As a youth representative for the IBVM UN NGO, I had the opportunity to attend the 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) at the UN Headquarters in New York. CSW is the UN’s largest annual gathering on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Attending CSW opened my eyes to the complexities, scale, and manifestations of gender inequality around the world.
I felt quite emotional hearing anecdotes from women who have been subjected to the horrors of sexism. A 16-year-old girl from rural South Africa shared her experience of losing several young women in her life to rape. A woman from rural India spoke about how knowledge of the law helped her avoid child marriage when, at age 11, she told her parents she would file a legal case against them if they forced her to marry. It was painful to hear from an Afghani woman who had seen 20 years of immense progress suddenly stripped away. This opportunity to listen to the voices of those most suppressed puts into perspective how lucky I am, as an Australian woman, to have equal rights to opportunities. However, it also made me aware of how easily these rights can disappear in the presence of misogynistic leadership.
I felt hopeful hearing from countries that have implemented positive policies and achieved progressive results. Notably, many of the Nordic countries have mandated equal parental leave for both parents. I was surprised to hear that Slovenia has approximately 80% of mothers, with children under the age of 8, in full-time employment due to the country’s accessible and reliable childcare services. I also learned that women make up almost 50% of STEM graduates in China and India. I found this particularly interesting given that so many other countries simultaneously spoke about the challenges of getting women into STEM. In both cultures, parents have a strong influence over their child’s education and encourage both genders to study highly regarded and challenging degrees. This highlights the impact of encouraging women to enter male-dominated fields and the pivotal role parents play in influencing their child’s career choices.
There were an immense number of topics covered across the nearly 2000 side and parallel events that occurred throughout CSW68. I was perplexed by the recurring mention that globally we are trending backwards and inequality is actually on the rise due to increased ideology and conflict. This made me reflect on the intersection of the Sustainable Development Goals, war, and women in leadership:
In 2015, all member states of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This agenda outlines 17 Sustainable Development Goals that provide a framework for ending poverty, protecting the planet, and promoting prosperity. These goals cannot be achieved in the presence of war. The question is then: what is the best prevention against war?
The status quo suggests the best method is to invest in defence. In 2023, global defence expenditure increased by 9% to $2.2 trillion. This is only expected to grow throughout 2024 as war continues in Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza. Defence forces are even expanding beyond this planet with rising investment in space capabilities. Over 2023, the global space industry grew 15%, with investment in the defence space sector now leading investment in the civil space sector. In summary, our world leaders believe the best prevention against war is to increase the scale and scope of weapons. This solution is fundamentally contradictory and highly concerning. There must be an alternative.
In one of his CSW68 addresses, António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, said, “99% of all wars are caused by men.” This begged me to consider the ‘what ifs’ in an alternate universe: What if Russia’s president was Ms. Vladimira Putin? Would Russia have invaded Ukraine? What if the Prime Minister of Israel was Ms. Netanyahu? Would approximately 14,000 children have been killed? What if 50% of world leaders were women? Would we be in a better position to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals? Mr. Guterres answered my questions perfectly. He said, “If we had gender parity at all levels, we would not have the wars we have today.”
The solution for peace and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals is simple: invest in women. To reach gender parity among world leaders, we need equal numbers of women in positions of leadership across all industries. The key question is then, how do we achieve gender parity at all levels in all industries?
This seems like an impossible task, but imagine if we invested $2.2 trillion annually into finding and implementing solutions. Since no one is currently investing this amount into gender equality, we must implement effective, low-cost solutions. There was one piece of advice that caught my attention. A representative from Thailand said, “We need to implement the three Ms: mindset, multiplier, mutual support.”
Mindset: Change stereotypes that inhibit girls and women from reaching their full potential and encourage boys and men to take a more active role in domestic and caring responsibilities. This means early intervention to change stereotypes about what girls do and what boys do, changing perceptions that girls are bad at math, teaching boys domestic responsibilities, encouraging girls to take risks, breaking down perceptions of gendered industries, and pushing for fathers to take equal parental leave.
Multiplier: Provide tools that accelerate gender equality. This may include affirmative action programs to increase the number of women in male-dominated industries, early education on gender stereotypes, policies for equal parental leave, financing with a gendered perspective, accessible and affordable childcare, funding for women entrepreneurs, and quotas for women in positions of leadership.
Mutual Support: Create awareness about gender inequality and educate the public on how to provide support as stakeholders. Some suggestions include having gender equality conversations amongst all genders rather than just women, encouraging men to support women, encouraging women to support other women, teaching parents about their pivotal role in influencing gender stereotypes, inspiring community leaders to create change, and having the organisational mechanisms in place to support women in the workplace.
Women in leadership is a pipeline issue that begins in the early years of a child’s development. In order to achieve gender parity at all levels in all industries, we need strategies across the entire pipeline. Only once this is achieved do we have a realistic chance of reaching gender parity among world leaders. This is the best solution for peace and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Author: Lauren Grant, Youth Representative
