Women’s rights are “abused, threatened and violated” around the world and gender equality will not be achieved for 300 years on the current path, the UN secretary-general warned on Monday.
Antonio Guterres told the opening session of the Commission on the Status of Women – the UN’s premier global body fighting for gender equality – that the progress won over decades was lost because “patriarchy has fought back.”
The UN chief pointed to Afghanistan where “women and girls have been excluded from public life,” and said that in many countries women’s sexual and reproductive rights are being revoked.
She also said that girls going to school were at risk of kidnapping and assault in many places, and she complained that police were harming vulnerable women who should be protected.
“From Ukraine to the Sahel, crises and conflicts affect women and girls first and worst,” Guterres said.
In other setbacks, he said, maternal mortality is rising and the impact of COVID-19 is forcing girls to marry and not go to school, while keeping mothers and caregivers out of work.
During the two-week session, the Commission on the Status of Women focused on closing the gender gap in technology and innovation. The secretary general said the topic could not be more timely as women and girls are being left behind as technology advances.
“Three billion people are still not connected to the internet, the majority are women and girls in developing countries, (and) in the most developed countries only 19% of women are online,” Guterres said. “Globally, girls and women make up only one-third of students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Men outnumber women two to one in the tech industry and in the emerging field of artificial intelligence only about one in five workers are women, she said.
He said that “big data” is the foundation of political and business decisions, “but often ignoring gender differences – or being blind to women altogether – leads to products and services that cause gender inequality from the beginning.”
Guterres called for urgent action to create power between men and women.
She said there is a need to improve education, employment and income for women and girls, especially in developing countries. She called for the full participation and leadership of women in science and technology to be promoted “from the government to the room and the classroom.”
Guterres also said that a safe digital environment must be created that eliminates “misogynistic disinformation and misinformation” and “gender trolling” on social media.
Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women, told the commission’s opening meeting that “the digital divide has become the new face of gender inequality.” They say that last year there were 259 million more men than women online.
He also cited a survey of female journalists from 125 countries that found three-quarters had experienced online harassment during their work and a third had responded to censorship themselves.
In Afghanistan, Bahous said, women who speak out through YouTube and blogging have their doors marked by the Taliban and many have fled the country to ensure safety. In Iran, many women continue to be targeted for participating in online campaigns, he said.
She said the challenge is “to fix harmful institutions and gender stereotypes around technology and innovation that fail women and girls” and ensure that online spaces are free from abuse and that perpetrators are held accountable.
“If we don’t leave this session saying together, clearly, ‘Enough, no more,’ then we will fail,” Bahous said.
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