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Feminist Institutional Architecture: Pending Challenges and Outstanding Issues (CSW70 Side Event) — Economic and Social Council — 11 March 2026
Language: en
Automatically generated transcript — may contain errors. Not an official United Nations record.

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Spain · Moderator · Anna [0:11]:

Good afternoon.

We're waiting for one of the speakers, but we're going to start.

Let's see if we can get the door taken care of.

This is being broadcast live.

And we get yelled at if we stand up. And so we have to respect the regulations. So thank you so much for your interest. That huge line at the door. Thank you, thank you.

We were assigned this room. We must apologize for the space. We got what we got and we're trying to do the best we can with what we have. And in my case, as a representative of the government of Spain, it's an honor. You don't mind me using the familiar form.

And I'd like to welcome you all to this side event in this 70th CSW.

We thought it was essential to be able to share with you a bit of all the advances in this context of women's rights, in this context of dialogue and international cooperation. And of course I would like to especially thank President Bachelet, who's running around and has honored us with her presence here. I want to thank Lina Alves, who is the president of the Commission of Equality in the European Parliament. And we are waiting for the Regional director for UN Women for Latin America and Caribbean arrive. Since we have to close the event at 2:30, we want to get started.

And of course Ana Alonso, who is our special ambassador at this roundtable that we wanted to organize. The title for this event is Feminist Institutional Architecture. Pending Challenges and the issue is our ability to build the same way that those that buildings have pillars and design. And it takes a lot of time. Feminist architecture needs work, effort, vision, commitment, a lot of collective action.

And this is a great example of necessary collective action. We believe that institutional international architecture has the capacity to bring together values and where ideas come out of the struggle on the streets, from philosophic reflection and political debate. And I hope that here as moderator, I believe we'll be able to listen to these great architects of collective work in favor of women's rights and feminism nationally and internationally. Thank you very much, Secretary of State. Thank you to all the speakers here on the panel and all of you who are attending this panel on feminist institutional architecture and the institutionalization of feminism in our politics or in our policy.

I'm going to start by giving the floor to Lucila Garcia, who works for Closing Gap, an organization which every year publishes a report, a report based on data, statistics, disaggregated data. It's very important for us to know what the realities of our society is. Lucila, I would like you to orient us regarding this social reality and welcome, Viviana. For the moment, women can do various things at the same time. We can multitask, but we can't multi place ourselves.

Lucia, I am giving you the floor and I'm going to give you the floor to ask you about the study that you carry out in Closing Gap and what reality they show, what data they show us about how women are doing with respect to the institutionalization of the gender equality.


Closing Gap · Lucila Garcia [4:58]:

Thanks, gent ladies to give us the floor. We're delighted to be here at the CSW with all of you and what we wanted to do was to set this context. Every year, in collaboration, we prepared the Closing Gap Index, which measures the gender gap and its economic impact. And it's true that we are attending very interesting debates.

It's true we have a lot of challenges and we wanted to give you a moderately positive bit of information. It's true that there's a 0.13. We're only at 65% in terms of parity. Why have there been an improvement of the five indicators that we have in our index? The category of employment has improved.

In feminine leadership we have 1.8%, just points better than last year. The Women's Activity Index has improved. And in the civil service we're almost at parity and we have some challenges in terms of education In Spain we have a systemic issue. There is parity in terms of tertiary education, there is parity in terms of adult education, Where there's a lot of debate, there's a lot of room for improvement in STEM and also in terms of digitalization, where we find 65.1% in terms of participation, in terms of everything that has to do with the use and the management of the Internet. We are at parity in Spain, but not in terms of working in digital spaces or in terms of spaces having to do with technology.

We also have a huge gap, which is the mother of all gaps, which is work, life, balance, we're at 44%. We have a slight decrease from last year. Last year we hit pre pandemic level. We made up for all the distance loss since the pandemic. But it's the only indicator in our index which is systematically below 50%.

But we have an indicator which shows us the importance of those 3.2 extra hours that women spend every day more than men in terms of care, care of the house, care of family members, which is reflected in the report that we published with Repsol and where we updated the information. It's at your disposal and this is. And since we're dealing with gaps, it allows us to. These gaps mean we participate less in politics and companies and in our development and in our leisure. Because women have that issue, the health indicators have improved.

