Canada – Leadership Toward Gender Equality – 50:50 Female-Male Cabinet

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Canada – Leadership Toward Gender Equality – 50:50 Female-Male Cabinet

Photo Courtesy of the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada.

Written by PHUMZILE MLAMBO-NGCUKA – UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women

UN Women welcomes the 50:50 equality cabinet appointments of the Canadian Government – A Great step for 2015.

Nov 16, 2015 – When Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, named his 50-50 male-female cabinet, he took a defining step for Canada, and set a marker for other governments. The new appointments, diverse in their ethnic and religious makeup, and inclusive, provide a welcome moment to celebrate the demonstration of words in deeds, and to congratulate Mr. Trudeau on his early commitments to participatory and transparent governance and accountability.

The public response to the appointments, in particular the gender equal cabinet, and to his understated answer, “it’s 2015,” when questioned on the new cabinet’s composition, neatly underlines the extent to which that link is not self-evident. It is 2015 – but no country has achieved gender equality.

Indeed, as a world we have just signed up to a new Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development that includes the goal of achieving this by 2030 and supports a renewed universality of approach.

Around the world, women – who are 50 per cent of the population – are on average just 22 per cent of parliamentarians. Prime Minister Trudeau has demonstrated to the global community that heads of state and government not only can, but must, take immediate, substantial and enduring steps toward gender equality in every sphere of endeavor, and that this should be neither surprising nor unusual. As he implied, parity should not be newsworthy. Yet it is, precisely because of the continuing scale of inequality and its crippling consequences for society, one of the most immediate being the continuing global epidemic of violence against women and girls.

We are facing current global crises of conflict and refugees/migrants that result from years of crushing inequality, economic disempowerment, intolerance and discrimination, and failing governments. The Canadian election and its outcome holds the line not only for Canada, but across the global community. Those countries for whom stability will be critically dependent on their commitment to ensuring plurality, inclusiveness, non-discrimination, gender equality and human rights can look to Canada as a strong example that progress is possible.

Alleviating the crises requires creating conditions of stability in origin countries to stem the flight of people, and addressing the structural and root causes of migration and displacement. It requires us to think carefully about – and act to create – cultures of balance and inclusion in the receiving countries so that the new ethnic demographics there bring about diversity and not xenophobia.

Canada has taken a vital step in moving us closer to our goal at UN Women of gender equality – a “Planet 50-50 by 2030” – and the achievement of our recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals. On 27 September 2015 the United Nations heard commitments from some 70 world leaders towards action for gender equality in their countries, including action to end violence against women, to take special measures to increase representation in economic and political spheres, to ensure girls’ and women’s access to and completion of quality education, to address discriminatory legislation and harmful traditional practices, and to engage men and boys in efforts to achieve gender equality and to change gender stereotypes. These are the kinds of bold transformations that must occur, starting from the top, and we look to those leaders to join Canada in take similarly strong steps to implement their commitments. After all, it’s 2015.