Tag Archives: gender

‘We are women like you’: UN honours peacekeepers for work in gender empowerment

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There, alongside civilian gender units, Ms. Syme met a group of local community members – both men and women. Partway through, she realised something was different.

“The women were not talking,” she told UN News. “They were very quiet.”

Then she remembered that local cultural norms dictated women do not speak in public.

“We are women like you. We want to be able to help, but we don’t know how we can help you,” she told them in a separate meeting. “Can you please tell us what your problem is so we can see how we can help?”

It is for this sort of work founded in community trust building and a relentless belief in the importance of gender perspectives and empowerment in peacekeeping, that the UN will honour two exceptional women peacekeepers on Thursday as part of International Peacekeepers’ Day.

Ms. Syme is this year’s winner of the UN Military Gender Advocate of 2024 Award.

“[Ms. Syme’s] dedication has not only improved the effectiveness of UNISFA’s operations but also ensured that the mission is more reflective of and responsive to the communities it serves,” said Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

The other honouree is Chief Superintendent Zainab Mbalu Gbla of Sierra Leone who has been named Woman Police Officer of the year for her work with UNISFA.

“Chief Superintendent Gbla embodies the work of the United Nations to improve lives and shape futures,” said Mr. Lacroix.

Gender and peacekeeping

The UN Woman Police Officer of the Year Award was established in 2011 and the UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award was first presented five years later.

Both awards recognize peacekeepers whose work has substantially advanced the integration of gender perspectives and empowerment into peacekeeping.

In 2000, the Security Council passed a resolution which affirmed the essential role women play in peacebuilding, peacekeeping and humanitarian responses. Since then, the United Nations has worked to fully integrate gender perspectives into peacekeeping.

According to Ms. Syme, applying gender perspectives should be a “daily task” for all peacekeepers.

“We need to understand the gender dynamics within our area of operation, otherwise, we might not be able to have the right intervention, we might not be able to carry out the right activities,” she said.

Intergenerational legacy

Ms. Gbla experienced the impact of peacekeeping herself as a civilian in Sierra Leone in the wake of a war that ravaged her country.

“I saw people coming from different parts of the world just to bring peace to my country… That’s why I told myself that one day I’d love to be a peacekeeper – to help other people, to return the favour,” Ms. Gbla told UN News.

As a UNISFA gender officer, not only did she create a school programme and female mentorship network where none had existed before, she also worked diligently to ensure that learning was fun, incorporating performing arts and visual aids.

“[The women of Abyei] are ready to work, they are ready to do things for themselves if peace allows them. The children are ready to go to school, if peace allows them,” she said.

A health campaign in Abyei

Ms. Syme’s meeting with the women of Sector North was the beginning of an enormously successful health campaign in the region which discussed harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation, the two issues which the community women had identified.

The campaign engaged both men and women, and Ms. Syme said that she was deeply impressed and moved by the response of the male leaders who, through the campaign, realized the harm that practices of child marriage and female genital mutilation had caused.

“[The leaders] promised that they are going to revise these cultural practices so that going forward, they will not do it again,” Ms. Syme said.

This campaign happened in June 2024 and has driven Ms. Syme’s work since then, work which includes training over 1,500 UNISFA officials in gender-responsive peacekeeping.

“It has motivated me,” Ms. Syme said. “It has motivated me a lot.”

The future of peacekeeping through gender

Both Ms. Syme and Ms. Gbla will receive their awards on International Peacekeeping Day. This year, Member States and UN officials will be asked to consider the future of peacekeeping.

For both Ms. Syme and Ms. Gbla, the future of peacekeeping and security cannot be disentangled from gender perspectives and empowerment.

“If you don’t know the gender dynamics of the area, if you don’t know who is in charge, if you don’t know what will benefit who…you may think you are providing security, but you are not really providing security,” Ms. Syme said.

Ms. Gbla, in discussing her award, paid homage to all the women who wear a UN uniform, underlining their tireless work in the pursuit of peace.

“Each of us [women] faces unique challenges in our respective missions, yet our collective goal remains the same – to foster peace and protect the vulnerable.”

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Health, education, opportunity at stake, amid stubborn digital gender divide

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Closing this gap is not optional. There were189 million fewer women than men online in 2024.  

The disparity is about more than access, it reflects deeper systemic barriers, according to ​Doreen Bogdan-Martin who heads the UN telecommunications agency, ITU.

“That’s too many missed opportunities to learn, to earn and to shape our shared digital future,” she said in a message for Thursday’s International Girls in ICT Day.

