The debate on gender equality has been ongoing in various societies for years, yet deep misunderstandings about its true meaning persist.
Many politicians and parties, including liberals, interpret equality as the absolute, identical treatment of men and women. However, this approach not only fails to address the structural challenges women face but often exacerbates inequalities by ignoring biological and social differences.
True equality means providing fair and proportionate opportunities tailored to individuals’ diverse needs—not denying these differences under the guise of formal equality. For example, rigid workplace policies with fixed, inflexible hours may appear neutral, but in practice, they marginalize women, who bear the primary responsibility for caregiving.
Liberal parties often rely on clichéd slogans like “equal opportunities for all” while avoiding practical solutions such as equitable maternity leave, government-funded childcare centers, or serious measures against workplace sexual harassment. By reducing equality to legal uniformity, these parties overlook the deepest roots of inequality, including the gendered division of unpaid domestic labor and systemic workplace discrimination. The result is that women not only fail to achieve real equality but also face additional pressures from ineffective policies.
Equality is achieved when policymakers, rather than denying differences, acknowledge them and design mechanisms to prevent these differences from perpetuating inequality. What women need today is not abstract slogans about sameness, but a fair redefinition of equality—one that recognizes their human rights while creating the social conditions necessary to realize those rights.
As long as liberals and other political movements fail to grasp this deeper understanding of equality, the issue of women’s rights will remain trapped in a cycle of shallow theorizing and ineffective policymaking.