in a majority of countries today there are no legal barriers to prevent women from getting a job or pursuing a trade or profession in the same way as men from owning and inheriting land and housing in their own name from receiving a pension or from having access to a wide range of services including education and health care rather they are wired into the ways in which economic social and political structures work to achieve substantive equality so that women can enjoy their rights in practice it is not enough to do away with direct discrimination