Reflections of a UN Women UK Delegate this year at CSW68: Paving the Way to Economic Equality.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve had the privilege of attending various conferences at CSW68 as a delegate for UN Women UK . It's an experience that's been both enlightening and disheartening as we delved into discussions surrounding this year's theme: “accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective”. The primary objective of these conferences is to facilitate the development of solutions for a society where gender no longer acts as a barrier to economic empowerment.

If you're short on time, here's the crux of it: We still have a long journey ahead of us before we can truly achieve economic equality.

The statistics presented during these conferences were stark reminders of the challenges we face: unequal pay (women in the labour force earn 20% less than their male counterparts), poverty (more than 158 million women could be pushed into poverty by 2050) and unpaid care work (UK women spend 2.8 hours more than men on unpaid care work daily despite also holding full-time jobs) these are a shocking realisation of where we stand and what our current trajectory looks like.

However, amidst these sobering realities were glimmers of hope and inspiration. Investing in women is at the core of achieving gender equality and one conference that particularly resonated with me featured Nordic ministers discussing their progressive policies towards women and childcare, and how this has economically benefited not only women but also the country as a whole. They found that affordable high-quality childcare and encouraging fathers to share the burden (in terms of childcare and domestic chores) has helped women return to work and resulted in boosted GDP and productivity for these countries. One of the Icelandic leaders stated that she has not seen any data where an infant is disadvantaged when they go to preschool earlier therefore the focus should be on daycare/childcare accessibility for couples. I appreciate this is a controversial statement but to put this into context there was a debate around whether women should be taking more than 12 months off, and the policy leaders were emphasising the need for more gender-shared months rather than increasing maternity leave.

The COVID-19 pandemic further underscored the disproportionate burden of domestic work shouldered by women, even when both partners were working from home, women were the primary caretakers of the home which may have depleted their potential earnings. (This particular example was in the context of research fellows who were unable to publish as many academic papers and articles.) An interesting perspective/solution came from the Swedish minister who highlighted that when men take their ‘daddy days’ their mindsets usually change and they become more aware of the domestic work needed and after the shared parental leave are more likely to share the care labour. We need policy change to drive behavioural change and I hope our next government focuses on investing in women and making childcare affordable.

While global conversations at forums like the UN are crucial I believe that real change begins with everyday interactions. Whether it's discussing these issues with friends, colleagues, or family members, every conversation matters. I appreciate that most of us are not global world leaders but by taking small meaningful steps we are at least talking about these issues which could be a catalyst to drive greater change.

One of the most important messages I took from these conferences is that when women win, everyone wins. Each of us has the power to contribute to a more equitable future, both in our personal and professional lives. As we continue to advocate for change, let's remain steadfast in our commitment to creating a better world for future generations of women.