Whatever happened to gender equality?

Diversity, equality, inclusion. Ten years ago, these were aspirational buzz words.

Now, somehow, they have become toxic in some quarters, a sign of society gone somehow wrong. Calling someone “woke” is seen as an insult.

How has this happened? The cold hard facts are clear, gender equality remains more hope than reality. Around the world, women continue to earn significantly less than men. Studies show that women continue to do the lion’s share of housework and childcare, even when they are holding down demanding jobs themselves. There are fewer women leaders in governance, and in business.

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So on Inside Geneva this week we talk to two senior diplomats who remain firmly committed to gender equality, doing their best to make sure it – together with diversity and inclusion – remains on the international agenda.

Tatiana Molcean is Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and chair of Geneva’s International Gender Champions. Before that, she represented her native Moldova at the UN in Geneva. Matthew Wilson is ambassador of Barbados to the UN in Geneva, and vice-chair of Gender Champions.

When they join me in the studio, Wilson wastes no time telling me his views. “I embrace this notion of diversity and inclusion. I embrace wokeness, because for me this is a positive thing.”

“It’s about giving opportunities to all of those who can add to the discussion, to the debate, and who will make sure that you have the best results. And this is what the international gender champions does.”

Ten years of work

Geneva based International Gender Champions was founded in 2015, when the world felt like a more tolerant place towards concepts of diversity and inclusion. Just four years earlier, then US secretary of state Hillary Clinton had made a historic speech to the UN human rights council in Geneva, asserting that “gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights.”

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The US was viewed as a leader in combatting discrimination against the LGBTQ community, in supporting the UN goals of getting all girls into education, and of combatting gender based violence in conflict.

The US spearheaded the foundation of the International Gender Champions, a movement bringing together ambassadors, heads of UN agencies, and business leaders to promote gender equality in their own organisations, and in their work with others.

Fast forward a decade, and Washington is actively hostile towards concepts like diversity and equality, or, as self-styled US secretary of war Pete Hegseth put it recently “we are done with that s..t.”

So what do the gender champions do, ten years on? They might sound like an overly worthy, even elitist group, but these diplomats and business leaders are people with real influence, and they represent all parts of the world.

Mainstreaming

Molcean says she is “all about mainstreaming.” What she means by that is walking the talk, showing by doing. Instead of “pushing, politicising and forcing a debate which won’t lead you anywhere,” Molcean wants to promote systemic change; “changing the rules, changing the practices”, to ensure that gender equality is built in.

What would that mean? “Equal pay, equal pensions” and recognition (including financial support) for the vast amount of unpaid care work, of children, or elderly relatives, that women do.

Both Molcean and Wilson are convinced such changes would not only bring about the longed for gender equality, but would be economically and socially beneficial to countries introducing them.

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Backsliding

Unfortunately, rather than move towards these changes, many countries are backsliding. The pay gap between men and women actually widened in the US last year. There are fewer women leaders in Molcean’s 56 member UNECE than there were 10 years ago. The 27 member European Union has just two female government leaders, in Italy, and Denmark. In 2016 there were five, among them the United Kingdom’s Theresa May, and Angela Merkel of Germany.

And there is a trend, worrying for many women, to suggest that gender equality is somehow not the luxury embattled economies can afford right now, and that promoting it will disadvantage other groups, in particular young men.

Despite, as Wilson points out “the evidence showing that’s not true,” these are narratives which are gaining traction, so how to combat them? Both Wilson and Molcean believe the conversation must be not polemical, but data focussed.

Economies in developing countries will thrive, they suggest, on micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. Very many, the majority even, are founded and led by women, so giving women equal opportunities will provide an economic boost.

And for the young men who feel they are being disadvantaged? Don’t make the discussion about us and them, suggests, Wilson. “We need to start to speak to these young men in a way that they will receive the information. So we’re not preaching to them. We’re conversing with them. And we’re showing them real examples for why this is not true. But more importantly, you also show them the opportunities for them to progress.”

International Gender Champions now has over 300 active members, based all over the world, all of them heads of organisations, permanent missions, or institutions. To hear more about the work they do, listen to the latest episode of Inside Geneva. I challenge you not to be impressed by their enthusiasm, expressed here by Ambassador Wilson.

“It’s good for women, it’s good for men, it’s good for boys, it’s good for girls, it’s good for everyone that we unite around these concepts.”

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