By Ellen Wulfhorst,

UNITED NATIONS (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The number of women in the top echelons of world politics has crawled to an all-time high, but progress is so slow that more quotas and incentives are called for, female leaders said at the United Nations on Tuesday.

When it comes to power, the European Union has not yet reached the halfway mark to full gender equality. With the domain of power holding the lowest score in our Gender Equality Index, women remain under-represented in the kinds of decision-making positions that shape politics, economics and society.

Yet gender equality is a founding value of the EU and improving it could lead to an increase in GDP of up to €3.15 trillion by 2050.

International Women’s Day presents an opportunity to take stock and reinforce the sought-after goals for women’s empowerment in all spheres of life. The global pursuit to #BalanceforBetter can only be attained when there is zero tolerance for any form of discrimination against women and girls, when there is no impunity for violence against all women and girls, not because they are daughters, sisters, wives or mothers but simply because they are human.

Statement for International Women’s Day by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women

International Women’s Day
40th Anniversary of CEDAW

Women’s leadership and the equal participation of women and men in public affairs and decision-making are matters of human rights which are key elements of democracy and lasting peace, and prerequisites for achieving sustainable development.

Women and girls are impatient for change, and it’s easy to understand why.
 
Women still earn only 77 cents for every dollar men earn for the same work.
 
At least 200 million women and girls alive today have undergone female genital mutilation.
 
Women account for just 24 percent of parliamentarians.
 
35 percent of women globally have experienced physical and/or sexual violence.