Update #2
REPORT: COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
LizDiGiorgio
The CSW68 Conversation Circle held remotely on March 21, 2024, on the topic of “Gender Bias in Economic Policy” made it clear that progress toward achieving full gender equality through economic policy can only work if the policies grow out of the experiences, leadership, and collective efforts of women around the world.
The Conversation Circle was co-hosted by Rosa Lizarde, Vice Chair, NGO CSW/NY; Shaila Rao Mistry, founder and president of STEM Institute, specializing in the fields of science, technology, academia and management, and founder and president of Jayco MMI, Inc., a tech company specializing in aerospace and medical device technologies; and Aditi Padiyar, NGO CSW Global Youth Fellow on Gender Equality and Program Officer with the Women First International Fund, based in Delhi, India.
This remote event was viewed from the painting studio of Queensborough Community College (QCC) by Jeanette Manmohan, the 2024 WCA/UN NGO/QCC student intern; feminist art historian, WCA member, and Chair of QCC’s Department of Art & Design, Dr. Kathleen Wentrack; and me, Associate Professor Liz Di Giorgio.
The co-hosts highlighted major areas where attention is needed to address gender inequality, including:
- Engaging women for leadership positions
- Digital literacy and banking
- Access to jobs and opportunity
- AI – Enabling access to jobs and opportunity
- How to create better economic policy
Co-host Shaila Rao Mistry clarified that she was participating in the Conversation Circle primarily as Vice President of Graduate Women International, as Advocacy Director of Global Women’s Health, and in her roles at Women Graduates USA and the US Women’s Caucus at the United Nations. Mistry emphasized that the key to accelerating the achievement of gender equality and financial inclusion is to identify and eliminate inhibitive systems and practices. Her comments made clear that It is not enough for businesses, agencies or organizations to simply cite the percentage of female employees if those enterprises do not provide training, pathways and equal opportunity for women to reach and function effectively at the decision-making levels within those organization. In providing context for the conversation, Mistry pointed out that women comprise 55% of the unbanked population, only 18.7 % of board members of the S&P 500 financial companies, and only 2% of the CEOs of those companies. She emphasized that organizations that do achieve gender balance are generally more productive and profitable, have better and happier work environments, and greater engagement in social responsibility in their communities. Mistry reminded participants that economic policy is shaped by four basic sectors: government, civil society, academia and the private sector.
Mistry pointed out that access to mobile banking is crucial to women’s personal safety and business success. Participants were reminded of the fact that 1.7 billion individuals do not have internet access. As Mistry noted, gender imbalance is hard to comprehend in light of the fact that women make the vast majority purchasing decisions, and that they play an increasing role as heads of household and small business owners. Mistry pointed out that the lack of internet connectivity impacts women’s access to microfinancing, healthcare and digital literacy in general. In addition to these gender imbalances, Mistry explained that single women pay higher interests rates on mortgage loans (by ½ to 1%) and that they also have higher collateral requirements. Mistry also spoke about the embedded risks posed by AI because 90% of the coding in AI is done by men.
After a comprehensive overview, participants were divided into three breakout groups to discuss the issues listed above and the additional topic of access to capital and micro businesses. Jeanette Manmohan contributed to the discussion in one of the three breakout groups by sharing her experience with women in the tech field. She described how she and her female co-workers joined together to meet with management to discuss their discovery that all of the women in the company earned less than their male counterparts. This strategy yielded positive results in her workplace and it echoed one of the major themes of the Conversation Circle, that women often need to band together to confront inequality.
Reporting out on one of the breakout groups, Dr. Connie Newman of the Medical Woman’s International Association summarized how lack of internet access deprives women of access to banking, to buying goods and to access information essential to good health and to the health of their families. Her group also discussed the need to identify the kind of messaging that could change the mindsets of men. Her group also discussed the need to educate boys and girls early and also discussed some of the benefits of separate schools for boys and girls.
Student of International Development, Political Science and Economics, Nimrah Baba reported out about digital literacy and the importance of microfinancing, especially to rural women. She described an experience in Bangladesh where women came together to have a dialog with a perpetrator of domestic violence.
