Women in power and decision-making: a call to action

Femmes au pouvoir: Chili

This high-level event, co-organized by UN Women and the Chilean Government, under the theme “Women in Power and Decision-Making: Building a Different World”, gathered women leaders in Santiago, Chile, on 27 and 28 February 2015.

Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris and UCLG Co-President, participated in the event, which was organized around the four following themes: the objectives and perspectives of women candidates to decision-making positions, the lessons learnt over 20 years of women’s leadership, more equal involvement between men and women in politics, and good practices to guarantee the participation of women in decision-making.

The presence of the Mayor of Paris, President of the UCLG Standing Committee on Gender Equality, in this meeting forms part of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between UCLG and UN Women in January 2013, during the UCLG Global Conference of Local Elected Women.

The Paris Agenda, adopted on that occasion, underlines that the participation of women in leadership positions is the key to equality, and that equality not only benefits women, but is essential to constructing sustainable societies.

This two-day event, which included the participation of women in positions of leadership in a range of sectors from around 60 countries, aimed to reflect on the progress made over the last 20 years in terms of women’s access to power and decision-making, and the future challenges to be addressed in this domain.

Speaking at the opening session of the meeting, which saw the participation of the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, and the Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Chilean President, Michelle Bachelet stressed the need to increase mobilization on gender equality, through greater involvement of women in decision-making and in positions of leadership. 

In the same vein, the President emphasized the efforts made by Chile in the area of gender equality, particularly in terms of the training and empowerment of women. The meeting concluded with the adoption of a Declaration, a “Call to Action” which defines a series of concrete recommendations in the context of Beijing+20, in view of the upcoming session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW59), which will take place in New York from 9 to 20 March.

For more information, see UCLG Women.

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