 It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum, instead of two sets of opposing ideals. Gender discrimination means women often end up in insecure, low-paid jobs and constitute a small minority in senior positions. Many Western European countries rank in a top 20% in terms of gender equality, and the United Kingdom is ranked 20th. However, many Asian countries are ranked considerably lower. Gender equality is not only a basic human right, but its achievement has enormous socio-economic benefits. Yet, there are still deep gender inequalities in every society. Now we have to move towards further gender equality for improvements, if not only the status of women, but also our society as a whole. Yes. No, actually no. Yes, I have. Yes. It wasn't obvious discrimination, but it was in terms of assumptions made about how women would be in their behaviours and therefore judgments made about whether they were the right person for the job. It was very difficult as a woman to get to the top. In politics, when the media comment on female politicians, they comment on what they're wearing or on the colour of their hair, rather than on what they're saying. And you would never see that when they're commenting on a man. There is some support, but it's very, very low. It's that I'm now freelance or self-employed and I think women are particularly badly affected by that. The British perspective, they are walking at it. You know, the women are speaking up and women are giving more recognition. Whereas in Africa, that's not the case. For example, my mother, especially my aunt, they are thinking that I should stay home because I have a kid. So it's very strong in their mind that it's not natural to work. Women work outside, not raising their children inside of the home. Because they have to do it, those kind of things, many, many generations. Things are like in Brazil versus here. I know, like, my family kind of, they're probably wondering, oh, what's Maria doing? Because, like, I'm 40 and I'm not married. I don't have kids. Over here, I know quite a few of my friends who are around my age range that haven't got married, that still don't have kids. It's not a big deal. It is, of course, because, I mean, there is much more, there has been for a much longer period an emphasis on gender equality in European societies. Whereas in the Middle East, the struggle has been far bigger against tradition. We are equal now, more or less, except that in our houses of parliament, where the policies that affect all of us are debated and defined, less than one in four MPs is a woman. Women make up one-fifth of the membership of the House of Lords. The UK comes joint 57th in the world for gender equality in parliament. We have come a long way. It's a long way. I think it has a long way to go still. I think they have a long way to go. With close analysis of the situation in the women's empowerment in the UK, we found out that many people in the UK are not satisfied with the current situation. Although the UK ranks high in the global gender gap report. Lack of understanding. Context-specific historical analysis. History background. Traditional things, maybe cultural things. History. Human beings evolved. Men had to do a lot more of the physical threatening jobs. And the women would traditionally stay at home and look after them now. Some countries outside Europe still remain more patriarchal as societies. Maybe sometimes for religious reasons. Sometimes for other kind of traditional reasons as well. It's not just men who support patriarchy like this grand conspiracy against women. Women also promote patriarchy. Fighting for rights. Education is the first step. You have to grow up children thinking that women and men are on the same level. What we're doing now, education. Education happens in two places primarily. It happens in classrooms, but it happens in families. Making laws, putting laws in place. I think the law should be enforced much more effectively. I think legislation is very important because legislation sets the tone, it sets the environment, it certainly sets the working environment. And it is very important to have that. But ultimately you need to enforce legislation. So Japan again has often had quite weak legislation when it comes to gender equality which isn't enforced and therefore you know there's no penalties and therefore it doesn't have impact. So you do need to have strong enforceable legislation. But you also need bottom-up movements in society. So you need people to want it. You need women and men to want it. So it's not just about top-down legislation about politicians talking. It's about bottom-up social movements as well. And you need the strength of that in a country as well. And you need people to realise the advantages of it for society and for business as well. More discussion between both sexes. I think we all need to have a conversation at the same time to try to stop the balance in favour of one gender against the other. It's just understanding the different sexes. We are equal but different. We are not the same, but we complement each other. We need each other. Gender is really about men and women. But often we forget about men. So when we read about gender in the academic literature and business the word gender is used but really they're just talking about women. But we are constantly forgetting about men. And men play a big role in gender equality. And I think it's getting men on board with it. Understanding how men can contribute to that. That is the key issue all around the world I think. And particularly in a place, a country like Japan, where men are in a very entrenched employment system themselves. It's very hard for them to help women and for women to help men. So I think that's where the gender divide comes in, where segregation comes in and where inequality gets entrenched as well. So I think it's very important, yes, as you say, for men and women to complement each other, where you provide a platform not only for women to be active and successful but for men not to feel under so much pressure all the time to be in charge, to be dominating. A lot of bad food and emphasis have been put on gender equality. However, there is still a long way to go until the world achieve true gender equality. So what is necessary to achieve gender equality? The mutual respect between genders changes in the law and education. All of this are required. In addition, the rates of men should not be ignored. It will can establish a new vision that includes both men and women as co-authors and equal partners. Then we can all be freer. This is the answer to the question of how we can approach gender inequality. Now it's your turn to write a new page to achieve gender equality.