After 70 Years of Men, Some Say It Is 'High Time' a Woman Led the U.N. Somini Sengupta - The New York Times
go to original August 24, 2015

From left, President Michelle Bachelet of Chile; Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, head of Unesco; Kristalina Georgieva of Bulgaria, a European Commission vice president; and Helen Clark of New Zealand, head of the United Nations Development Program, have been cited as possible nominees. as possible successors to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Whether the next secretary general will be a he or a she has become an increasingly potent subject of conversation, both inside and outside the corridors of the United Nations. Three dozen countries, led by Colombia, are promoting the idea that it is a woman’s turn to lead the organization. Women’s groups have put out lists of candidates. Prominent world leaders — including members of the group Ms. Robinson belongs to, the Elders, composed of former heads of state — have called for countries to nominate women.

Women have been elected to lead countries as varied as Germany and South Korea. The International Monetary Fund is led by a woman, and some of Europe’s biggest companies are required by law to set aside 30 percent of their supervisory seats for women. Sweden’s foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, has pursued “a feminist foreign policy,” calling women’s rights critical to global peace and security. And Hillary Rodham Clinton — who, 20 years ago, spoke as the first lady of the United States at a landmark United Nations women’s conference in Beijing — is running for president.

The United Nations, though, has been something of a holdout. Since its inception in 1945, it has always been led by a man.

...Diplomats and civil society activists say that if the process does not change, it stands to make the United Nations anachronistic, irrelevant and unfit to handle the most pressing global crises.

Read the rest at The New York Times

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