As the UN ponders its next secretary-general, many say it’s well past time for a woman to lead

At a time when the fight for gender equality is facing a backlash, pressure is mounting for the next leader of the United Nations to be the first woman in its more than 80-year history. The contradiction isn’t lost on UN Women, the agency facing an uphill struggle pressing for the rights of women and girls — and for women to be at the top in international organizations, governments, business, technology and the escalating debate over artificial intelligence. agency’s recent “gender snapshot,” at the current rate of progress it will take 171 years to achieve gender equality, a U.N.

goal initially set for 2015 and then moved to 2030. Other findings are also grim: Nearly one in three women globally have experienced sexual violence. Nearly one in five girls is married before age 18.

And at the pace of the last five years, gender parity in parliament won’t be reached until 2089. After years of upward movement, women’s political leadership is also losing momentum, with six in seven countries still led by men. Sarah Hendriks, a high-ranking official in UN Women, said the just-ended annual gathering of world leaders in the U.N.

chief which she said cut across regions of the world and political divides, and was “energizing.” “This is not just a question simply of symbolism,” she told The Associated Press. “It’s a question of whether the U.N. actually reflects the equality it asks the world to uphold.” “We can’t ask governments to dismantle barriers to women’s leadership while accepting those barriers in its own institutions,” she said.

“We can’t tell companies to break glass ceilings while the U.N. leaves our own ceilings intact.” Lots of talk about women and opportunity, but what is the reality? During the weeklong high-level meeting that ended Monday, Hendriks said, leaders said women “must have an equal opportunity to hold the most powerful positions in the world including this one – and, in fact, especially this one.” Among those speaking out was East Timor’s President José Ramos-Horta, co-winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize.

He said that after more than 80 years, “we ought to have enough wisdom and elect a woman with unques…