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My #2 Question is my final question I'm going to use.

What policies or social changes could Pakistan implement to strengthen gender equality, even in the face of persistent discrimination?

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1 ) How does gender equality (or inequality) affect the social and economic quality of life in Pakistan?

2 ) What policies or social changes could Pakistan implement to strengthen gender equality, even in the face of persistent discrimination?

Question 2 is my final question.

3 ) What actions can women take to challenge gender inequality in their homes, communities, or country?

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I want to research Gender Equality and the persistent unequal distribution of rights, resources, and the opportunities across both genders. The SDG that follows this is #5. I will focus more on Pakistan because the equality in this Middle East region is very poor and can barely stand against its own well being. I do want to research this because Pakistan is the WORST ranked country in this region. The women especially face the most problems because of the heavy discrimination and education they don't receive.

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Gender equality isn’t just about women’s rights it also means breaking harmful expectations placed on men. For the traditional gender norms pressure the men to be emotionally distant, aggressive, or a sole provider which can negatively impact one's mental health, relationships, and their personal freedom. Many men are discouraged from their expressions and their vulnerability to seek help, leading to high rates of depression, substance abuse, and even suicide. In custody battles or domestic violence situations the men may also face bias and lack of proper support. These issues show that rigid gender roles hurt everyone and not just women. Promoting gender equality means giving all people regardless the gender the freedom to define themselves without judgment or pressure. When men are allowed to be caregivers or express emotions they live beyond outdated stereotypes to create a healthier and a more equal society for everyone.

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During the wars and natural disasters women and girls are at increasingly high risk of violence, exploitation, and trafficking. They are often the first and only to lose access to education, healthcare, and jobs while somehow being expected to care for their families under the dangerous and unstable conditions they live in. Sexual violence is frequently used as a weapon, yet justice and protection for survivors is barely a thing. Despite these risks women are also the leaders in peace building and relief efforts to rebuild their communities, although they are rarely included in official decision making. Gender equality is a crisis response means to ensure women's safety by giving them a voice in recovery efforts and recognizing their critical role and creating lasting peace within.

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Trans and non binary individuals face high rates of discrimination in healthcare, education, housing, and employment simply because their identities don’t fit traditional gender norms. Many laws and systems still operate on a binary view of gender male and female which makes it harder for non binary people to access basic rights like a legal ID change or a safe public space. Trans women of color also face harsher levels of violence in poverty.

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Cultural and Religious Practices Affecting Gender Roles

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Cultural and Religious Practices Affecting Gender Roles

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Cultural religious practices have a somewhat good influence on gender roles. In many societies the traditional customs and religious interpretations define women’s roles as being focused on home and care giving to male authority. These types of expectations can limit women’s access to education, employment, leadership, and basic freedoms. While culture and religion are important to personal identity and community values, they can also be used to justify gender inequality such as restricting women from voting, or even a owning property, or making choices about their bodies.

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Cultural and Religious Practices Affecting Gender Roles

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Women especially women of color are treated differently at every stage, from arrest to sentencing. Like for an example women were more likely to be imprisoned for nonviolent offenses like drug usage or poverty related crimes, and often receive harsher penalties due to bias and a lack of understanding about their circumstances. Many women in prison are also survivors of abuse yet their trauma is never considered in the legal decisions. Moreover once women face poor healthcare and are limited to mental health support they also have a higher risk of being abused behind bars. Transgender and non binary individuals face even worse mistreatment including being placed in facilities that really don’t match their gender identity and that's very offensive.

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a major issue that mostly affects gender equality is innovation, opportunity, and progress. Although more women are entering stem fields than in the past. They are still not receiving how they want to get treated,and especially in leadership roles and tech companies. This is due to gender stereotypes with the lack of mentorship, and the unequal pay with the biased hiring practices they do. Girls are often discouraged from pursuing a stem subject early on because it leads to fewer women entering these careers even later. Those who do want to enter the field often face heavy discrimination and feel embarrassingly isolated in the male dominated environments that they are in.

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Both Climate change and gender equality are somewhat similar. When it began to rain or thunder things like hurricanes or tornadoes women are the ones who are supposed to go out and get the food, clothes, blankets, water. On another note some women do not have access to land or education so it was mostly hard for them to do anything at all. Addressing climate change without addressing gender inequality leaves entire communities more vulnerable

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Who's expected to do what at home? who has to wash dishes? who has to take care of her kids because dads at work? A lot of people mostly and strictly men think that women should be the only people in the kitchen or cleaning period. No discussion they shouldn't talk back since they are getting take care of by their husband. This also relates to how the unpaid welfare messes up women's time and their freedom to do anything they please. Till this day women still go through the things from centuries ago. Men still leave women with their kids because they don't want to take responsibility for something they made.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/283979/women-handle-main-household-tasks.aspx

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For decades they banned and restricted women from being in the army because they aren't "manly enough" or apparently the women are always too emotional and probably arent physically ready for things like that. As the generation grew women could actually join the force and this was a good thing however it was still bias between the gender specific roles. The women still would receive sexism comments or get called out of there names as if they aren't human too. Maybe instead of the army continuing this type of sexism they should teach others how to respect the women who want to help and join the force because not every women would want to.

