As the world celebrates International Women’s Day, U.N. stresses that gender equality benefits everyone

As various cities around the world prepared to celebrate International Women’s Day – with limitations due to the coronavirus outbreak –  the chief of UN Women said in her message that the benefits of gender equality are not just for women and girls, but “for everyone whose lives will be changed by a fairer world.

As a “massive year for gender equality”, Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said 2020 was all about “Generation Equality”, in which “we’re mobilizing to realize women’s rights, and to mark 25 years of implementing the Beijing Platform for Action” – the historic and landmark gender equality plan drawn up in the Chinese capital.

Generation Equality is focussing on issues facing women across generations, with young women and girls at the centre.

“We don’t have an equal world at the moment and women are angry and concerned about the future”, she said. “They are radically impatient for change. It’s an impatience that runs deep, and it has been brewing for years”.

Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka underscored that girls are disappointed with “the stewardship of our planet, the unabated violence directed against them and the slow pace of change in fulcrum issues like education”.

“My greatest impatience is with unmoving economic inequality”, calling it “a driver of repeating poverty”.

She asserted that policies are needed that promote equality in childcare responsibilities and provide State support to families, and those who work in the informal economy.

Though “radically impatient”, Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka said: “We are not giving up”.

She cited as cause for hope, growing support in tackling gender-bias barriers; a “driving will” for change across generations and countries; and that the last 25 years “have shown us what is needed to accelerate action for equality”.

Meanwhile, the European Commission presented its strategy for equality between women and men in Europe. While the EU is a global leader in gender equality and has made significant progress in the last decades, gender-based violence and stereotypes continue to persist: one in three women in the EU was subject to physical and/or sexual violence. Even though more women graduate from universities, they earn on average 16% less than men do and only 8% of CEO’s of the EU’s largest companies are women.

To address this, the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 sets out key actions for the next 5 years and commits to ensure that the Commission will include an equality perspective in all EU policy areas. The Strategy outlines how the Commission will deliver on the promise made by President von der Leyen that Europe provides the same opportunities for all that share the same aspirations.