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Q&A: Qualified Women Have Better Chance in Top Jobs

Thalif Deen interviews UNESCO Director-General IRINA BOKOVA* - IPS/Terraviva

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 8 2010 (IPS) - Irina Bokova, who was elected director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) last September, heads the Paris-based agency at a time when the world body has placed a high priority on gender empowerment.

She joins the ranks of several women who preside over U.N. agencies, either as elected and/or appointed heads, including Margaret Chan of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Thoraya Obaid of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), Helen Clark of the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), Anne Veneman of the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Josette Sheeran of the World Food Programme (WFP) and Anna Tibaijuka of U.N. Habitat.

Asked if her election by the 193-member UNESCO General Conference symbolises gender empowerment, Bokova told IPS, “My election as director-general is perhaps more indicative of the trend that competent and qualified women have a better chance of competing for these very high level posts now than ever before.”

Bokova was elected from a field of nine candidates, mostly men. She beat the front-runner, Farouk Hosny of Egypt, in the final vote, to become the first woman to head UNESCO since it was founded in 1945.

In an interview with IPS U.N. Bureau Chief Thalif Deen, Bokova said the growing gender empowerment is also the result of the strong advocacy not only by the United Nations but also by women’s organisations and gender equality advocates at national, regional and global levels over the last 35 years (and since the first international conference on women in Mexico in 1975).

“This trend is evident in national politics as well as in international organisations – although the average percentages of women in high-level posts are still far from being satisfactory from a gender equality perspective,” said Bokova, a former ambassador of the Republic of Bulgaria to France and Monaco, and until recently, Bulgaria’s Permanent Delegate to UNESCO.

She hails from a country where some of the key senior positions are being held by women, including the mayor of the capital Sofia, the minister of justice, the speaker of parliament and the head of the prime minister’s office.

According to UNESCO, the gender divide worldwide is one of the most significant inequalities within the digital divide, and it cuts across all social and income groups.

Of the 774 million adults who cannot read, two-thirds are women. Women make up only one-quarter of the world’s researchers.

And of the world’s one billion poorest people, three-fifths are women and girls.

Currently, UNESCO is spearheading several gender-related projects worldwide.

A literary project for girls and women in Lebanon addresses gender-based violence and gender-stereotypes in schools and improved literacy programmes in rural areas.

UNESCO is also partnering with L’Oreal, the cosmetics marketer, in a project to assist some 500 outstanding female scientists move forward in their professional careers.

A Palestinian Women’s Research and Documentation Centre has been set up in Ramallah to function as a training, research and resource centre.

The U.N. agency has also launched a global initiative aimed at promoting gender equality in the media.

Bokova said that gender equality is one of UNESCO’s global priorities not only for 2010 but through 2013.

“I am personally committed to pursuing this global priority through substantive and concrete action in programming at the country level and also within the UNESCO Secretariat,” she added.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: What are your thoughts on the creation of a new U.N. “gender entity” for women? A: The decision taken by U.N. member states to create a composite gender equality entity by bringing together the existing four groups – the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues (OSAGI), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) – is an initiative which aims to strengthen the efforts to promote gender equality both in the normative and operational spheres and as such represents an important step.

Q: How will this advance the cause of gender empowerment? A: This new entity does not mean that other U.N. agencies do not need to continue to support gender equality in and through their own work. UNESCO will continue in its efforts to support gender equality in all its domains and in its Secretariat.

Q: How effective will the new gender entity be? A: The effectiveness and impact of this new entity will, to some extent, depend on the resources (human and financial) that will be made available. As a member of the Chief Executives Board (CEB), I will advocate gender equality and also support the efforts of the new entity and its head in CEB and in other high-level groups.

Promoting gender equality is the responsibility of all, women and men, at all levels and in all walks of life.