International Day of Women in Diplomacy: Pushing through barriers of Gender norms

New Delhi, Jun 24: Despite the ever-present societal patriarchy, women have fought for their rights and taken up important professions, be it in the private or public sector. However, unequal representation of women is quite noticeable. Men climb the diplomatic ranks faster than women; to quell this noticeable difference by encouraging women, the United Nations General Assembly declared June 24 as the International Day of Women in Diplomacy.

Declaration of International day of Women in Diplomacy

Women today have achieved a lot through feministic and women empowerment movements in a primarily patriarchal society. Climbing the social ladder of injustice towards success in various fields has been difficult, but women have thrived. However, the gender representation gap is present in almost all professions. One of them is foreign diplomacies.

The United Nations has always strived to eliminate gender discrimination and norms within the organisation and encourage more women to participate in major decision-making. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) thus adopted a resolution to celebrate June 24 every year as the International Day of Women in Diplomacy, under the Presidentship of Abdulla Shahid, in its 76th session. Shahid called it a "great privilege" to have been able to witness the adoption of such an iconic resolution.

Thilmeeza Hussain, the Maldives Ambassador to the United Nations, stated, "as women climb the diplomatic ranks, they are outnumbered by their male peers, including at United Nations Headquarters, where they represent only one-fifth of the permanent representative," as the resolution was introduced. The Maldives drafted the resolution with 191 co-sponsor countries. The co-sponsorship was also a record for the current session of the UNGA.

Significance

The resolution to celebrate June 24 as the International Day of Women in Diplomacy marks the day that recognises the trivialisation of women diplomats and their contributions. Countries worldwide will honour their achievements and strive toward recruiting more women into the diplomatic corps. Obstacles in the way of women achieving gender equality will be tackled and eliminated.

Women in Diplomacy today

Women ambassadors worldwide have risen from 16% to 22% since 2018, but women are still largely underrepresented in the diplomacy corps. While countries like Canada, Sweden, the UK, Norway, and South Africa have already reached or are on the brink of achieving gender equality in their top posts, countries like Afghanistan, the UAE, India, etc., are yet to catch up.

Celebrating women in diplomacy is indeed critical for women's advancement. There is only more hope for that in the future as more and more countries stand up for feminism against harsh patriarchy and misogyny.