She underscored that connectivity alone is not enough to ensure true digital transformation.

“It must be meaningful – being able to afford digital devices and services, having the skills to use technology and feeling safe in online spaces. Everyone deserves the chance to thrive in an increasingly digital world.”

ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin’s video message.

2025 Theme

Celebrated annually on the fourth Thursday of April, Girls in ICT Day encourages girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Since its launch in 2011, more than 417,000 girls and young women have participated in over 11,500 celebrations across 175 countries.

This year’s theme is Girls in ICT for inclusive digital transformation. The ITU is calling for more investment in girls’ digital education and expansion of access to technology.  

More young women need to become creators – not just consumers in the digital world, the agency argues.

“Whether you are an entrepreneur, launching an AI startup, a teacher incorporating digital skills into your classroom or a policymaker shaping our shared digital future, you can help ensure every woman and girl has the chance to connect, create and lead in digital spaces,” Ms. Bogdan-Martin emphasised.

A participant at a UN-supported training on STEM for girls and young women.

Global observance

The 2025 global observance will be co-hosted this year by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Eurasia together with States from the Arab region, featuring a live-streamed hybrid event linking Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and Nouakchott, Mauritania.

The programme includes an intergenerational dialogue bringing together girls, women leaders, and ICT experts to discuss practical strategies for closing the gender gap.

Events are also being organized worldwide, including Girls in ICT in Solomon Islands in the Pacific, the Melon Girls Club in North Macedonia and STEM Supergirls in Croatia.

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Ministry of Women and Child Development to celebrate the BBBP Week from 09th to 14th October

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National wide activities and awareness generation campaigns to mark the celebration of BBBP Week.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development will be celebrating the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Week from 09th to 14th October, 2017. The week is being celebrated in view of the International Girl Child Day on 11th October, 2017. The theme of the program will be “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Week- The Daughters of New India”.

Briefing the media in New Delhi today, Secretary WCD, Shri Rakesh Srivastava said that the International Girl Child Day is celebrated every year to promote empowerment of girls and reinforce gender equality. It also provides a platform to raise issues, concerns and challenges faced by girls. In order to influence national and mainstream discourse in favour of girls and women and visibility to BBBP, which is one of the flagship programmes of Government of India, Ministry of WCD will be celebrating the BBBP Week, he explained.

BBBP Scheme (Celebrate Girl Child, Enable her Education) was launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 22nd January, 2015 at Panipat, Haryana as a comprehensive programme to address the declining CSR and related issues of disempowerment of women over a life-cycle continuum. The Scheme is being implemented in 161 districts of the Country and has completed two and half years of its implementation on ground. During this period, the States/UTs/Districts have undertaken several innovative initiatives to address the issue of declining child sex ratio and promote value of girl child.

The collective and coordinated efforts undertaken at national, state and districts level has been successful in establishing a substantial improvement in the number of girls being born in the target districts. As per the HIMS data for the 161 districts of BBBP, an increasing trend in Sex Ratio at Birth is visible in 104 BBBP Districts during 2016-17 as compared to the period 2015-16. Similarly, 119 districts have reported progress in registration of pregnancies in the first trimester during 2016-17 as compared to 2015-16. During the same period, Institutional deliveries against the total reported deliveries have improved in 146 districts in comparison to the previous year.

In this background, the BBBP districts have been requested to organize activities in a campaign mode to observe the Week starting from 9th October – 14th October 2017 to create awareness and sensitize community in their respective districts. The week-long celebration will witness various awareness generation activities and community engagement programmes such as Oath ceremonies, prabhat pherries, rallies, nukkad natraks, street plays, joint door to door campaigns by AWWs and ASHAs, Posters/Slogan-writing/ Drawing/Painting competition among school children, tree plantation in the name of girl child, distribution of birth certificates, opening of Sukanya Samriddhi Accounts, sensitization/orientation/counseling sessions and talk shows on gender, health and nutrition, legal rights and Acts.

At the National level, the occasion will also be marked by a Panel Discussion to be held on 11th October, 2017 coinciding with the theme for this year’s International Day of the Girl –“Girls Progress=Goals Progress: What Counts for Girls” to engage key sport influencers and women and girls role models from the field, to generate support through their voice and reach. Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Minister of WCD will be addressing the audience at the Panel Discussion, in whichsome of India’s leading women Sports Icons and local BBBP Champions will take part. Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Dr. Virendra Kumar will kickstart the BBBP week celebrations in New Delhi on 09th October, 2017.

