Gender equality will take 300 years to achieve, says UN chief

• Guterres warned that progress towards gender equality is “vanishing before our eyes”.
• Due to high rates of maternal death, girls being forced into young marriages.
• And girls being kidnapped and abused for attending school.

Progress toward gender equality is “vanishing before our eyes,” United Nations Secretary General António Guterres told the Commission on the Status of Women on Monday.

According to the most recent projections from UN Women, the UN agency devoted to gender equality and the empowerment of women, gender equality is “300 years away,” said Guterres, speaking to the important UN women’s rights group before March 8’s International Women’s Day.

The possibility of reaching gender equality “is increasingly more remote,” according to Guterres, who noted high rates of maternal death, girls being forced into young marriages, and girls being kidnapped and abused for attending school.

During his statement, Guterres made no mention of Iran, which was kicked off the 45-member committee in December as a result of demonstrations after Mahsa Amini died while in the care of the nation’s purported “morality police.”

“Women’s rights are being abused, threatened, and violated around the world,” Guterres said, naming a few countries in particular, including Afghanistan, where he said “women and girls have been erased from public life.”

Young Afghan women protested the Taliban government’s prohibition on female education on Monday in front of Kabul University.

According to a recent UN assessment, this limitation may constitute “a crime against humanity.”

A surge in forced and underage marriages, the exclusion of women from other public areas including parks and gyms, and other limitations on women’s freedom to work and travel independently in Afghanistan were also mentioned in the report delivered to the Human Rights Council on Monday in Geneva.

A surge in forced and underage marriages, the exclusion of women from other public areas including parks and gyms, and other limitations on women’s freedom to work and travel independently in Afghanistan were also mentioned in the report delivered to the Human Rights Council on Monday in Geneva.

“Crisis and conflict affect women and girls first and worst,” Guterres said, including the war in Ukraine as an example.

Last year, the UN called for an investigation into reports of rape and sexual violence against Ukrainian women and children following Russia’s invasion.

Aside from that, Guterres claimed that “in many places, women’s sexual and reproductive rights are being turned back,” though he didn’t say where.

The right to an abortion is now up to each state after the US Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in June of last year.

In Poland, a prohibition on abortions for foetal deformities went into force the year prior, effectively putting an end to practically all abortions there.

Guterres urged “collective” and “urgent” action, from boosting education, income, and employment opportunities for women and girls, particularly in developing countries in the Global South, to encouraging their engagement in science and technology, in order to achieve gender equality.

“Centuries of patriarchy, discrimination and harmful stereotypes have created a huge gender gap in science and technology,” Guterres said. “Let’s be clear: global frameworks are not working for the world’s women and girls. They need to change.”

Also Read

Chinese women’s Asian Cup win sparks calls for gender pay equality

The Asian Cup win of China's women's football team has generated calls...