My second message is clear: in a male dominated world, the empowerment of women must be a key priority. Women already have what it takes to succeed. Empowerment is about breaking structural barriers.
Men still dominate, even in countries that consider themselves as progressive... this is vital to address a historic injustice that continues today. But it is also about effectiveness.
Institutions, companies, Governments and organizations — including our own — those in which gender equality reflect the people they serve get better results by every measure. They are the future. If countries address the gender gap at work, women can generate enough funds to underpin success across the 2030 Agenda which was approved by all leaders at the United Nations in 2015.
One study found that women’s equality can add $12 trillion to global growth over the next decade. Empowerment is also the best way to prevent protection challenges that arise from violent extremism, human rights violations, xenophobia and other threats. We need you more than ever before.
Globally, women are suffering new assaults on their safety and dignity. Extremists have built their ideologies around the subjugation of women and girls and the denial of their rights.
...And allow me to tell one story that I lived in my own party 20 years ago when we were fighting for quotas in our own party board and I remember the dialog between two of my colleagues at that time on the usual argument about gender equality. One was saying to [the] other “I have nothing against women as members of our board, provided that they are competent.” And the other wisely answered “Look, there will only be equality on our board when incompetent women will also be members because we have a lot of incompetent men there.”
That does not mean that I am here to promote incompetent women here at the UN, what we need is to have both competent women and competent men with equal opportunities in the Organization.