UN Women Australia — Carrying the heavy load for women (Includes interview)

There’s a bit of back story to this. I spoke to someone from UN Women after having supported one of their Facebook initiatives. It was a very interesting chat but came with the truly grim spectre of the realities faced by women every day worldwide.
Put it this way – In that 10-minute conversation, we were talking about a virtual global disaster on multiple fronts. Being a guy, of course, is no great help to understanding basic issues. What the hell would we know about it?

Janelle Weissman

So I decided to find out. I contacted UN Women Australia, and Executive Director of UN Women Australia Janelle Weissman was kind enough to answer a few questions for me. Gender equality is one of the most basic of all issues. It’s at the heart of the core issues, and it’s an ancient problem. As long as women are second-class citizens, it’s basically depriving half of humanity of fundamental needs. That needs to go, and soon.
Janelle’s answers are very clear and very thorough. Note the unavoidable terminology, however – Violence, abuse, inequity. The issues in gender equality aren’t simple, or nice. They’re brutal. They relate directly to basic human rights.
Exactly why the world is creating such obstacles for 51% of the human race isn’t clear. Is this a civilization or a Stone Age culture? Hard to tell on this level. The obstruction is systemic, it’s primitive thinking, and it’s highly destructive.
The good news is you can get involved. You can donate and you can partner with UN Women. You can help end the horrors, and assist with productive solutions. Check it out.
• Tell us about UN Women – It’s a comparatively new organization, isn’t it? When was it established?

Janelle Weissman

UN Women is the youngest member of the United Nations family and this year we celebrated a significant milestone.
Ten years ago, on 2 July 2010, UN Women was born. The General Assembly voted to merge four parts of the UN system and establish UN Women – which is the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.
Since then UN Women has been the global champion for women and girls, working to promote women’s empowerment and gender equality in over 100 countries.
UN Women Australia exists to raise funds for and awareness of UN Women’s work across the Pacific and around the world.
• What is the global role of UN Women? Can you give us a big picture overview of how UN Women operates in diverse environments?

Janelle Weissman

UN Women works to accelerate progress in the gender equality agenda, ensuring that everyone everywhere, regardless of gender, is given the same opportunity to lead, to learn, to earn a decent living and to live a life free from violence and discrimination.
Gender equality is not only a basic human right, but its achievement has enormous socio-economic impacts. Empowering women fuels thriving economies, spurring productivity and growth. Yet, still today, gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched in every country in the world.
UN Women is working to change that by partnering with grassroots organisations, community leaders, the private sector, governments and across the UN system to collect and disseminate evidence to implement transformative policies and programs to promote women’s leadership, end violence, advance women’s economic empowerment and ensure women are central to peace and humanitarian processes.
• How is UN Women addressing the big perennial problems with gender equality?

Janelle Weissman

To accelerate progress and make real change towards a more gender equal world, UN Women recognises the importance of partnerships. Gender equality is not a women’s issue, it is a human rights issue. If everyone has the same opportunities to participate fully in all aspects of social, economic and political life, we see improved performance in business, stronger economies, healthier communities, reduced incidence of violence against women – the business case for gender equality is clear. UN Women seeks out powerful partnerships to make a real impact. This ranges from collaborating with governments to end discriminatory laws to partnering with private sector to change workplace policies to enable flexible work and stamp out bias in hiring and promotion. It also includes working with sporting organisations, artists and other celebrities to use their platforms to challenge attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate discrimination and abuse. These are just a few of the many ways that UN Women works with partners to tackle gender equality and accelerate change.
• Meanwhile back at the pandemic – How has COVID19 impacted women, and what is UN Women doing about it?

Janelle Weissman

The response to COVID-19 is a reminder of the essential contributions women make to society, but it has made clear the many inequalities women and girls around the world face.
Women make up 70 per cent of workers in the health and social sectors, while are also doing three times as much unpaid work as men. They are hit harder by the economic impacts, due to the disproportionate number of women working in insecure labour, with women suffering higher rates of wage loss and unemployment.
There is also a looming Shadow Pandemic – that of violence against women. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, has increased.
UN Women is working to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on women and girls by addressing gender-based violence, supporting women-owned enterprises, encouraging the equal share of care work, promoting women’s leadership and providing direct technical support to governments and partners to ensure national response strategies include the needs to women and girls.
• How do people get involved in UN Women, worldwide? The website has a lot of options, but how should people look at making a personal contribution to UN Women?

Janelle Weissman

Despite progress made in recent years, COVID-19 is rolling back progress in the gender equality agenda. We need to build back momentum and we know that this can only be achieved by working together.
From anywhere in the world, you can donate to UN Women online.
Companies can explore opportunities to partner with UN Women globally. Businesses can also consider becoming a signatory to UN Women’s Empowerment Principles to support the advancement of equality in your workplace.
If you are in Australia, consider becoming an Empowerment Champion and give a regular gift to provide invaluable support to promote gender equality in Australia and across the globe.
Lastly, with the festive season approaching (and any time of year), consider giving a gift with purpose. Empowered Gifts are unique and meaningful gift cards that support UN Women programs in over 100 countries across the globe. Each Empowered Gift represents a donation to UN Women and is a real item that UN Women uses in our work advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment worldwide – enabling women and girls to build brighter futures for themselves, their families and their community.