International Women’s Day: Gender equality benefits everyone - Chief of UN Women
New York, US (PANA) - The benefits of gender equality are not just for women and girls, but “for everyone whose lives will be changed by a fairer world”, the chief of UN Women said in her message for International Women’s Day (IWD) at UN Headquarters on Friday, being celebrated in New York, ahead of the official day on Sunday.
As a “massive year for gender equality”, Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said 2020 was all about “Generation Equality”, in which “we’re mobilising to realise women’s rights, and to mark 25 years of implementing the Beijing Platform for Action” – the historic and landmark gender equality plan drawn up in the Chinese capital.
Generation Equality is focusing on issues facing women across generations, with young women and girls at the centre, a UN statement said.
“We don’t have an equal world at the moment and women are angry and concerned about the future,” she said. “They are radically impatient for change. It's an impatience that runs deep, and it has been brewing for years.”
Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka underscored that girls are disappointed with “the stewardship of our planet, the unabated violence directed against them and the slow pace of change in fulcrum issues like education”.
“My greatest impatience is with unmoving economic inequality,” she said, calling it “a driver of repeating poverty”.
She asserted that policies are needed that promote equality in childcare responsibilities and provide State support to families, and those who work in the informal economy.
Though “radically impatient”, Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka said: “We are not giving up.”
She cited as cause for hope, growing support in tackling gender-bias barriers; a “driving will” for change across generations and countries; and that the last 25 years “have shown us what is needed to accelerate action for equality”.
The statement said Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee drew loud applause from delegates at the General Assembly hall celebration. Having worked with former child soldiers in Liberia, she shared a conversation she had had with a 14-year-old amputee who had been nine when he was recruited.
In a stark revelation of how women are sometimes viewed, he admitted to having committed rape many times saying, “isn’t that what women were made for”?
The activist also explained how the term “just women”, is used to “underrate and undervalue the work of women” and downplay their significance “on a daily basis”.
“We can’t even begin to have conversations about our human security needs because our values have been taken away,” she underscored.
“‘Just women’ shuts the door firmly on any idea or intention to have a conversation about equality”, but the conversation must be held, she underscored.
Ms. Gbowee stressed that in our unjust and unequal world, gender equality must be more than just numbers, saying: “Equality is linked to our collective humanity…to peace and justice.”
She maintained that women’s right require actionable, radical transformation through political will, financial resources and ownership.
In closing, the passionate activist urged women to “reclaim the spaces” they have lost.
“It is time for us to own our issues, we must own our agenda, we must own our narrative…the struggle for equality is a long way ahead, but with young women on our side, we can surely win,” said Ms. Gbowee.
-0- PANA MA/VAO 6March2020