I have a better percentage because it's the lowest gap that we have. As you know, women live longer than men, 5.5 years longer, but we do so with worse health. That's the only indicator that was of concern to us because it had gone down every year. But this year the risk of poverty improved and the women's general health improved. But we still find that gap.

So we're moderately optimistic because it continues to increase. We have those 36 years that will have to wait in Spain for there to be balance between men and women. And that's still a distant scenario.


Spain · Moderator · Anna [8:47]:

Thank you, Lucila. We have an image of what the situation is here in Spain.

And after having seen the data of the closing gap index of this year, now I would like to address President Michel Bachelet. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for sharing such a busy agenda with us and for being on this panel. You are a point of reference, Madam President. You've been number one on various things, but thanks to women like you, there are people who do things for the first time, but there will not be people, lack of people who follow you.

You were the first woman president of Chile. You were the first executive director of UN Women. And the first couple of times are always difficult, as we all know. And for that reason, I want to ask you, what were those. What were some of the most important barriers you encountered nationally and internationally, and which of them continue to exist in the political institutions where you have worked?


Chile · Former President · Michelle Bachelet [10:11]:

Thank you.

First of all, let me just tell you that it is a great honor to be here with the Ministry of Equality.

The name of the song is how to Create Feminist Institutional Architecture At a time of great challenges to. To democracy and women's rights. I think that what I'm going to mention to you is not deserving of a Nobel Prize, because you've all lived through this. But you asked me what. What are the barriers?

Well, first of all, look, curiously enough, I was the first women health minister in Chile. All the others had been men. And I was also the first women Minister of Defense. I had no problem in not so many problems in health because I was a doctor. I mean, I knew the issues.

There were some people who wanted to show that they knew more than I did. But the fact is that as first Minister, female Minister of Defense, and later as President, people Did not only question my ideas that always happens or my proposals as they would with men, but they question the legitimacy of my holding those positions. In spite of the fact that I have studied defense. I studied in Chile and I also studied in the Inter American College of Defense because I won a prize in Chile. So I have that knowledge.

But in spite of that I was questioned. Now the most practical and ridiculous aspect is when you're someone instead of debating your ideas, they question whether you dress well or you don't dress well. The first woman prime minister of Denmark told me that they about whether they liked the size of her purse. When I was a other people asked me, you know, how are you going to be a candidate for prime minister if you don't have a shoulder of a husband to cry at. Because I'm a separated woman with three children.

So we have been historically discriminated against and we shouldn't have been discriminated against, but we were. There are many places where there's still the notion that, you know, so called harsh areas like security or economies are not for women.

We have to work in many areas. I worked with a network of women working on defense and the logo was women can do everything. But not the same time. That was. And we always would say, you can't be an excellent minister, an excellent wife or an excellent lover, excellent mother, excellent in everything.

My house is never going to be featured at Better Homes and Gardens. You can't do everything at the same time. My children accept the validity of that assertion. So the barriers are the typical ones that we know. Gender stereotypes, the distrust of female leadership.

While I was the president I took a long time to make a decision because it was a complex decision we which required bringing together various players and to listen to them and hear the pros and the contras.

If I made a rapid decision because they said I was impulsive. If I took a long time, I said I couldn't make a decision. You get hit anywhere. They could Speaking with a female Spanish Spanish parliamentarian.

He said, she told me the same thing. Or Chilean female parliamentarians said that I made a really great expose. During the coffee break, people said, you have such a beautiful outfit today. And sometimes they said that out of prejudice is because they're not aware of this and otherwise to put you down to make you feel like a second class citizenship and also excessive demands. Women often have this syndrome of being imposters.

I was invited to join a panel where there were a lot of academicians. One said, when I knew that Michel Bachelet was coming. I thought, did they make a mistake? Because they invited me and I said, no, no, no, you guys are very qualified. Internationally, speaking in multilateral spaces, people are more aware of equality discourses.

There are also power dynamics which imply, for example, I would meet with High Commissioner, all the women presidents together in a video call, and when there were heads of other agencies that depended on them, but they were men, they questioned their capacity, usually behind their backs. And so this happens at every level. So I think that the barriers that continue to persist are political violence based on gender, which increases as women increasingly participate in politics, the gap in access to economic power and carrying imbalances. Women have much, many more difficulties getting loans than men when women are much better savers than men. So all these stereotypes and prejudices about women can do.

