The need for promoting women leadership at the Global stage was starkly highlighted at the general assembly gathering of the United Nations where only one woman figured in a total of 34 heads representing different nations and governments.
Zuzana Caputova, the president of Slovakia, in her video message, emphasized the need of promoting gender equality and human rights. She specifically mentioned the distress among the women and girls in Afghanistan under the newly established rule of the Taliban. Elaborating that in the last two decades, women in Afghanistan had the freedom to exercise their rights and this must not be taken away from them, she talked about the initiative taken by her in collaboration with the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern and Prime Minister of Iceland, Katrin Jakobsdottir to safeguard the rights of women in Afghanistan.
The stark inequality related to female leaders is a grim reality and as per the latest data, out of the total 193 UN member states, only 24 have women serving in the prominent position, i.e., either head of the government or head of the state. Some of the prominent names among these countries include Bangladesh, Moldova, Germany, and Norway. A report published in December last year by the UN Women revealed that 119 countries in the world have never had any women leader and going by the current rate, the world will not be able to attain gender equality in the highest positions of power for another 130 years.
Caputova rose to prominence and capture the power corridors in Slovakia in 2019 when her election to the top post was hailed as a victory for democracy and liberalism in the nation as well as Central Europe. According to the schedule of events at UN assemble, Caputova is one of the total three women who are scheduled to speak at the Assembly this week.