Andrea Wilson of the Women’s Equality Party of the UK reported on her group’s wide-ranging discussion that included consideration of how to get women into the decision-making rooms. She spoke about the need to access funding, to change mindsets for the future and to address inequality from the supply side in terms of policy and from the demand side in terms of expectations. She also expressed her group’s concerns about inherent bias in the field of AI and the need for women’s leadership in tech.
After all the breakout groups reunited and the floor was opened for discussion, Nimrah Baba expressed her puzzlement over the way men seem to grow silent when gender equality is discussed in the classroom. She emphasized the need to make the discussion educative, and not finger-pointing. She explained that even when men negate women, the discussion should be either one-on-one or with women and men helping each other and talking to men about gender equality issues together.
Co-host Rosa Lizarde concluded the conversation, asking women to consider becoming members of NGO CSW. She referred participants to the CSW Zero Draft Recommendations prepared by the NGO CSW/NY Advocacy and Research Group, which identified 6 critical areas for achieving gender equality:
- Social Justice and Poverty
- Education and Poverty
- Gender Bias in Economic Policy
- Debt Crisis and its Impact on Women
- Women’s Poverty and Climate Change
- Youth Intersectional Recommendation.
Details of these recommendations can be found at: https://ngocsw.org/arg-csw68/
NGO CSW shared these recommendations with the Chair of the UN CSW, with the five members of the CSW Bureau, with the 54 members of the UN CSW, with other UN agencies such as UN Women, and with the 193 member states. These civil society recommendations were prepared to be considered for inclusion in the UN CSW Zero Draft for CSW68.
Update #3
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
Jeanette Manmohan
I am a student at Queensborough Community College. This semester will be my last, and I’m excited to move on to study fine arts at a four-year university or college. My aspirations are to become a professor and an artist. In this goal I would love to share my life experiences with students who are trying to figure out their lives and understand themselves and their potential. I want to support them in their dreams and futures and use myself as an example to show that they can do anything. I would want students to know that they can find support systems throughout their journey.
I am passionate about women's equality in the workforce and equal education for both girls and boys, especially in the science and technology fields. To me, it is important to encourage young girls to be innovative and explorative and to support them along their education journey.
I have worked in the tech industry for many years and experienced gender inequality in the pay gap. In my past working environment, I collaborated with other women coworkers to bring about a safe space for pay transparency conversations alongside my male counterparts to understand the discrepancy in our incomes. I had open dialogs within my organization to raise awareness of the gap in my department, advocating for women’s compensation to meet the same standards that the company had set for men. The conversations resulted in an increase in women’s pay in my department, and it was the catalyst for the organization to take a closer look at the wages of other woman across the company. I believe that as a society we need to be comfortable talking about transparency with regard to our pay. It's important to know where you stand as a woman worker and where your male counterparts are to truly see equality in the workforce.
I am a strong believer that governments should support families in need. I think the world can do better providing access to education and that young girls should feel safe accessing education in any region of the world. I am passionate about the need to bridge the education gap worldwide so that all girls can have free and safe access to education.
Nations should support or receive assistance for their people facing food insecurity. I believe that administrations should make it a priority to set aside funding to help families in need with regard to education, food, or financial support. I hope that the world can work to make changes in many societies including my own in the United States.
I appreciate and encourage any small step toward positive change. No effort put forward for awareness of inequality is futile, and having open conversations can be the catalyst for huge, transformative outcomes. I look forward to attending more UN or UN NGO briefings to learn about the UN and civil society efforts towards gender equality. I recently attend the CSW Conversation Circle and spoke about my experience and concerns on this topic. I’m glad to be a part of the UN NGO community and to represent the Women’s Caucus for Art. My passion for art and equality leads me to be ever more engaged and eager to be part of the UN NGO events and conversations. Representing the WCA allows me the platform to be heard as a woman and as an advocate for equality and to understand civil society efforts to bring about the change we need to see in the world today and for the future.
Update #4
Danielle Eubank is a WCA member and recipient of the UN Program Honor Roll Award