Speech: UN Secretary-General’s remarks to the Town Hall of Women Civil Society Leaders

You may face, and many of you are facing treats intimidation and harassment.

When you push for change, you are pushing against the patriarchy. And the patriarchy is pushing back. We still live in a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture. And gender equality is fundamentally a question of power. We see those power gaps everywhere – from the arena of politics, to economic decision-making, to the technologies shaping our future, including AI. Patriarchy is rampant in the Silicon Valleys of the world. And that is where power today is becoming more and more concentrated.

Power is never given willingly – even when sharing that power benefits everyone. Every inch of progress is earned. You have earned it by doing what the abolitionist and feminist Lucretia Mott described long ago as shaking “the foundations of privilege.”

Dear friends, you are foundation-shakers. And you are shaking out justice, dignity and equality for communities across the globe. But I am not just here to say thank you. I am here to listen – to your suggestions and your advice

These are trying times. A bitter wind is blowing around the world. That wind is hardening attitudes – and fueling a backlash against women’s rights. A backlash that thrives on disinformation. That exploits fear and insecurity. That weaponizes culture wars. And that seeks to push women into silence.

Well, the last thing I want from you today is silence. I want you to speak freely. To tell me what you are seeing. To tell me what is changing. To tell me how you’re responding – and what together we must do. I do not want diplomatic language. I want your truth – and your guidance.

Dear friends, I have benefitted from that guidance over the past decade. Working together, we have shown what can change when gender equality is at the centre. How institutions become stronger and more credible when women are in senior leadership. How outcomes improve when women are included as decision makers from the very start.

That is what the United Nations strategy to advance gender parity is all about. For the first time in UN history, we achieved parity among our senior leaders at headquarters and globally. Parity among our top representatives around the world. Parity at the professional levels.

And it has paid dividends for everyone – improving our work, bolstering our legitimacy, and enhancing our ability to serve people.

And here I would like to give you an explanation. Looking at 160 high level officials of the UN, we were at about 30% of women, ten years ago. We are now at full parity with a little bit more women than men. And people might think that to do that, I had bent the rules or change the rules to benefit women. It is totally false. All the selections that were made that led to parity were based on strict criteria of independence and inpartiality. The difference was, when women believe that there is an effective opportunity and come forward. Indeed we discovered that in a very clear majority in this case the best candidates were women. And this is particularly true in the public sectors. We see men still. I mean, sometimes those more qualified with an attraction for the private sector. We see still women, largely attracted to the public sector. And so indeed our experience is that we have best women in more quantity than best men. When we see the different posts that we have put for candidacies, and then with panels evaluating who were the best candidates.

So I think it’s very important to say this. To reach gender parity, you do not need to bend the rules. You just need to provide women the same opportunity provided by men and you will discover that that will lead to effective gender parity. Our Gender Equality Acceleration Plan continues this work – coordinating action across the United Nations family for real change in the lives of women and girls.

We will keep advancing all these efforts in the UN and far beyond. After all, the greatest obstacles – and the greatest opportunities – are in societies themselves: in laws, institutions, and power structures. That is why your work matters so much. You are pushing leaders to act when they would rather postpone. And you are expanding the boundaries of the possible. Women are leading the fight for rights across the board – from health to climate, from peacebuilding to labour. 

Don’t let up. Progress is fragile. Rights can be rolled back much faster than they were won. Space can close quickly. And, yes, fatigue is also real – especially when opponents are well funded and ruthless. 

But I want you to know: your work is making a real difference. For women and girls. For peace and sustainable development. For human rights and for our shared future. For each and every one of us.

Dear friends, I look forward to hearing your views and advice, but let me conclude with some advice of my own: Keep shaking the foundations of privilege. You can count on me to be with you – now and always.

And together, we will say loud and clear: no to the pushback. No to the rollback. No to going back. No surrender. Because we will never, ever give up.

Thank you.