Extended Essays 2021

Uniselfism for Gender Equality - htlo45

Introduction – gender bias and leadership

Although gender equality is important in 21st Century society, and is acknowledged as a human

right, women do not have parity in leadership positions. This inequity is strikingly apparent

for national leadership positions. The statistics are revealing. In 2021, women in only 22

countries have served in the premier government leadership position and 119 countries never

having a female leader. 1 In this respect, the United States is a salient conundrum. For although

the US emphasises egalitarianism, which is enshrined in their constitution, the nation is yet to

have a woman elected as representative of the “supremacy of the people”. 2 Thus, in its 244-

year history, the United States has never had a female President.

On a global scale, the problem is also recognised. For example, one United Nations (UN)

Sustainable Development goal aims to “ensure women’s full and effective participation [in]

equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and

public life”. 3 There is also evidence that the scarcity of woman government leaders appears

intractable. Notably, some 25 years after the Fourth World Conference on Women, the UN

Secretary-General António Guterres emphasised that “progress towards equal power and equal

rights for women remains elusive.” 4 Guterres highlights that a country should remain active on

their gender equality goals and work against the perception that women are inherently “inept”

leaders, as revealed in a 2018 study by David Smith of Harvard University. 5

1 “Facts and figures: Women’s leadership and political participation,” UN Women, 2021, https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation/facts-and-figures.

2 Al Sikes, “Dissension by Al Sikes,” The Chestertown Spy, 2021, https://chestertownspy.org/2019/02/20/dissension-by-al-sikes/.

3 “Decisions by Topic: Gender equality and women's empowerment,” Sustainable Development Goals Knowledge Platform goal 5.5, 2012, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/women/decisions. 4 “Remarks on the High -Level Meeting on the 25 th Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women” UN Secretary-General, 2020, http:// www.un.org/sg/en/contents/sg/speeches/2020-10-01/remarks-25th- anniversary -of-fourth-world-conference-women. 5 David Smith and colleagues, “The Different Words We Use to Describe Male and Female Leaders” Harvard Business Review, 2018, http://hbr.org/2018/05/the-different-words-we-use-to-describe-male-and-female-leaders

November 2021

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