Interview with Anita Bhatia, UN Women
Followers of this newsletter know that I often remind us all that true gender equality doesn’t exist anywhere in the world.
Unless there is a renewed global focus on making gender equality a priority in every government, every business, and across every sector of life and work, it will take more than 135 years to close the global gender gap.
Later this month in Paris, the United Nations will convene the Generation Equality Forum. The Forum will bring together governments, corporations, NGOs, youth-led groups, and foundations to secure concrete, ambitious, and transformative commitments for gender equality.
With just a few weeks to go, I invited one of the architects of the Forum, UN Assistant Secretary General and UN Women Deputy Executive Director Anita Bhatia, to join me for a conversation about the agenda and goals. Our interview will be distributed this week on Fintech.TV, Times India, CNBC Africa and Arabia as part of my series, Dangerous Women: Leading Onward!
Anita began our conversation by reminding us all of the powerful statement made by Hillary Clinton, then First Lady, at the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
"Women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights." — Hillary Clinton
That conference was a game changer, culminating in a Platform for Action agreed to by 189 countries' leaders who pledged to prioritize gender equality in 12 key areas.
But, "a quarter of a century later," reported UN Women on its website last year, "no country is even close to fully delivering on the commitments of the Platform for Action."
"We're just not making progress fast enough."
In our half-hour interview, Anita shared the reality of where we are now.
We know that progress is too slow, says Anita, "because we can see around us that, just for example, when you look at leadership, you have nowhere near the same number of women in positions of power as you do men."
"Less than 10% of heads of state or heads of government around the world are women. Less than 25% of national legislators, parliamentarians worldwide are women. So how is this a gender equal world?"
Add to that the continuing problem of violence against women, exacerbated by the pandemic. One in three women worldwide experience physical or sexual violence mostly by an intimate partner. During the pandemic, UN Women reported that "emerging data… have shown that all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, have intensified."
When the pandemic was forcing lockdowns in communities across the world last summer, UN Women produced a video featuring Academy-Award winning actress Kate Winslet about this "shadow pandemic." The video highlights the alarming upsurge in domestic violence during COVID-19 and delivers a vital message urging people to act to support women if they know or suspect someone is experiencing violence.
A deadly #ShadowPandemic of domestic violence is surging in the wake of #COVID19. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, violence against women and girls has intensified in countries around the world.
#EqualityCantWait, We Must #ActForEqual
"You will never get gender equal outcomes," says Anita, "if you do not have at the highest levels of leadership in governments and also leadership in the private sector saying, 'We care about this. And we are going to make the investments that are commensurate with the size of the problem to solve this.'"
So how do we activate and accelerate the path toward equality?
The Generation Equality Forum will be mostly virtual in June, given the continuing pandemic restrictions, but we can all get involved.
Registered attendees will gain access to the Forum's digital platform, offering the opportunity to attend nearly 90 events featuring 500 panelists and interact with tens of thousands of participants from around the world. Find out more here.
I’m registered and hoping for a historic level of global commitments to gender equality to be the outcome of the work of UNWomen, and ready to engage in the platforms for actions that will lead toward this elusive but urgently needed pathway forward to create and sustain Generation Equality.
When I asked Anita whether UN Women is seeing progress on the ground in the lead-up to the Forum, she said, "Not fast enough. I would say not fast enough for us."
"We'd like to see the pace of change be faster. But yes, there are governments that are saying, 'We want to move ahead. We believe that our countries will be richer and better off if women have the same opportunities as men.'" — Anita Bhatia
Yes, by every measurement of a healthier, happier, more prosperous and peaceful society and for better outcomes for business, the value of equalizing the opportunities for women and girls is undeniable.
Equality is not just a nice thing to have for the world. This is a must have for the world if we are going to have a sustainable, peaceful, and more equitable and just world for our generation and all generations to follow.
Join us at the Generation Equality Forum and commit now to #ActForEqual.
Onward!
-Pat
