Since the birth of the United Nations, it’s been a custom for the Secretary-General to serve two full five-year terms. This means that when António Guterres completes his term in office, the UN would have gone 80 full years without a woman at its highest position.
In the struggle for gender parity, no organisation commands the global reach and attention of the United Nations. But as a representative body of all humanity, it too has proven to be a hierarchy of glass ceilings. According to the Status of Women in the United Nations System report of 2016, barely a third of positions filled in the director level and above are occupied by women. The highest category, UG, has just 81 women out of 216 members – a representation of 27.3 percent.
The more senior the position, the lower women are represented.
The study shows how even organisations that are committed to women’s empowerment, falter in execution. While the intention to boost ground-up participation has paid off – the lowest levels, P1 and P2, had more women than men being represented at 61.5 and 57.5 percents respectively. But the succeeding positions see large drops in women’s representation.
Copyright©Madras Courier, All Rights Reserved. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from madrascourier.com and redistribute by email, post to the web, mobile phone or social media.Please send in your feed back and comments to editor@madrascourier.com