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This is also just like the unfair pay wages except men and woman play the same sports and do the same thing they are still getting mistreated like nothing. The pay wages are short and never are true and they know that. Just like social media the way people obsesses over male sports and don't do the same for female sports is a little sexist. Boys and Men always say the same thing when it comes to sports.." Women don't belong on a field, they belong in a kitchen." stating that women shouldn't be anywhere in a football field, basketball court, tennis court, or a golf field. Any sport that men have ever played they don't want women joining in but I think its just because some women are actually better than the men at some points.

https://online.adelphi.edu/articles/male-female-sports-salary/

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Nowadays women are struggling with buying things like pads, or tampons. 1/5 Girls miss school because they don't or just cant afford to pay for menstrual items, and that by itself should be heartbreaking because they are missing their education for simple products they need on the daily basis. Only specific items like pads,tampons, or pain killers for crazy cramps. The menstrual cycle for women is also overlooked by men because of course they don't have one to feel what we feel but we explain what it feels like and yet we are still overlooked. Barely affording to pay for the pads or tampons these stores raise the prices on them and make women have to break their back just for something they actually live on and use of daily life.

https://globalgoals.org/news/breaking-the-silence-on-period-poverty-international-day-of-the-girl-2023/

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Healthcare is important for everybody and if they only care for the men what's the point of even having women work in these healthcare fields?

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When women come into healthcare or they try to go to the doctors to get diagnosed they are often mistreated or dismissed seeming that the men feel like there "nothing" going on with them. This is not fair because they all lack the research of women's bodies and how we have health issues and how we adjust to the outside, or the weather. Even studies show from today that doctors often misdiagnose or overlook their female patients compared to the men.

https://prenuvo.com/blog/the-most-common-health-misdiagnoses-in-women--and-why-they-keep-happening

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“A woman's job is to work at home and serve the needs of her family.” Not every woman has a man to take care of them at home, so when they work and do as hard as they can they are trying everything in their power to find a solution.

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Things like social media or culture or even in society can push ideas about what the men or women “should” do.People make a scenarios or stereotypes about men should be doing one specific thing and for women it should be a whole different thing like per say a lot of people say women should be in the kitchen they should clean be a housewife they shouldn't have a job but when you don't have access to a man that actually can provide and that's when you need to be and become more independent.

https://millennium-project.org/changing-gender-stereotypes/

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Providing Unpaid Household and Care Work in the United States and mostly everywhere women are located. No matter how hard we work we constantly get beat down and bashed for not doing a better job.

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Domestic labor mostly falls on women, whether it’s unpaid work at home like cleaning and raising kids, or paid jobs like nannying and home care. Women especially women of color make up most of the domestic workforce, yet they’re often underpaid, lack benefits, and face high poverty rates. Even though this work is essential, it’s still undervalued and overlooked.

https://iwpr.org/providing-unpaid-household-and-care-work-in-the-united-states-uncovering-inequality/

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Things like domestic violence harassment or sex trafficking or stalking is a form of gender violence and in this economy is still to this day there are a lot of women who go through this and who have to keep  reminding themselves that there are men out here or people in general that just would do horrible things to them and it's kind of like a wake up call or reality check. In this day and age gender equality cannot exist women constantly get treated horribly. https://genderdata.worldbank.org/en/data-stories/overview-of-gender-based-violence

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The Middle East and North Africa leadership is mostly unfair and doesn't allow women to fully make decisions for their community and their society. 

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When there's more women in Leadership and in the Government there's more balanced decisions, and a more equal voice between everyone. Everyone has there own experiences and their own body so when there's more female and males we can be more balanced than before.

https://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/facts-and-figures/facts-and-figures-womens-leadership-and-political-participation

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"My body, My Choice"  Protest.         Men try to dictate what women can and cannot wear or what can they do with their body like they aren't their own person. This is very concerning because mind you guys that women created the world and from what I understand these things aren't ok.

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Someone trying to have control over your own body is frustrating and that's what people are trying to do till this day and making women feel insecure and endangered. No woman feels somewhat safe when there is a bunch of men telling them they cant have an abortion although its their body and they can do what they want with their body and that's completely valid. Having limited access to birth control or having to fight because you don't want a baby is really an issue and if men cant see that they shouldn't be giving opinions on things that they don't understand.

https://www.who.int/news/item/13-12-2017-world-bank-and-who-half-the-world-lacks-access-to-essential-health-services-100-million-still-pushed-into-extreme-poverty-because-of-health-expenses

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Women need to have same equal pay to Men. Hard to say but as the generation gets older women have seem to forgot and have seem to gave up on what they worked so hard for. No one seems to care about how much they get paid just as long as they get paid which is fair due to unemployment rates and the lack of them having an actual education.

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Women till this day have still been getting paid less than what they actually earned and its more difficult for us to say something if we are protesting by ourselves rather than with every female that has walked this earth getting paid pennies to do a mans work. If we choose the fair wages it could close the gender gap in wealth empowerment.

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/11/gender-wage-gap-japan/

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Women and Girls everywhere around the world have been and still are facing struggling to face the barriers throughout their school life. The point in the education is to empower them to become self sufficient and become more independent to things on their own. If they don't have that they wouldn't be able to think for themselves, and it would be consistently painful for them to keep asking others how to think.

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/poverty-inequality-and-africas-education-crisis/