U.N. Beijing + 15 Conference and the 30% Solution

Fact Sheet:  U.N. Beijing + 15 Conference   and the 30% Solution  The  30%  Solution:    The  critical  tipping  point  where  enough  women  at  power  tables  can  be  heard  and  heeded,  positively affecting policy decisions, changing the terms of the agenda, and impacting the style of achieving goals.  The 30% solution was a benchmark for women’s leadership at the 1995 UN Beijing Conference in 1995.       The Fourth UN Conference on the Status of Women (Beijing, 1995)   Goal: to elevate gender parity on the international political agenda  Percent Women in NaZonal    Legislatures, World Average  The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action   100   Highlights women’s unequal share of political power among 12 critical  80  areas of concern.   60   Outlines strategic objectives “to ensure women’s equal access to and full  40  participation in power structures and decision‐making,” which were to  20  lead to fundamental change by the year 2000.   13.8  16.2  18.6  0  11.3    Beijing + 15    1995  2000  2005  2009   15‐year review of progress on the Platform for Action by the Commission  Although the 30% target for women's leadership  remains a distant goal, women’s representation in  on the Status of Women   national legislatures has steadily increased since the   Meeting in New York City, Mar. 1‐12, 2010  Beijing Conference and now rests at its highest    historical level.         PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN IN  NATIONAL LEGISLATURE  The UN Beijing Conference and the 30% Solution  An excerpt from Women Lead the Way by Linda Tarr‐Whelan      From the Inter‐Parliamentary Union’s world  ranking, as of November 30, 2009.  “ Immediately after the Beijing Conference, the Inter‐Parliamentary    Union, an organization of national elected officials like our members of  1. Rwanda   56.3%  Congress, adopted the one‐third marker as the goal for national  2. Sweden   47.0 %  legislatures.     3. South Africa  44.5 %    23 countries now meet or exceed the goal  4. Cuba    43.2 %   101 countries have changed their constitutions, laws, or political  5. Iceland    42.9 %  practices to aim for it.  6. Argentina  41. 6 %    7. Finland    41.5 %  The U.S. government under President Bush promoted change by adopting  24.  Guyana   30.5 %  hard targets for women in office—but only outside U.S. borders. The  30.  Afghanistan  27.7 %  government required the new constitutions of Afghanistan and Iraq to  have quotas for women in their national parliaments. Afghanistan is now  39.  Iraq    25.5 %  th th 28  in the world in women’s legislative representation, Iraq is 35 .   51.  China    21.3 %    58.  U.K.     19.5 %  In stark contrast, the United States has greeted the 30% solution with  65.  Sudan    18.1 %  silence and inaction. It is barely halfway home to reach the one‐third  th 74.  U.S.A.    16.8 %  mark for women in Congress, and ranks 74  in the world.”    –Linda Tarr‐Whelan  Data  from  the  Inter‐Parliamentary  Union,  on  the  Linda Tarr‐Whelan led the U.S. delegation to the Beijing Conference, and served as the U.S.  basis  of  information  provided  on  November  30,  Ambassador to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. She is a Demos Distinguished  2009.  Senior Fellow and author of the Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up to Leadership  and Changing the World (Berrett‐ Koehler 2009).    

U.N. Beijing + 15 Conference and the 30% Solution

by coryhelene on Feb 08, 2010

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

2 Embeds 14

Statistics

U.N. Beijing + 15 Conference and the 30% Solution — Document Transcript

http://demos.org	10
http://www.demos.org	4