INSTRAW Calls for More Women in Leadership & Power

 

On the Occasion of International Women’s Day

More Women Heading
Businesses, Urges the INSTRAW
Director

“Women’s participation in political and economic decision
making both is slow and unsatisfactory”, points out Carmen Moreno, Director of
the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the
Advancement of Women (INSTRAW)

(Santo Domingo, 08 March 2006) — On the
occasion of International Women’s Day, the Director of the United Nations
International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women
(INSTRAW) reiterates the call made by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to “ensure
that half the world’s population takes up its rightful place in the world’s
decision-making.”

Carmen Moreno also emphasizes that
the recent election of 3 women as heads of State or Government – Michelle
Bachelet in Chile, Ellen
Jonson-Sirleaf in Liberia and
Angela Merkel in Germany – represents an important
step for women’s progress in decision making. “Now we need mini-Bachelets,
mini-Johnson-Sirleafs or mini-Merkels in the communities, in the municipalities
and in the city councils”, stated the head of the only UN Institute specializing
in gender. “We have a head but we lack feet. How can women continue to advance
without greater participation at the base?”, asks Carmen Moreno.

Women’s presence in local government
is still unsatisfactory despite the advances achieved in the past years. With
30% of women’s representation, Africa surpasses all the other regions including
Europe (23%), South America (26%), Central America (23%), Asia and Pacific (17%)
and the Middle East (2.1%), according to data from UnitedCities and Local Governments (UCLG). In
order to support greater political participation of women at the local level,
INSTRAW has initiated a project in several Latin American countries financed by
the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation [Agencia Española de
Cooperación Internacional] (AECI). Insofar as women’s representation in
parliaments, Latin America had the greatest percentages in 2005 with 23% in
Honduras, according to information
from the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

“Even more dramatic is women’s
under-representation in businesses at the highest levels of decision making”,
the INSTRAW Director highlights. In the business world in most developed
countries, women continue to face discrimination in terms of salaries and are
excluded from high ranking posts despite having achieved insertion into the
labour market.

According to the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), the country with the most women administrators and
executives is not Japan,
United Status or Finland but
the Philippines. “Women who get a job do
not necessarily achieve a business career, not even in the Nordic countries,
considered as pioneers in political participation,” Carmen Moreno points
out.

On the occasion of International
Women’s Day, the INSTRAW Director urges governments and business groups to adopt
concrete measures that promote greater participation of women in high-ranking
posts in the private sector.

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