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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told a gathering at the UN in New York that the United Nations must appoint more women to top jobs in order to raise the profile and understanding of women’s equality issues.
“As the United Nations strives to better support the world’s women, it would benefit from having more women in more of its leadership positions,” she said.
Hillary Clinton made her remarks on 12th March at the conclusion of two weeks of discussions by the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The focus of the CSW’s meetings in New York was a 15-year review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action.
Echoing her landmark speech on women’s rights given at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, Hillary Clinton added, “Women’s progress is human progress, and human progress is women’s progress.”
Hillary Clinton also endorsed the UN’s plans to consolidate the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) into one “super-agency” which will work towards gender equality for women worldwide.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has paid tribute to Hillary Clinton for her advocacy for the rights of women, saying her leadership on the issue should serve as an inspiration to others.
“All your life you have been speaking out for the central truth that women are the key to all our hopes – development, peace, and a better world, and you have been during all your life working very hard to make a more just, equitable world, where women are equally treated and given equal opportunities,” he said.
Since taking over the position of Secretary General in 2007, Ban Ki-moon has made a concerted effort to increase the number of women in high-level positions at the organisation, appointing former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark, to the position of UN Development Program Chief and welcoming UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro.
Sources: Reuters/UN News Center
Photo credit: UN News Center
Our position at sphinxx is that it’s time for quotas. We surveyed 200 women in leadership roles last year and found that 74% of respondents support the use of quotas or targets or both to improve female representation on boards and in leadership roles, and 47% specifically supported the adoption of quotas.
Women have been politely taking on board the feedback about the experience, expertise and networking they need to do to get into the top jobs for decades now… to little effect. Macchiavelli said all those years ago that those with the power will never voluntarily give it up. So why would the men who dominate business step aside for women? We know that organizations with more women in leadership roles produce financial results up to 35% stronger – so why don’t the shareholders insist on diversity? Because the Institutional Investors are dominated by men at the top who are threatened by the idea of diminishing their power. Organisations have also spent millions on womens programs in the past… again with little result. Targets won’t do it; we need quotas like Norway to force the shift (in Norway the quotas were only enforced by Government after boards failed to meet and work towards targets). And like Norway, we’ll find that there are in fact plenty of women qualified for board and executive positions. And we’ll also see that getting more women into leadership roles encourages more women to get there too.