四天前（2月15日），世界貿易組織迎來了一個重要時刻：尼日利亞經濟學家恩戈齊·奧孔約-伊維拉（Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala）當選為世貿組織總幹事。她在3月1日就職後，將成為世貿組織首位女性總幹事，也是首位來自非洲大陸的總幹事。世貿在推特的貼文稱此任命創造了歷史（“History is made”）。
這無疑是個鼓舞人心的好消息。儘管女性領導在全球仍佔少數（根據全球議會聯盟2018年的數據，全世界153個由選舉產生的政府首腦中只有10人為女性。同時，全球女性議員人數也只佔四分之一），但我們確實能看到越來越多出色的女性領導者出任重要的決策職位。
許多現有的事實和研究證明，無論在政府還是企業中，女性佔比較為均衡的高層團隊都可以帶來更為理想的決策結果。因為它體現了男女兩種觀點，所做出的決策將會與社會各個層面相關，而不是只代表某些層面。女性佔了全球人口的一半，在高層決策時納入女性的視角，才能確保佔人口一半的群體的權益得以尊重和保障。
有些領域和問題，女性可能會更敏感，看得到女性的困境，比如設立哺乳間，又比如昨天新西蘭總理傑辛達·阿爾登宣佈該國所有中小學將向學生提供免費的經期衛生用品，以解決因貧窮、無法負擔衛生用品而錯過教育的問題。這些問題，許多男性領導可能根本沒想過，也就沒有相應的政策或行動，但並非故意不去做的。
女性領導在對面危機和艱難決定時想的視角和男性領導不太一樣，她們往往關注更廣範圍和更長遠的影響，更有“家庭體系”的思維，這也讓她們未雨綢繆，做足預備工作。就用仍在進行的疫情為例，從新西蘭到德國，再到挪威，這些由女性擔任領導人的地方新冠死亡率相對都比較低。梅琳達蓋茨在一個播客中透露，她給在數月前新西蘭成功抗擊疫情時致電新西蘭總理，傑辛達·阿爾登想的是，儘管新西蘭沒事了，但仍要設法保護好和幫助周邊的小島國，只有周邊安全了，新西蘭才真正的安全。當許多國家領導只想著給本國留疫苗，歐盟委員會女主席烏爾蘇拉· 馮德萊恩已牽掛著如何讓非洲國家也能得到富裕國家有的抗疫工具和設施。世界早已緊密連結，只有大家都好了，才能真的好。只有當所有國家都擺脫疫情了，才是真正的安全。
人類的進步，是在不停打破邊界中進行的。無論是科學，還是對人類權益的重視。女性的權益，在過去短短幾十年中，從勞動參與、選舉、教育、婚姻保障等方面已有了巨大的進步。然而，距離實現真正的性別平等還有很長的路要走。但小編仍選擇對這條道路心懷樂觀，正如艾瑪沃特森在視頻《Hurdles（跨欄）》中說道：“There are many huge and high hurdles left to jump. The race is still on every day of every year of our lives. But we will cross the finishing line, no one can stop us. （目前還有許多又高又大的欄杆等著我們跨過。我們生命裡每一年的每一天，這場競賽仍在進行。但我們會衝過終點線，沒人能阻止我們。）”
圖片來源：世貿組織官網
[Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality] We will eventually cross those huge and high hurdles
Four days ago (February 15), the World Trade Organization experienced a significant moment: the Nigerian economist Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was elected as WTO Director-General. After taking office on March 1, she will become the first female Director-General of the WTO and the first Director-General from the African continent. The WTO said on Twitter that “History is made”.
This is undoubtedly encouraging news. Although female leaders are still a minority in the world (according to data from the Global Parliamentary Union in 2018, only 10 of the 153 elected heads of government in the world are women. At the same time, the number of women members of parliament in the world is only a quarter), we can indeed see the trend of more and more outstanding female leaders taking up important decision-making positions.
Many existing facts and studies have proved that whether in the government or in the enterprise, a more gender-balanced high-level team can generate more ideal decision-making outcomes. Since it embodies both views of men and women, the decisions made will be related to all levels of society, rather than just representing certain levels. Women account for half of the world’s population. In the high-level decision-making process, including women’s perspective can ensure that the rights and interests of half of the population are respected and protected.
In some areas, women are more sensitive and are able to see the potential struggles for women, thus bringing in more inclusive policies and measures such as setting up breastfeeding rooms, and launching programs combating “period poverty”. Yesterday, the Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Arden has announced that all schools in New Zealand will provide students with free sanitary products. This aims to solve the problem of some female students are skipping classes because they cannot afford sanitary products. Many male leaders may not have thought about these issues, and therefore have no relevant policies or actions implemented. It’s not that they deliberately refrain from doing it.
The perspective of female leaders is different from that of male leaders when facing crises and difficult situations. Female leaders tend to focus on broader and longer-term impacts, and with more “family system thinking”, which allows them to plan ahead and prepare better. Take the ongoing pandemic as an example. From New Zealand, Germany,to Norway, these places where women are the leaders have relatively low COVID-19 mortality rates. Melinda Gates revealed in a podcast that she had a call with the Prime Minister of New Zealand when New Zealand successfully stopped the outbreak, and what Jacinda Arden was thinking was that although New Zealand has done a good job, they still need to protect and help the vulnerable island nations around them. New Zealand will only be safe if its surroundings are safe. Melinda also revealed that many global leaders only think about having vaccines for their own countries, while the European Commission Chairwoman Ursula von der Lein has been concerned about countries in Africa and how to help them to also get the vaccines and facilities needed. The world has long been closely connected, and only when all countries are free from the COVID-19 virus is there real safety.
🏅The progress of mankind is carried out by constantly breaking the boundaries. Whether it is science or the value put on different kinds of human rights. In the past few decades, women’s rights and interests have seen tremendous progress in terms of labor participation, elections, education, and marriage protection. However, there is still a long way ahead before achieving gender equality. But the editor is still optimistic about this, as Emma Watson said in the video “Hurdles”: “There are many huge and high hurdles left to jump. The race is still on every day of every year of our lives. But we will cross the finishing line, no one can stop us.”
Photo credit: WTO website
