
Stories
- Leadership and political participation (400)
- Political empowerment (105)
- Executive Director (99)
- Economic empowerment (92)
- UN Women administration (85)
- Gender equality and women’s empowerment (85)
- Peace and security (66)
- Ending violence against women and girls (63)
- Decision-making (53)
- Electoral systems and processes (44)
- Governance and national planning (34)
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Monday, March 8, 2021
UN Women is intensifying its preparations for the 2021 Generation Equality Forum amidst a back-drop that shows women’s rights and leadership are under threat, and even more exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Current projections show that gender equality in the highest positions of power will not be reached for another 130 years. This year’s International Women’s Day rings the alarm on rising threats to gender equality and highlights the need to build back better for a more gender-equal future.
Statement by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women Executive Director, on International Women’s Day 2021
Thursday, March 4, 2021
In her statement for International Women's Day, UN Women Executive Directory Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said: "We need women’s representation that reflects all women and girls in all their diversity and abilities, and across all cultural, social, economic and political situations. This is the only way we will get real societal change that incorporates women in decision-making as equals and benefits us all."
Why we support women’s leadership
Monday, March 1, 2021
Meet some inspiring grass-roots women leaders who are bringing lasting change to their communities, supported by the United Nations
Claiming women’s space in leadership
Monday, March 1, 2021
Across all sectors, communities and societies, women have key contributions to make to leadership. From politics and corporations to sports and STEM, diverse leadership benefits everyone. Leaders need to represent the people they serve to best understand their wants and needs.
Friday, December 11, 2020
As part of the Leaders for Generation Equality campaign, UN Women, together with Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession, Stanford Law School Center on the Legal Profession, and University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, paid tribute to the global legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a high-level interactive discussion with eminent leaders, jurists and experts across the world on International Human Rights Day 2020.
Monday, September 28, 2020
UN Women and UNDP’s newly launched COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker shows the social protection and jobs response to the pandemic has largely overlooked women’s needs.
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
At a high level event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, UN Women, the UN Development Programme, UNHCR, and the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights called for reform of nationality laws that discriminate on the basis of gender. Twenty-five countries retain nationality laws that deny women the right to confer citizenship on their children on an equal basis with men. More than fifty countries have nationality laws with gender-discriminatory provisions, with most denying women the same right as men to pass nationality to a non-citizen spouse.
Saturday, September 19, 2020
At a global, virtual intergenerational event co-hosted by UN Women, the Government of Mexico and the Council of Women World Leaders, in collaboration with the Generation Equality Forum, women leaders convened to discuss the importance of diverse and inclusive feminist leadership.
Expert’s take: Four lessons from COVID-19 that should shape policy decisions everywhere
Friday, August 28, 2020
Laura Turquet is a Policy Advisor at UN Women, where she leads the organisation’s flagship report, Progress of the World’s Women. For the past decade, she has worked at UN Women leading major research and data initiatives that inform the organization’s advocacy objectives and empower civil society and governments to seek and implement change. She is also a co-founder of the UN Feminist Network.
Thursday, August 13, 2020
UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka calls on governments to ensure gender-responsive national plans to build back better after COVID-19
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
Dr. Christine Sadia is a gender and public health expert with over 30 years’ experience advising governments on health and gender issues, such as psychosocial needs of women in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide and HIV programming during the Indonesia tsunami. UN Women is supporting Dr. Sadia in her current role as a Gender and Public Health Advisor for Kenya’s State Department for Gender Affairs, to advise on the country’s national emergency response for COVID-19.
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Amidst a COVID-19 pandemic that is expected to cause an unprecedented global economic downturn, UN Women, the UN entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, and Women 20 (W20), the official G20 engagement group on women, today called on G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to put women at the heart of recovery efforts.
Despite compounding challenges, women in Iraq play vital roles in the country’s COVID-19 response
Monday, July 6, 2020
Despite the unprecedented challenges, Iraqi women are playing vital roles in the country’s COVID-19 response, serving as leaders, health and social workers, and responders to domestic and gender-based violence.
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
Leaders from Member States, civil society, women’s rights organizations, international organizations, UN agencies, philanthropic entities, youth-led organizations, and the private sector come together to deliver game-changing results for women and girls.
Take Five: “Women leaders around the world have demonstrated successful management of the pandemic”
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Around the world, women are shining through as outstanding leaders as the COVID-19 pandemic escalates. From Germany to New Zealand and Denmark to Iceland, women leaders have shown clarity in their decisions and policies, they are compassionate, empathetic, strong communicators and they show solidarity. Her Excellency Vjosa Osmani, the first woman assembly president in Kosovo, has been praised for her professionalism in leading the assembly during the crisis. She is a Doctor of Legal Sciences, former professor and mother of two girls.
Monday, May 11, 2020
UN Women and the African Union, in partnership with the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), will host the inaugural meeting of African Ministers for Gender and Women’s Affairs, on 12 May 2020 under the theme “COVID-19 Response and Recovery” - a Gendered Framework.” Focusing on how to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on African women and girls, the meeting will be co-chaired by UN Women’s Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Chairperson of the...
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
On 20 April 2020, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, and Gabriela Ramos, OECD Chief of Staff and Sherpa to the G20, convened and chaired the Women Leaders´ Virtual Roundtable on COVID-19 and the Future to address the disproportionately negative impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has on women and girls and to identify and prioritize policy measures that facilitates a more gender-inclusive recovery path.
Monday, March 30, 2020
Getrude Mligo, 23, was born two years after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. As a high school student in Songea region of Tanzania, the gender inequalities she saw in her community, especially child marriages that forced girls out of school, prompted her to look back to the 1995 blueprint and begin asking questions. In 2020, Mligo participated in a UN Women mentorship programme as part of UN Women’s Generation Equality campaign, in partnership with Plan International, which paired her with UN Women Representative in Tanzania, Hodan Addou. In this interview, Mligo shares what it means to be a champion for Generation Equality.
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Women’s representation in political decision-making continues to increase but at a dragging pace, with three-quarters of parliamentary seats still held by men, according to new data presented in the 2020 edition of the IPU UN Women map of Women in Politics. The data’s publication coincides with the 25-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, which remains the world’s most comprehensive agenda for gender equality.
My Take, Your Take: Fighting for justice and gender equality in Liberia
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
In this intergenerational series for the Generation Equality campaign, young people take the lead to shape the conversations. Gwendolyn Myers, a 29-year-old peace activist from Liberia, talks with a veteran activist, Abla Gadegbeku William, 59, who has fought for the rights of women and children for more than two decades.