Achieving gender equality will take 300 years, UN warns

At the current rate, it will take 300 years to achieve equality between men and women, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, warned on Monday (03.06.2023) on the eve of International Women’s Day.

“The advances made in decades are evaporating before our eyes,” Guterres warned at the opening of a meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, focused on the technological gap.

Examples that undermine gender equality

“At the current rate, UN Women expects that it will take 300 years” for equality between men and women, she warned after recalling the situation in Afghanistan, where women and girls have been “erased from public life”, reproductive rights and Women’s sexual relations in many parts are “in decline” without counting the risks of being kidnapped, assaulted in some countries, even by the police.

The COVID-19 pandemic, the conflicts from Ukraine to the Sahel have affected and continue to affect women and girls “in the first place”. “The patriarchy fights back, but we will respond,” said Guterres, who assured that the UN “remains on the side of women and girls around the world” because “we will never give up fighting” for their fundamental rights.

“Misogynistic misinformation and falsehoods” on social networks aim to “silence women and force them out of public life,” she recalled. “The stories may be false, but the damage is very real,” he recalled, after urging “to change” the “international frameworks, which are not adapted to the needs and aspirations of the world’s women and girls,” where there are countries that “oppose the inclusion of the gender perspective in multilateral negotiations”.

A meeting focused on the technological gap

On the topic of the meeting, Guterres said that promoting women’s contributions to science, technology and innovation “is not an act of charity or a favor for women.”

From their access to online medical services, banks and financial resources, secure digital platforms or technology, the benefits “are for everyone,” he recalled.

“Without the insight and creativity of half the world, science and technology will only realize half of their potential,” warned Guterres, who recalled that of the 3 billion people who are still not connected to the Internet, the majority are women and girls in developing countries.