Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka Speech at CSW69: Backlash, AI, Representation
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Vocal.Media
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/10/17
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka reflects on UN Women’s creation and warns of a growing backlash against gender equality. She argues that women’s participation strengthens democracy and economies, citing research estimating trillions in global gains. Celebrating progress since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, she urges meaningful commemoration paired with forward planning. Two priorities dominate: digital inclusion—especially women’s presence in AI knowledge-making—and representation, where women still hold only about one third of decision-making roles. She calls for solidarity across movements, protection of affirmative action, and faster action so girls and young women are not left behind as technology and power structures evolve.
Dear friends,
I vividly remember the great joy and honor I felt when we announced the official launch of the new UN Women. We are facing a growing backlash against gender equality. This backlash is not new, but it is growing stronger. We faced challenges during my tenure as Executive Director, and today UN Women faces both opportunities and resistance. International organizations, advocates, and civil society are more critical than ever. The promise we have made cannot be undone by those who neither believe in nor appreciate equality and human rights.
We must continue reminding the world that gender equality benefits everyone, not just women, as we learned through the work of UN Women. When I was Executive Director, I often faced skepticism from some men regarding the importance of women’s participation in all aspects of life. Women make up half of the world’s population, and we simply cannot afford to ignore the full potential of half of humanity.
The world needs to tap into the talent and wisdom of women everywhere. This was true back then, and it remains true today. When women participate, democracy is stronger, and the economy grows. There are many studies showing how women’s participation could inject an additional 12 trillion dollars into the global economy. Gender equality and women’s empowerment are not only the right thing to do; they are the smart thing to do. Women’s empowerment is one of the key strengths of society as a whole, and ignoring it undermines equity and progress.
I have to say that every time I look at myself in the mirror, I reflect on the journey we have taken together. Let me congratulate you for the adoption of the agreed conclusions and the effort it took for you to produce the declaration, and for the fact that it has been adopted.
The sisters, Michelle and Sima, it is really wonderful to be here with you again. The first time ever that the three of us are in one place. And to colleagues, colleagues from UN Women, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen—good evening. Thank you to Chile as well.
Thank you for celebrating and remembering this day in this manner. You can see that the Chilean Ambassador was a Chilean woman—she knows how important these things are.
We are also excited that she remembered to include the three of us in this activity. Now we are having stamps to symbolize this celebration. And I heard the story that an envelope once said to a stamp, “Stick with me, and we will go places.”
And I think that if we, the stamps, stick with you, we are definitely going to go places and cover the whole world.
It is important that whenever we have a major celebration, we mark it in a manner that is meaningful—that we celebrate, but also remember and plan for the future. It is true that a lot has been achieved since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
But it is also true that so much more still needs to be done. It is therefore befitting that this year we have strengthened the agenda by identifying areas that need hard work. Let me just pick on two issues that are becoming, to my mind, significant for us to be concerned about.
If we look at the area of digital inclusion and the extent to which women are not where they are supposed to be, there is a real danger that women will be left behind—possibly forever.
And that inequality will deepen. The absence of women in knowledge-making, especially in the area of artificial intelligence—which remains a domain largely of men—is a significant problem, because we see what comes out on the other side. The absence of women, especially young women, in many places where technology shapes decisions and defines opportunity, is deeply troubling.
The way intelligence systems are used to guide how young people live, interact, and even form identities—this imbalance between boys and girls, young men and young women, men and women—is a serious issue. So I think for us, at this point, it is to organize and to do whatever we can to make sure that we position women in a much better place. We just do not have enough women.
Who are the ones informing the information that drives the technology? I have just heard recently that in South Africa, we have a group of women who are creating a robot that only uses information sourced directly from the community. This should not be an isolated story. This is something we should be hearing about every day, in many parts of the world, because girls are outnumbered.
We are seriously outnumbered. And the way in which this technology moves so fast means we obviously have to move even faster.
Secondly, just the issue of representation. This is one area where we have not performed as well as we wanted since Beijing. Even though we have seen phenomenal women rise to leadership, the fact that we sometimes have an illusion that women are over-represented—as I sometimes hear people remarking—is only because women are doing exceptional work. We often have one woman doing the work of ten men, and that creates the impression that there are many, many, many more women than there really are.
But the truth of the matter is that only about one-third of decision-making positions globally are held by women, even decades after the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
So this is actually quite serious. And now we are pushing against the pushback. In this era of strongmen—men who are sexist, who are racist, who do not believe in women the way we do—this is a serious problem. It means that this issue of representation is even moving further out of reach.
Women’s equality thrives when you have an environment where many other groups whose rights are denied are also rising. Whenever those rights are taken away or compromised, gender equality suffers.
It is therefore important for us, in the work for gender equality, to stand with other disadvantaged groups—to be among those speaking up for LGBTQ rights, for persons with disabilities, and for every other marginalized group in our societies. Because when we thrive together, the change we achieve is much more solid and sustainable.
And right now, we are seeing important rights being rolled back across many fronts. The area of representation is in danger. Because if you deny us the use of special measures—those tools that have enabled us to push forward so many women—you open the gap again.
It is important to preserve affirmative action and to make sure that women who are being left behind, who are unlikely to be represented in many decades to come, are included now—at this point in time.
So yes, we have progressed. And yes, we are celebrating. But we still have much more work to do.
So, good luck to all of us. Thank you.
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