The Fourth World Conference for Women in Beijing added a lot of momentum to this gradual process towards gender equality. Yet given the persistence of inequality, it must be clear to everybody that another big effort is needed in order to translate the commitments of the past into reality. It is crucial that we make good use of this opportunity to make another big stride towards equality. Well, time will tell. However, one thing seems clear to me.
Nobody can decree that their be equality.
No resolution or declaration by the Commission on the Status of Women or the General Assembly can free women and men from the role models which our ancestors, male and female, helped create and which we perpetuate in our own societies. In the end, every individual must free herself. As long as mothers think that their daughter cannot become a decent member of society unless she undergoes an initiation rite which is called circumcision, we will remain incapable of saving those girls from mutilation. As long as girls grow up with a self-image of weakness, inferiority and dependency, they will not believe that they are equal and as fullgrown women they will therefore not demand what is rightfully theirs. Only when we, the women and men on this planet, finally come to understand what it really means to be equal and finally trust in our own ability to gradually remold society in the image of equality, will we succeed.