary to protect victims against violence. Shame and feelings of low self-esteem is a common concern for women. Therapeutic communication process can help to address emotional needs of the women group too. Health professionals can provider referral to services that increase skills of women so that they can live independently and without any burden.

 References:

Australian Government (2010). Australian Government Response to United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) request for information on Australia’s work in combating violence against women. Retrieved from: https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/responses/Australiaweb.pdf

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2020). Sexual assault in Australia. Retrieved from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/0375553f-0395-46cc-9574-d54c74fa601a/aihw-fdv-5.pdf.aspx?inline=true#:~:text=The%202016%20PSS%20estimated%20that%201%20in%205%20(18%25%2C,since%20the%20age%20of%2015.

Leskošek, V., Lu?ovnik, M., Pavše, L., Sršen, T.P., Krajnc, M., Verdenik, I. and Velikonja, V.G., 2017. The role of health services in encouraging disclosure of violence against women. Slovenian Journal of Public Health, 56(4), p.220.

Manikam, S. (2018). A literature review on domestic violence campaigns and the use of technology as a prevention strategy. Queensland University of Technology.

Oram, S., Khalifeh, H., & Howard, L. M. (2017). Violence against women and mental health. The Lancet Psychiatry, 4(2), 159-170.

Safe Step. (2020). Safe Steps is Victoria’s 24/7 family violence response centre. Retrieved from: https://safesteps.org.au/

United Nations (2022). Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Retrieved from: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal5

VicHealth (2017). Violence against women in Australia:  An overview of research and approaches to primary prevention. Retrieved from: https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/-/media/ResourceCentre/PublicationsandResources/PVAW/Violence-Against-Women-Research-Overview.pdf

World Health Organization. (2020). Strengthening the health system response to violence against women in Uganda: lessons learned from adapting and implementing WHO guidelines and tools. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/336168/9789240010543-eng.pdf Key Features Of The Sustainable Development Goal Of Gender Equality