UN Seeks New Secretary-General: Is It Time for a Woman to Lead?

Amidst a wave of regression in the struggle for gender equality, pressure is mounting to appoint the next UN Secretary-General as the first woman in more as than 80 years of UN history.

This contradiction has not escaped the notice of UN Women, the agency that works tirelessly to promote the rights of women and girls, while simultaneously pushing for women to occupy top positions in international organisations, governments, business, technology, and the increasingly intense debates surrounding artificial intelligence.

According to the agency’s latest ‘gender snapshot’ report, at the current rate of progress, it will take another 171 years to achieve gender equality—a UN target originally set for 2015 and later moved to 2030. Other findings are equally grim: nearly one in three women worldwide has experienced sexual violence, and almost one in five girls is married before the age of 18. Furthermore, at the current pace of the last five years, gender equality in parliaments will not be achieved until 2089.

After years of progress, female political leadership is now losing momentum, with six out of seven countries still led by men.

Sarah Hendriks, a senior official at UN Women, stated that the recently concluded UN General Assembly