Want a stronger world after Covid-19? Choose more women leaders
Countries must put more women into leadership roles to build a stronger post-pandemic world, a top UN official said on Monday as data showed women could be waiting more than a century to see equality at the highest political echelons.
Phumzile Mlambo-ngcuka, who made history as South Africa’s first female deputy president in 2005, said gender-balanced cabinets made better decisions not just for women, but for society as a whole.
Global progress on getting more women into top roles is frustratingly slow, she said.
But she believes Kamala Harris’s appointment as the first female US vice-president will make other countries take note and spur more women to consider running for office.
“It does help if a big country breaks the mould. It pushes other countries forward,” she said.
Mlambo-ngcuka said Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican heritage, was a particularly important role model for young women of colour.
“They now have someone who looks like them, who they can identify with,” she said, adding that she had witnessed how her own appointment in 2005 had encouraged the ambitions of a younger generation.
“It was such a fulfilling feeling to hear young women (saying) ‘Wow, this is on the table. I can also go for this’,” Mlambo-ngcuka said.
Only 22 countries have an elected woman head of state or government, while 119 nations have never had a woman leader, according to UN Women, which said gender parity would not be achieved for another 130 years at the current rate of progress.
The analysis also showed parity would not be reached in national parliaments before 2063, and in ministerial positions before 2077. In early 2020, only 14 countries had cabinets where women held at least half of posts. They included Rwanda, Finland, Canada, Colombia and Peru.
The United States is set to join the club after President Joe Biden pledged to pick a cabinet that “looks like America”.
Mlambo-ngcuka said women seeking office faced multiple hurdles, including a lack of support from political parties, which made it very important that countries introduce quotas for female representation.
She also urged governments to criminalise violence against women in politics and called on social media platforms to tackle rising cyber-abuse, much of it involving sexual innuendo and body-shaming, which deterred women from taking public roles.
ONLY 22 COUNTRIES HAVE AN ELECTED WOMAN HEAD OF STATE OR GOVERNMENT, WHILE 119 NATIONS HAVE NEVER HAD A WOMAN LEADER