Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world

Women's agenda

This year’s theme for the International Day,”Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world“, celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Women stand at the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis, as health care workers, caregivers, innovators, community organizers and as some of the most exemplary and effective national leaders in combating the pandemic. The crisis has highlighted both the centrality of their contributions and the disproportionate burdens that women carry.

Women leaders and women’s organizations have demonstrated their skills, knowledge and networks to effectively lead in COVID-19 response and recovery efforts. Today there is more acceptance than ever before that women bring different experiences, perspectives and skills to the table, and make irreplaceable contributions to decisions, policies and laws that work better for all.

Majority of the countriesthat have been more successful in stemming the tide of the COVID-19 pandemic and responding to its health and broader socio-economic impacts, are headed by women. For instance, Heads of Government in Denmark, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand and Slovakia have been widely recognized for the rapidity, decisiveness and effectiveness of their national response to COVID-19, as well as the compassionate communication of fact-based public health information. Yet, women are Heads of State and Government in only 22 countries worldwide.

In addition to persistent pre-existing social and systemic barriers to women’s participation and leadership, new barriers have emerged with the COVID-19 pandemic. Across the world women are facing increased domestic violence, unpaid care duties, unemployment and poverty. Despite women making up a majority of front-line workers, there is disproportionate and inadequate representation of women in national and global COVID-19 policy spaces.

To uphold women’s rights and fully leverage the potential of women’s leadership in pandemic preparedness and response, the perspectives of women and girls in all of their diversity must be integrated in the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes in all spheres and at all stages of pandemic response and recovery.

“Women have an equal right to speak with authority on the decisions that affect their lives”

In celebrating women who are leading their nations and communities through the pandemic, Secretary-General António Guterres said that “countries with women leaders are among those that have suffered fewer deaths and put themselves on track for recovery”.

He also noted that women’s organizations “have filled crucial gaps” in providing services and information and while women peacebuilders have played “a vital role” in public health messaging.

“70 per cent of frontline health and care workers are women – many from racially and ethnically marginalized groups and at the bottom of the economic ladder”, the UN chief said.

Yet despite their critical roles during the pandemic, there has been a roll-back in hard-won advances in women’s rights, which he maintained harms everyone’s work towards peace and prosperity.

“In this Decade of Action” to deliver the SDGs, “we must turn things around”, said Mr. Guterres, adding, “too often, services are delivered by women, but decisions are made by men”.

Just 22 countries have a woman as Head of State, only 21 per cent of Ministers are women, and women parliamentarians make up less than 25 per cent of national legislators.

“Women have an equal right to speak with authority on the decisions that affect their lives…from the pandemic to climate change, to deepening inequalities, conflict and democratic backsliding”, said the UN chief.

While gender equality is essentially a question of power, Mr. Guterres pointed out that in our male-dominated world, “equal power will not happen by itself”.

He spelled out the need to “transform social norms…put in place laws and policies to support women in leadership…appoint women to high-level positions…tackle violence against women, both online and offline… increase access to financing for women candidates, women’s organizations and feminist movement [and] support women leaders in all their diversity and abilities”.

While Covid-19 has been “a calamity” for everyone, he said that it has also “forced a reckoning with global inequalities, fragilities and entrenched gender discrimination”.

“Women must be at the center of the recovery as we make the course corrections that the pandemic has highlighted so vividly”, concluded the Secretary-General. “This is a job for all of us”.