ALFP e-magazine issue 5: Gender Issues

Gender Equality: The View from the UN
Sawanishi Mikiko (Japan)
Deputy Executive Head, United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) / ALFP 2018 Fellow

The overwhelming majority of Japanese nationals working at United Nations agencies in New Yorkare female. The directory of UN staff alone lists approximately 200 Japanese names, of whom 70%
are women. More Japanese women have recently been joining the ranks of senior-levelprofessionals (D1 and above). This may be a reflection of one of the Secretary-General’s goals toachieve greater gender parity by increasing the representation of women in the UN system as awhole, especially in executive and other senior professional positions.1 UN staff is divided into
professional and general service staff, with the latter offering administrative, secretarial and clericalsupport for the former. Not surprisingly, there are far more women in general service positions. In
professional positions, a sizable number of women work as entry level professionals (P1 and P2).
Also, recently the UN Secretary-General took a strong initiative and has achieved gender parity in
his senior management team, composed of the UN Secretariat’s departmental heads and heads ofUN agencies, funds and programmes. However, men are still dominant at middle and executive
level positions, which are responsible for day-to-day decision making. There is clearly a glass ceiling.
Equal opportunity and higher status for women have long been key issues for the United Nations,which established the Commission on the Status of Women in 1946 and adopted the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1979. Japan
ratified the convention in 1985, leading to the repeal of many discriminatory practices. I was still astudent at the time, but when I saw job opportunities opening up for positions that had previously
been offered only to men, I realized that UN initiatives did have a real-life impact—even in acountry as far away as Japan. That may have been my first encounter with the United Nations.
Efforts made since then include the adoption of an optional protocol to the CEDAW in 1999
allowing complaints to be submitted directly to the CEDAW and the inclusion of gender equality
as the fifth of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030.
As Deputy Executive Head of the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), I work to promote
democracy at the grassroots level. Promoting gender equality is an essential component of all ourprojects, whose concrete goals are often to encourage greater participation of women in politicaland other forms of decision-making.2 In implementing our projects, we work closely with local
civil society organizations, many of whose leaders and members are women. Our mission is topromote inclusivity of not just women but all groups in the decision-making process.
In India, I have seen women acquire employable skills that lead to greater financial independence,a bigger voice in society and active engagement in addressing community issues. In Philippine andCambodian communities, women have actively proposed and implemented disaster-prevention
1 United Nations, System-Wide Strategy on Gender Parity, October 9, 2017,www.un.int/sites/www.un.int/files/Permanent%20Missions/delegate/1700102b_gender_strategy_report_13_sept_2017.pdf
2 United Nations Democracy Fund, https://www.un.org/democracyfund/© 2019 International House of Japan and Japan Foundation

ALFP e-magazine issue 5: Gender Issuesand mitigation measures as climate change has exacerbated floods and droughts. In Malaysia, I was
moved by a group of Islamic women who boldly advocated an interpretation of Islamic family law
in line with modern realities, in spite of repeated threats from conservative groups.

Cambodian women discussing a climate resilience plan in their commune

Efforts to achieve gender equality continue to be made in Asia and elsewhere, but the path isarduous. True democracy will remain elusive until individuals are free to attain their goals andcontribute to society, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
Activists in many countries point to enduring preconceptions about gender roles as major obstacles
to gender equality. Gender stereotypes are difficult to overcome, resulting in the building andmaintaining of social institutions based on those stereotypes, which in turn further reinforce them.
Patriarchal gender roles persist to one extent or another in all societies, perhaps with the exceptionof the Nordic countries. And while it is not unusual to find women holding senior positions in
Asian countries outside Japan, those with whom I work tell me how exasperated they are withlingering male-centric attitudes and customs.
In Japan, too, traditional notions of gender roles at work and at home remain strong, and they
underlie many of the country’s workplace practices and social institutions. A case in point is thelong working hours premised on a domestic division of labor; spouses who work late every day are
unlikely to be actively engaged at home, and this has been cited as a factor behind the declining
birthrate. The reason so many Japanese women work at the United Nations, I suspect, is not justbecause they are interested in contributing to the international community but because they are
better able to balance work and family life here than in Japan. Changing such ingrained ideas will
require both a top-down approach through the establishment of new international norms, like theCEDAW, and bottom-up efforts by individuals to effect a shift in consciousness both in the home

© 2019 International House of Japan and Japan Foundation

ALFP e-magazine issue 5: Gender Issues

and at work. I hope that by the time our daughters enter the workforce, society will have evolved
to become more welcoming to all those eager to play an active role, regardless of gender. I also
intend to do whatever I can on a personal level to make that wish come true and to also workassiduously alongside other women to seek needed reforms.

The contents of this article reflect solely the opinions of the author.
© 2019 International House of Japan and Japan Foundation