Report on the UN Commission on the Status of Women
The SNJM representatives of Development and Peace, an NGO (non-governmental organization) to which the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary of Canada (SNJM) are affiliated, asked Hanane Hakkou * and Kim Piché * to be the SNJM delegates to the 63rd edition of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. These two women came back encouraged by their experience, despite the sometimes disturbing findings on the situation of women throughout the world.
Under the theme "Social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls", the Commission hosted numerous conferences at which groups were formed with the intention of including people from diverse countries. This formula had the advantage of highlighting the progress made in the various countries, even if the progress was sometimes very modest. Besides this, it also illustrated the amount of work that still needs to be done in many areas.
Major challenges
Even countries, such as Norway and New Zealand, which are recognized for their laws favoring gender equality, face universal barriers:
- Inability to count on a system that can measure and track progress in women’s empowerment in a comparable way across countries. Many examples were given to illustrate that economic and social indicators tell only part of the story.
- The difficulty of changing mentalities formed by family, as well as cultural and social traditions.
The two Quebec SNJM delegates noted that the weight of stereotypes is more powerful than we might think. In Africa, a woman may stay at home because her mother-in-law firmly believes that, if the woman works outside the home, her children will be neglected. In developed countries with a parental leave program, this program is used almost exclusively by women. The popular belief, that the presence of women is of paramount importance to infants, seems to overshadow the results of studies highlighting the real benefits of a father's presence.