Women across the world face discrimination including the socalled democratic countries were equality is part of the doctrine. 'Inadequacy of law' to protect women being one issue, the other is the issue of effective enforcement of law .  

Laws across countries are intended to protect women from various gender-based violence including instances such as a)rape b)marital rape c) domestic violence and d) sexual harassment. As per studies, of these four VAW laws, the maximum legal strength in protection worldwide is for rape followed by domestic violence, sexual harassment and marital rape.

According to research, the US and Europe provides strongest legal protection against gender-related violence. The least legal protection is provided by the Western Asian countries. These countries were doing nothing about the domestic violence where women never get any protection by their legal system.

An interesting finding is that in countries where women possessed more economic decision making power, the more had been the enforcement of the law by the law making officials.

Another important observation is that when there are more women in the Governments, stronger are the legal protection system as these women try to make an impact there.

‘Gender Gap’, The World Economic Forum( WEF) study done year on year, reveals that the gender Gaps are higher on the factors ‘political awareness’ and ‘economic participation’ ( while the gender gap is bridging faster on the factors ‘health’ and ‘education’).   Bridging these gaps will not only be ensuring accelerated participation of women in nation building but will ensure that there is more equality as a citizen of a country.

(Reference: Violence Against Women and the Law)

Blog By Bindu S Nair