Parity, paradigms, and possibilities: a constructive approach to advancing women’s equality

Abstract

Prompted by the midpoint assessments of achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG5), this article considers the pattern of progress toward women’s equality and how theory and practice can be harnessed to accelerate necessary further advance. It applies Kuhn’s analysis of scientific paradigm shift as an explanatory framework and draws on a cross-section of the literature on women’s equality to illustrate signs of shift in the current paradigm, notably the movement away from numerical parity conceptualization and measurement to the evolution and interrogation of more nuanced notions of equality and its operationalization in various social spheres. It is proposed that this movement is propelled primarily by a method involving four inter-related elements—awareness, belief, communication, and design (a–b–c–d)—each of which is described and illustrated by examples from social science research, development organization data, and the media. Limitations and implications for future research and applied activity are discussed and the constructive orientation to the contribution of diverse responses to an increasingly complex understanding of equality identified as an important takeaway from this analysis. The approach is offered as an accessible interpretive and practical framework for more consciously advancing a paradigm shift in women’s equality coherent with the SDGs.