* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Carole Vaporean has been a Reuters journalist since 1987. Currently a commodities correspondent in the New York newsroom, she has also covered nearly every financial market there is, including equities, bonds, Federal Reserve policy, economics, and international economics. Thomson Reuters is hosting a live blog on March 8, 2011, to mark the centenary of International Women's Day. The opinions expressed are her own.
I had the great fortune of being able to participate in the launch of UN Women on February 24. A friend, who I had met only recently, produced the videos, music and sound for the event. So, I asked her how I could get an invitation. While that was unlikely, she said, I could volunteer. So, I took the day off work and went to help set up.
What do you know? They assigned me to usher, which meant that I not only got to seat USG's (I later figured out that's shorthand for Under Secretary General), but once everyone was seated, I got to grab a seat of my own and stay for the entire launch.
While it was thrilling to attend an historic event such as the UN Women launch--complete with movie stars, heads of women's organizations, a princess and other such lumineries--several other women and I kept asking that evening, where are the actions? What is UN Women going to DO?
UN Women has been criticized for lacking sufficient funding to commission meaningful initiatives, for the weight of U.N. bureaucracy which could prove an insurmountable challenge (I must say, I had similar doubts after spending just one afternoon there), and for the show of ceremony and celebrity without a solid action plan.
Indeed, a lot of what was said that night was truly inspiring. But it left one wondering if it was just one of those feel-good times that swept everyone along in the thrill of the moment. Then, you find that it was all talk in the end and ask whether anything will really change?
I thought about this a lot and came to the conclusion that you must start somewhere, no matter where that somewhere is. You must draw the line in the sand. Words do count. It is necessary to take a stand and declare to the world that global gender inequality is no longer acceptable (and it never was). And, as a planet, women's empowerment must become a top priority. That's what that night was for me.
Click link to UN Women launch speeches, videos
Eleanor Roosevelt set down the Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and though we're only recently getting around to embracing them, the ground work was laid for when humanity was ready. On the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, I'd say humanity is ready for UN Women.
UN Women began officially on January 1. But, in July last year, the United Nations General Assembly voted unanimously to create it as the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
Its establishment comes after years of negotiation between U.N. member states and advocacy by the global women's movement. It merges the four parts of the U.N. system that had focused separately on gender equality and women's empowerment issues, and will hold the U.N. accountable for its own commitments on gender equality.
To that end, it will support inter-governmental bodies, like the Commission on the Status of Women, in formulating policies and global standards. And it will help U.N. member states implement those standards with technical and financial support and by forging partnerships with nongovernmental organizations,, or civil society.
Michelle Bachelet, former president of Chile, will lead U.N. Women as Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director. She reports directly to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who said that night that part of his legacy will be to have gender equality become a lived reality on the planet.
Currently, the U.N. quotes statistics that show over 1.2 billion people subsist on less that $1 per day and women are 70 percent of the world's poor. In the developing world, women own less than 2 percent of the land. Women make up nearly two thirds of the world's 759 million illiterate adults.
Female labor force participation was estimated at 52.6 percent in 2008 compared with a male participation rate of 77.5 percent. An estimated 72 percent of the world's 33 million refugees are women and children. And, about 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders annually, 80 percent of whom are women and girls.
While many improvements in gender equality have been made, there are many more statistics like the ones above that attest to the work that sill needs to be done.
Ban Ki-Moon said he knows the contribution that women are and he aims for full participation of that 50 percent of the world's population. And, he declared that he will raise the money to make it happen.
For every year beyond fourth grade that girls attend school, wages rise 20 percent, child death rates drop 10 percent and family size drops 20 percent. The Economist magazine estimated that women's work has contributed more to global growth than China over the last decade. Goldman Sachs' analysis forecasts that some countries could dramatically increase GDP by reducing the gap in employment rates between men and women.
"Women's strength, women's industry, women's wisdom are humankind's greatest untapped resource. The challenge is to show how this resource can be effectively tapped in ways that benefit us all," said Bachelet, the first UN Women leader.
Click for Speech by Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet:
http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2011/02/michelle-bachelet-official-launch-of-u-n-women.htm
