Skip to content

Paragraph 165(f) of the Beijing Declaration

2022-04-27

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2021/08/09

Strategic objective F.1.

Promote women’s economic rights and independence, including access to employment, appropriate working conditions and control over economic resources

Actions to be taken

165. By Governments:

f. Conduct reviews of national income and inheritance tax and social security systems to eliminate any existing bias against women;

Beijing Declaration (1995)

Beijing Declaration Paragraph 165(f) deals with the concrete without specifics in the lives of women in areas of their lives in which they have been particularly limited in rights, which always boils down to finances. Thinking about some of the contexts for women in these domains, it seems obvious the implications here.

Women lack access to basic finances and even financial institutions without some authority figure over them in their lives. The access to equity of income – same pay for the same skills and the same experience – is essential in a modern dynamic world. All of the parts of the modern world require adaptability on the part of all actors, even more so for those with some advanced form of knowledge or skills.

There isn’t truly a way out of this wave without some mass revolution, which seems unlikely. The Beijing Declaration provides a framework for rectifying past misdeeds against women and inculcating a framework of accountability, institutionally. Whether through reviews of the national income and the inheritance tax, or the provisions in the social security systems, these provide a basis for accountability.

A review of the national income could be broken down by gender or sex. These can used to infer the level of equality or inequality between men and women on incomes. If there is a lot of data, or if comprehensive data collection happens, then this can be broken down by discipline, education level, amount of experience, and the number of hours worked per week.

These can be done. These decisions for a national income review could be implemented within reasonable bounds. The only limitations would be the quality of the information gathered for it. Inheritance tax is another. Inheritance tax is a levy on assets garnered upon the death of a person. All of the stuff someone who recently died passes onto loved ones gets taxed to X degree.

Some straightforward equality queries could focus on the degree to which women and men, wives and husbands, granddaughters and grandsons, and so on, are provided equitably and the ways in which men and women are taxed differentially, potentially. It’s about equality across the board in the area of taxation and inheritance, whether grandpa dies first or grandma dies first.

Social security systems are crucial too. Here, the support networks probably support women more than men because single parents can require support structures more than intact families. It’s rowing with one row rather than two. Whether food stamps or educational subsidies for the kids from K-12, all of this helps with the advancement to a reasonable, stable life. Many times, the main recipients of these benefits will be women.

It is, in this sense, a women’s rights issue when considering the social security systems if integrated with educational access and health and wellbeing rights. All of these can be crucial for women in general. Insofar as I can tell, the core facets emphasized here remain important with national income reviews, inheritance tax reviews, and social security system reviews, to eliminate the inequalities of women compared to men.

—

(Updated 2020-09-27, only use the updated listing, please) Not all nations, organizations, societies, or individuals accept the proposals of the United Nations; one can find similar statements in other documents, conventions, declarations and so on, with the subsequent statements of equality or women’s rights, and the important days and campaigns devoted to the rights of women and girls too:

Documents

Strategic Aims

Celebratory Days

Guidelines and Campaigns

Women and Men Women’s Rights Campaigners

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

From → Chronology, Jacobsen's Bank, The Good Men Project

Leave a Comment

Leave a comment

«
»