Welfare of Transgenders taken up

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The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has constituted an Inter Ministerial Committee to pursue implementation of the Expert Committee’s recommendations. So far, four Inter Ministerial Committee meetings have been held.

The Registrar General of India (RGI), during Enumeration of Census 2011, for the first time provided three codes i.e. Male-1, Female –2 and others -3 for enumeration. This was at the discretion of the respondent. In case the respondent wished to record neither ‘1’ nor ‘2’, then enumerator was instructed to record sex as ‘other’ and give code ‘3’. Still, it is important to note that the Census on India does not collect any data specifically on ‘transgender’. Thus, the category of ‘other’ would not only include ‘transgender’ but also any person who desires to record sex under the category of ‘other’. It is also possible that some transgenders would have returned themselves either male or female depending upon their choice. The population of ‘other’ as per Census 2011 is 4,87,803.

The Bill titled “The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016” was introduced by the Ministry in the Lok Sabha on 2.8.2016. The Bill was referred to the Lok Sabha Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment for examination and report. The Committee has submitted its report on 21.07.2017.

The Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) has informed that they are providing employment opportunities to 23 transgenders who work alongside the Kudumbashree women in customer service operations.

This information was given by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Vijay Sampla in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

Women show cognitive advantage in gender-equal countries

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Women’s cognitive functioning past middle age may be affected by the degree of gender equality in the country they live in, according to new findings from Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

“This research is a first attempt to shed light on important, but understudied, adverse consequences of gender inequality on women’s health in later life,” explains researcher Eric Bonsang of University Paris-Dauphine and Columbia University, lead author on the study. “It shows that women living in gender-equal countries have better cognitive test scores later in life than women living in gender-unequal societies. Moreover, in countries that became more gender-equal over time, women’s cognitive performance improved relative to men’s.”

Bonsang and colleagues Vegard Skirbekk (Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Columbia University) and Ursula Staudinger (Columbia University) had noticed that the differences in men’s and women’s scores on cognitive tests varied widely across countries. In countries in Northern Europe, for example, women tend to outperform men on memory tests, while the opposite seems to be true in several Southern European countries.

“This observation triggered our curiosity to try to understand what could cause such variations across countries,” says Bonsang.

While economic and socioeconomic factors likely play an important role, Bonsang, Skirbekk, and Staudinger wondered whether sociocultural factors such as attitudes about gender roles might also contribute to the variation in gender differences in cognitive performance around the globe. They hypothesized that women who live in a society with more traditional attitudes about gender roles would likely have less access to opportunities for education and employment and would, therefore, show lower cognitive performance later in life compared with men of the same age.

The researchers analyzed cognitive performance data for participants between the ages of 50 and 93, drawn from multiple nationally representative surveys including the US Health and Retirement Study; the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe; the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing; and the World Health Organization Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health. Together, the surveys provided data for a total of 27 countries.

All of the surveys include an episodic memory task to measure cognitive performance. Participants heard a list of 10 words and were asked to recall as many as they could immediately; in some of the surveys, participants again recalled as many words as they could after a delay. Additionally, some of the surveys included a task intended to assess executive function in which participants named as many animals as they could within 1 minute.

To gauge gender-role attitudes, the researchers focused on participants’ self-reported agreement with the statement, “When jobs are scarce, men should have more right to a job than women.”

Overall, the data showed considerable variability in gender differences in cognitive performance across countries. In some countries, women outperformed men–the female advantage in cognitive performance was highest in Sweden. In other countries, however, men outperformed women–the male advantage was highest in Ghana.

As the researchers hypothesized, increasingly traditional gender-role attitudes were linked with decreasing cognitive performance among women across countries. In other words, women in countries with less traditional attitudes were likely to have better cognitive performance later in life relative to women in more traditional countries.

Bonsang and colleagues noted that changes in gender-role attitudes within a country over time were associated with changes in women’s cognitive performance relative to men.

Although the data are correlational in nature, several more detailed analyses point toward a causal relationship. These analyses suggest that gender-role attitudes may play a notable role in important outcomes for women across different countries, the researchers argue.

“These findings reinforce the need for policies aiming at reducing gender inequalities as we show that consequences go beyond the labor market and income inequalities,” says Bonsang. “It also shows how important it is to consider seemingly intangible influences, such as cultural attitudes and values, when trying to understand cognitive aging.”

“In future work, we plan to disentangle the effect of gender-role attitudes on gender difference in cognition–via the impacts of those attitudes on institutions, politics and labor market characteristics–from the impact of beliefs of women associated with gender-role attitudes,” Bonsang says.