Gender equality is fundamentally a question of power.” – UN Secretary General António Guterres.
Achieving gender equality requires a fundamental shift in the balance of power over resources. Globally, from urban financial centres to remote communities, from international bodies to parliaments to fields, men dominate decision-making and control of resources. But worldwide, women are pressing for change.
Last month, a court in Ecuador issued a landmark ruling for the indigenous Waorani people, protecting their land from oil exploration. Nemonte Nenquimo led the tribe’s resistance, and unequivocally asserted her people’s rights to their land:
The government’s interest in oil is not more valuable than our rights, our forests, our lives.
Nemonte’s leadership is a thrilling example of women taking hold—ownership—of their land and of destiny, for themselves and their families and communities. But Nemonte stands in jubilant and hopeful contrast to a stark reality worldwide: a web of barriers stands in the way of women taking hold—of their own agency, of the world’s resources, and of seats of power.
The time to overturn this reality and speed transformation is now. Women worldwide experience discrimination that stifles or extinguishes our voices, opportunities, and our very lives; from widespread injustices like sexual harassment, the gender pay gap, and the burden of unpaid care work, to appalling realities like sexual violence, human trafficking, child marriage, and honour killings—the effects of gender inequality are well known.
What should be at the centre of this fundamental shift?
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