“A Sustainable Feminist Recovery”
SocietyOp-Ed by the Secretary-General
As the world moves ahead to mark International Women’s Day, the clock on women’s rights is moving backwards. All of us are paying the price.
The cascading
crises of recent years have highlighted how women’s leadership is more crucial than
ever.
Women have heroically
confronted the COVID-19 pandemic as doctors, nurses, and public health and
social care workers.
But at the
same time, women and girls have been the first to lose out on jobs or schooling,
taking on more unpaid care work, and facing skyrocketing levels of domestic and
cyber abuse and child marriage.
The pandemic
has highlighted even more starkly an age-old truth: the roots of patriarchy run
deep. We still live in a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture.
As a result, in
good times or bad, women are more likely to fall into poverty. Their healthcare
is sacrificed and their education and opportunities are curtailed.
And in
countries enduring conflict — as we see from Ethiopia to Afghanistan to Ukraine
-- women and girls are the most vulnerable but also the most compelling voices
for peace.
As we look to
the future, a sustainable and equal recovery for all is only possible if it is
a feminist recovery — one that puts progress for girls and women at its centre.
We need
economic progress through targeted investments in women’s education,
employment, training and decent work. Women should be first in line for the 400
million jobs we are called to create by 2030.
We need social
progress through investments in social protection systems and the care economy.
Such investments yield huge dividends, creating green, sustainable jobs, while
supporting members of our societies that need assistance, including children,
older people and the sick.
We need
financial progress, to reform a morally bankrupt global financial system, so all
countries can invest in a woman-centred economic recovery. This includes debt
relief and fairer tax systems that channel some of the massive pockets of
wealth around the world to those who need it most.
We need
urgent, transformative climate action, to reverse the reckless increase in
emissions and gender inequalities that have left women and girls
disproportionately vulnerable. Developed countries must urgently deliver on
their commitments on finance and technical support for a just transition from
fossil fuels. The successful, stable economies of the future will be green,
gender-inclusive and sustainable.
We need more
women in leadership in government and business, including finance ministers and
CEOs, developing and implementing green and socially progressive policies that
benefit all their people.
We know, for
example, that having more women in parliaments is linked with stronger climate
commitments and higher levels of investment in healthcare and education.
We need
political progress through targeted measures that ensure women’s equal
leadership and representation at all levels of political decision-making,
through bold gender quotas.
Gender
inequality is essentially a question of power. Uprooting centuries of patriarchy
demands that power is equally shared across every institution, at every level.
At the United
Nations, we have achieved — for the first time in the organization’s history — gender
parity in senior management at headquarters and around the world. This has
dramatically improved our ability to better reflect and represent the communities
we serve.
Every step of the way, we can take inspiration from women and girls pushing for progress in every sphere and every corner of our globe.
Young women climate campaigners are leading global efforts to pressure governments to live up to their commitments.
Women’s rights
activists are bravely demanding equality and justice, and building more
peaceful societies as peacekeepers, peacemakers and humanitarians in some of
the world’s trouble zones and beyond.
In societies
where women’s rights movements are vibrant, democracies are stronger.
When the world
invests in expanding opportunities for women and girls, all of humanity
wins.
As a matter of
justice, equality, morality and plain common sense, we need to turn the clock
forward on women’s rights.
We need a sustainable, feminist recovery centred around — and driven by — women and girls.