Women’s Empowerment, perspectives from global leaders - International Women's Day 2022

Excellencies, Friends, Ladies, and Gentlemen,

Greetings!

For me, the matter of women’s rights is personal.

When most girls should be starting middle school, my grandmother was getting married. I never asked her about what it was like to grow up as a child bride in India, to give birth to her first baby at the age of 11. Though it was never explicitly forbidden, her lost childhood remained undiscussed in my family. Instead, it was dismissed as simply how things were done back then.

Gender equality and women’s empowerment cannot just be the business of women – and it should not be. As a husband, a father, and a son, I believe that male contribution and allyship to women’s empowerment is essential. It is everybody’s business, and it is about time that men step up efforts if we are to achieve SDG 5.

I want to thank the UK Mission in China for inviting me to this important event to discuss gender equality, women’s empowerment, and female leadership to celebrate International Women’s Day.

A common phrase in China states that “Women hold up half the sky”. Indeed, this is true. Women and girls represent half of the global population and half of the world’s potential. As one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Gender Equality (SDG 5) is one of the primary objectives of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The UN Secretary-General, Mr. António Guterres, stated that achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls is the greatest human rights challenge in our world. He said, “Nearly 60 per cent of women around the world work in the informal economy, earning less, saving less, and at greater risk of falling into poverty. [1] We want an opportunity to build a new, feminist economic model that works for women, and a world that is safe for women. Such economic models prioritize both care for people, and care for our planet.” [2] Empowering women is a crucial task for the world, to spur productivity and economic growth, to achieve peaceful societies with full human potential and sustainable development.

We cannot deny and should not forget the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic upon gender equality. Most unpaid caregivers at home and in our communities are women. Even before the pandemic, they were already performing three times more unpaid care and domestic work than men. The pandemic led to a 25 per cent increase in gender-based violence. Nearly one in five women worldwide has experienced gender-based violence – with roughly 243 million women and girls (aged 15-49) experiencing “physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering” in 2020. [3]

Furthermore, women continue to be underrepresented in leadership roles, across the world and in all sectors. Female leadership remains restricted from the local to the global level, including in their political participation. There is not only underrepresentation for women as voters, but also a lack of representation in the leading positions – whether in elected office, the civil service, the private sector, or academia.            

My boss, the UN Secretary-General, is a feminist, and I am proud to serve with such a passionate advocate of women’s rights, equality, and gender parity. At the United Nations, driven by the Secretary-General, we have achieved gender parity in senior management at headquarters and around the world for the first time in the Organization's history. This has dramatically improved the UN’s ability to better reflect and represent the communities we serve.

As part of the UN’s global solidarity movement for gender equality, the HeforShecampaign was launched in 2014, led by UN Women, as an invitation for men and people of all genders to stand in solidarity with women to create a bold, visible, and united force for gender equality.

In my time as UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya, I advanced structural change for gender equality and women’s empowerment, with zero tolerance for sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment. One of the key examples would be the public-private partnership that was successfully forged between multinational corporations and Kenya’s public sector – to support the Government’s efforts in reducing maternal deaths in some of the highest-burden counties. 

China has accomplished tremendous progress on women’s empowerment to promote gender equality, since the establishment of the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action. For example, there has been a welcome increase in women’s autonomy in decision-making – with 24.9% of seats in China’s national parliament held by women, as of February 2021.[4]

Moreover, China’s comprehensive legal system to protect women’s rights and interests, including more than 100 laws and regulations – has meant that it has almost eliminated the gender gap in compulsory education, while women account for more than 40% of the employed workforce in society.[5]

As the UN Resident Coordinator in China, I can testify to the centrality of both gender equality and women’s empowerment in the UN’s work in China, in order to deliver on the Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework. Gender equality and women’s empowerment are highlighted across all three pillars of the Framework: people and prosperity, planet, and partnerships. For the UN in China, our country teams collaborate through our UN Gender Theme Group – co-chaired by UN Women and UNFPA, in order to ensure that gender remains a key priority across all of our operations in the country.

Gender equality is one of the greatest global challenges of the 21st century. We must continue to advance this in the context of current and future global challenges - including the climate crisis and disaster risk reduction.  I am pleased that, through March, under the theme of gender, the UN family in China is able to partner with the UK Mission on the SDGs, including Gender Equality (SDG 5), Good Health and Well-Being (SDG 3), and Climate Action (SDG 13).

We know that the UK is a champion for gender equality in public policy, democratic institutions, and extensive anti-discrimination laws. I note that 83.3% of legal frameworks in the UK actively promote, enforce, and monitor gender equality under the SDG indicators, with a strong emphasis on violence against women.

The UK’s Global Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda adopts one of the eight UN Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs), calling for increased representation of women at all decision-making levels for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict.

Today’s event is a great opportunity for us to share our collective agendas and align on where we can and should continue to collaborate on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Ladies and gentlemen, we need to act now to ensure that girls and women are, not once again, left behind, but an active part in leading in these fields.

On this occasion, let us cherish and commend the contributions of those brilliant women in our day-to-day lives, and work together to strive for gender equality in the world.

Thank you.

[1] António Guterres (UN Secretary-General) on his priorities for 2022 - General Assembly, 56th plenary meeting, 76th session | UN Web TV

[2] Gender equality, the ‘unfinished human rights struggle of this century’: UN chief | UN News

[3] Explainer: How COVID-19 impacts women and girls | UN Women

[4] Country Fact Sheet | UN Women Data Hub

[5] 促进性别平等，推动全球妇女事业发展——习近平主席在联合国大会纪念北京世界妇女大会25周年高级别会议上的重要讲话引发国际社会热烈反响_滚动新闻_中国政府网 | www.gov.cn (Promoting gender equality and advancing the cause of women worldwide - President Xi Jinping's speech at the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Beijing World Conference on Women).