The breakthrough in gender equality is “disappearing before our eyes” and it will take “another 300 years” to achieve global gender equality, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday, a day before International Women’s Day.
The breakthrough in gender equality is “disappearing before our eyes” and it will take “another 300 years” to achieve global gender equality, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday, a day before International Women’s Day.
Guterres pointed out that issues such as high maternal mortality rates, young girl marriages and attacks on girls for attending school are evidence that gender equality is declining globally.
“Women’s rights are violated and threatened in many parts of the world,” Guterres said, highlighting Afghanistan, where “women and girls are being erased from public life.”
“Crises and conflicts have the biggest impact on women and girls,” he continued, citing Russia’s war in Ukraine as an example. Last year, the UN called for an investigation into rape and sexual abuse of women and children during the Russian invasion.
Guterres also noted that “in many places, women are deprived of their sexual and reproductive rights,” but did not name specific countries. In the last two years, women’s right to abortion has been restricted in several US states, as well as in Poland, where abortion is actually prohibited, apart from certain exceptional cases.
Guterres expressed the need to strengthen gender equality “collectively” and “urgently”, citing strengthening education and employment opportunities for women, especially in developing countries, and promoting the involvement of women and girls in science and technology as possible tools.
