The participation of women at all levels of society is a matter of fundamental human rights and an imperative, for all humanity, President Marie-Louise Coleiro told the World of Work Summit in Geneva this afternoon.
The conference is being hosted by the International Labour Organisation as part of the 106th International Labour Conference. The theme of this year’s summit is ‘A better future for women at work’.
President Coleiro Preca insisted that a good future for all of humanity would only be possible “if we take action together, to ensure proper access to education, and dignified work opportunities for all women, across the globe.”
“The Sustainable Development Goals, and their targets, offer us a new way to think of our global development, as fundamentally interrelated,” she said.
President Coleiro Preca insisted that education is key to ending poverty and precarious working conditions.
"Access to education, and the opportunities which it brings, must be an intrinsic component in our global strategies to empower women and girls,” she said, adding that when women and girls receive a quality education, “then our societies and our nations also stand to benefit.”
The President also called on the international community to focus more energy on ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities at decision-making levels in political, economic and public life.
“In order to achieve this target, many more women must be included in positions of social and political influence. This must be paralleled by an increase in the number of women, who hold managerial and policy-making positions,” she said, whilst also stating that women’s voices must be heard, and that women’s needs must be acted upon, at all levels of influence, including management and leadership.
"Women’s full, equitable, and global participation in the world of work is not only a matter of importance to women. The participation of women in the world of work is an essential component to creating practical solutions for prosperity.
“The participation of women is essential, to meet the social, economic, political, and ecological challenges that are taking place around the globe,” the President insisted.
Quoting a report issued last year by the World Economic Forum, from which it results that it could take up to 170 years to eradicate the growing disparity in pay and employment opportunities faced by women worldwide, President Coleiro Preca said such reports “are an urgent call to action, for the international community, to accelerate gender equality and equitable participation in the economy”.
The President said that the complex causes of the gap between men and women must be tackled, including obstacles of culture and tradition. She called for a global process of empowerment, which gives women full sovereignty over their own choices in the world of work.
President Coleiro Preca said that when communities take ownership over the values of equity and equality, then a cultural legacy is created. This legacy, whilst being of benefit to both present and future generations, is also the only truly sustainable way forward.