Prominent female politicians including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff joined voices to demand a greater global political role for women.
“Despite notable progress, gender inequality persists,” Ms Rousseff, who became Brazil’s first female president earlier this year, said at a high-level event held at the UN ahead of this week’s UN General Assembly.
“Women are still the ones who suffer the most from extreme poverty, illiteracy, poor healthcare systems, conflicts and sexual violence.” Ms Rousseff noted that today she would become the first woman in the history of the UN to open debate at the UN General Assembly.
“As someone who tried to be a president, it’s very encouraging to see those who actually ended up as a president,” Mrs Clinton joked at Monday’s event, in a reference to her unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2008.
Despite a hard-fought campaign, Mrs Clinton failed to secure the nomination to be the presidential candidate of the Democratic party, losing to Barack Obama, who is now her boss in the White House.
The event was organised by UN Women, a UN body that was established last year to promote female empowerment around the world.
Women make up less than 10 per cent of world leaders, and globally less than one in five members of parliament is a woman, according to UN Women.
Increasing gender equality and putting more women in leadership roles will promote economic development, said Michelle Bachelet, the head of UN Women and a former president of Chile.
“We now have data to show that countries with greater gender equality have higher gross national product per capita and that women’s leadership in the corporate sector results in improved business performance,” she said. The participation of women in this year’s wave of popular uprisings in the Middle East demonstrated that women are “determined to fight for democracy”, Ms Bachelet added.
“The message is loud and clear: There is no turning back,” she said.
Other participants in the event included the EU top foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, and female officials and leaders from Africa, Asia and the Americas.