One in four women worldwide cannot make their own decisions about their access to health care, according to a study by the University of Applied Sciences on Wednesday United Nations among 57 countries. In addition, a quarter of women are afraid to say no to sex with their husbands or partners.
One in ten women cannot decide for themselves how to use contraception. Just over half, 55 percent of women make their own decisions about birth control, health care, or sex.
In more than 40 percent of the countries surveyed, the position of women around these decisions is not improving. The position of women is even deteriorating in some countries, the study found. In Benin, for example, in 2006, 41 percent of women made health care decisions themselves. In 2018 this was only 36 percent.
The researchers say that the educational level and the age at which a woman marries influence her self-determination, among other things.
Laws limited by culture and religion
The study found that three-quarters of the 57 countries surveyed have laws that are supposed to protect women’s rights. In other countries, these rights are limited, for example by culture or religion.
Improving equality between men and women and improving the position of women is an important goal of the UN by 2030. According to the UN, self-determination among women is an important condition for achieving this.
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