Article October 21, 2013 Issue

Equality: already present

Klaus Herr

Is the equality of the sexes only a vision for the future? Or perhaps even a goal set too high in the clouds for our time? When it comes to the situation of girls and women in many cultures around the globe, these questions are not abstract. In many places girls and women are subject to rape, domestic violence, human trafficking, vicious abuse. Girls who are little more than children become child brides to much older men, and other atrocities occur.

Earlier this year the young education activist Malala Yousafzai gave her first high-level public appearance on the importance of education. A teenager, she was in the news worldwide after being shot by the Taliban because she campaigned for the right of all girls to an education. And it’s worth noting that a global estimate says 77.6 million girls are not enrolled in either primary or secondary education.

As a husband and father, I have witnessed on a much lesser scale the gender-related challenges that my wife and our daughter have faced in different cultures and contexts. Be it on streets in Colombia or in the academic world of Germany, the world has a long way to go until both sexes are perceived to be equal. Nowhere, it can seem, are boys and girls functioning on a level playing field.

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