By Ritah Kemigisa
As we celebrate international women’s day, the executive director UNAIDS Winnie Byanyima has called for support and celebration of women leading the struggle for equality.
Byanyima says women leaders have provided a guiding light for the world in responding to the COVID-19 crisis, from heads of government to coordinators of grass-roots social movements.
She says such women have reminded the world how crucial it is to have critical numbers of women, in all their diversity, in positions of leadership.
She however says the COVID-19 crisis has seen progress towards equality pushed back and also widened the gap between women and men in wealth, in income, in access to services, in the burden of unpaid care, in status and in power.
According to Byanyima Gender inequality is not only wrong but it weakens us all hence the need to have a more equal world that will leave everybody healthier and safer and more prosperous.
“Progress on gender equality has never been automatic. It has never been given, it has always been won.We are inspired by the women’s movements leading the struggle for equality. The United Nations stands alongside you to advance a world where women and girls in all their diversity will thrive and take their rightful places as equals,” says Ms Byanyima.
