It is a pleasure to join you today on International Women’s Day — to celebrate women around the world and all they have achieved in the fight for equality.

In communities across the globe, millions of women and girls are working to demand change, to combat stereotypes, and to make their voices heard. Some are women’s rights activists. All are human rights defenders. They are creating a better world for everyone.

We stand with them today. We thank them. And we applaud all they have achieved. But we also recognize that women and girls at the forefront of change may be ignored, reviled, and even targeted for attack.

Progress towards equality has been far too slow. Around the world, women and girls continue to face rank discrimination and gross human rights violations and abuses. A persistent epidemic of gender-based violence disgraces humanity. And women’s unpaid care work is excluded from calculations of Gross Domestic Product and considered to have no financial value. But the Covid-19 pandemic revealed the truth: women’s unpaid care work is the foundation of stable economies and societies.

Even when they are paid for their work, women earn less than men. The gender pay gap is at least twenty percent and often more, depending on the country and the job sector. Sectors dominated by women, like teaching and nursing, are underpaid across the board.

Politically, women remain under-represented and under-served. At last year’s United Nations General Assembly, less than twelve per cent of speakers were women. Change is long overdue. 

A global backlash against women’s rights is threatening, and in some cases reversing, progress in developing and developed countries alike. The most egregious example is Afghanistan, where women and girls have been barred from much of the education system, from employment outside the home, and from most public spaces.

But we need to look no further than headlines of recent days. It is intolerable that over 4 million girls around the world are at risk of female genital mutilation each year. I am outraged by the parliamentary initiative in Gambia to legalize this horrific practice. I strongly appeal for this proposal to be rejected.

The global crises we face are hitting women and girls hardest — from poverty and hunger to climate disasters, war and terror. Over the past year we have heard horrific reports of the impact of conflict on women and girls around the world. This includes testimonies of rape and trafficking in Sudan; accounts in the recent report by Pramila Patten — my Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict — of sexual violence and indications of sexualized torture during the terror attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel; and reports of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees. We have also witnessed maternity services crumbling in Gaza, where women and children make up the majority of the tens of thousands killed and injured.

At our current rate of change, full legal equality for women is some 300 years away. So is the end of child marriage. And by 2030, over 340 million women and girls will still be living in extreme poverty — some 18 million more than men and boys. That is an insult to women and girls. And a brake on all our efforts to build a better world.

Gender equality is the strong foundation of the entire 2030 Agenda — from ending poverty to securing peace. We must drastically up the pace of change. That requires political focus. And it requires investment — our theme for this year’s International Women’s Day. Those investments must go towards ending violence against women; improving women’s and girls’ access to education and skills; and increasing the number of women in leadership roles in the corporate sector, in government, in peacebuilding and in climate action.

We need to provide resources for effective social protection systems and put a monetary value on care work.  Governments should promote childcare policies that enable both mothers and fathers to take on paid work outside the home. And we must put money into the women’s rights organizations fighting to dismantle stereotypes, challenge cultural norms, and ensure women and girls are heard.

I see three priority areas for action to make such investments a reality. First, we must urgently increase the availability of affordable, long-term finance for sustainable development, and tackle the debt crisis suffocating many developing countries and their economies.

We are pushing for an SDG Stimulus of $500 billion a year in affordable, long-term finance for developing countries. Our proposal calls for action on debt for countries facing impossible repayment schedules. Leaders endorsed the Stimulus at last year’s SDG Summit; I will be working with a small group of Heads of State to make it a reality.

I urge all countries to support these efforts. And to support reform of the international financial architecture at the Summit of the Future this year so that it meets the financing needs of developing countries that are essential for the promotion of gender equality.

Second, I urge governments to prioritize equality for women and girls. I am pleased today to launch the United Nations System-Wide Gender Equality Acceleration Plan, which commits to placing women and girls at the center of our work across the board. We will support governments around the world to design and implement policies, budgets and investments and respond to the needs of women and girls.

Targeted programs and quotas may be required to tackle baked-in bias and dismantle the obstacles to equality.  I also urge Member States at the Summit of the Future to support our proposals for metrics that go beyond Gross Domestic Product. GDP disregards invisible domestic labor. Complementary metrics provide a more comprehensive and balanced picture.

Third, we need to increase the number of women in leadership positions. Women in positions of power can help to drive investment in policies and programs that meet the needs of women and girls. I am particularly proud that since early in my tenure we have equal numbers of women and men in senior management across the entire United Nations system — a first for our organization.

And I urge Member States to look at what they can do to increase the number of women in delegations to the United Nations and at intergovernmental meetings. Such investments and policies are not in favor of women; they are good for us all.

Equality is the bedrock of peaceful, prosperous societies. And supporting women who want to enter formal labor markets increases growth, tax revenues and opportunities for all.

Equality is overdue. To achieve it, we must match rhetoric with resources. We must invest in women and girls, turbocharge progress, and build a better world for all.

(UN Secretary-General’s remarks at the Observance of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2024)