There's another more subtle and dangerous element, which is the narrative that questions the advances achieved and which views equality as a threat and not a democratic pillar. And we've seen this. Unfortunately, some young men have started to have this perception that they are being discriminated against, against because women are being offered the same opportunities and rights. I've seen this in Spain, but this is also present in Latin America and Chile. So today we have a new government that just took power from the ultra right.

I was here, I couldn't participate because women are aware that there's a risk that there would be a diminution of their rights. So I think we're now at a time where disinformation regarding hate speech are used deliberately to undermine confidence, to attacked women's rights. Equality policies are being discredited and there's an attempt to install a hierarchic version of society. When I finished my term, there was a rightist government and we had an objective to empower women. And they changed women's empowerment to women's entrepreneurship, that women wouldn't be empowered, they would be entrepreneurs.

So we know this can continue to happen. I don't know where I said this. What's really important is for us to work together, that we act together to ensure that these advancements, which have been difficult and which have cost so many years of effort, do not suffer cutbacks.


Spain · Moderator · Anna [18:27]:

Thank you very much, Dr. Bachelet. I'm going to give the floor to Vivian Ido, the regional director of UN Women for Latin America and the Caribbean and the first Minister of equality for Spain.

She was very young and she had that intersectionality of being a woman and young and a Minister of equality. And that is really serious. And it's really serious.

What Are the priority lines of action that you are pushing forward in you and women from your position in Latin America? And what strategic innovations do you want to implement to strengthen empowerment and the entrepreneurship of women in a region marked by so many historic inequalities and social conflicts and other types of conflicts.


UN Women · Regional Director · Vivian Ido [19:31]:

Thank you very much, Anna, and good afternoon to all of you. Excuse me for arriving a little bit late. I think that the regional gender agenda in Latin America is.

Is a very solid agenda. It's existed for decades and it continues to grow. The latest commitment in Platelo and the regional conference of women is international. I think it is watershed in various areas. The advances are there and what we need to do is take those regulatory advances in.

Into real reform for women's life. So we must emphasize the importance of sustaining what we've achieved because we're at a very complex time now. And also from the perspective of the attacks on rights generally and women's rights in particular, we need to have a strategy of resisting, of holding up, of trying to implement what we've achieved and to generate alliances. I think we need to be united. It's more how, rather than how we can advance on this agenda.

I think it's through the generation of inter sectoral, interagency alliances, networks and partnerships of women politicians, women parliamentarians, the institutionality of gender which is threatening so many countries throughout the region. There are major debates in Argentina, Panama, Ecuador to eliminate these ministries of women. I think it's very important to surround this with the work of other ministries. That articulation is very relevant with the specialized prosecutor's offices. It doesn't mean that specialization is incompatible with coordination.

I think it's very important to be able to coordinate as key issues in addition to advance on the agenda which has been constructed. We have to make political participation in advance, not as an isolated agenda, but in context with everything else. And we need to.

We have figures and data. We need to continue to generate evidence regarding political violence. This violence is not reducing, it's growing. We need to prevent political violence. We just came out with a motion against digital violence.

We need to combat disinformation, because truly, when there are floods, the first thing that we're missing is drinking water. And it's hard to identify truth in the midst of. Of so many lies. And we have to make truth more attractive than lies. So joint communication, powerful narratives to make the advance move forward is a challenge we have to implement jointly.

And we need to focus on an agenda which is very relevant in the region, which has to do with Political participation, which is women leaders in every sector, women mayors. We see in some countries where there are agendas that go against rights, a lot can be achieved at the local level. The territorial defenders we have the ISKASU agreement, the gender action plan that was passed in the COP in Berlin. There are some regional measures that advance human rights and territorial rights so that people who defend lives shouldn't lose their own. I think that should be a focus of the joint work of the region with that intersectional approach, taking into account the diversity of women in Latin America and the Caribbean and the territorial divorces, and putting priority on hope over fear.

Hope can move mountains and make the advance. The future is not going to come to us. We have to make it. So let's continue to act.


Spain · Moderator · Anna [24:10]:

Thank you, Vivian, for those inspiring work, especially for what you said about hope and the construction of a future.

Now I'm going to give the floor.

You mentioned the law to fight against gender discrimination through the digital media.

Precisely to fight to combat disinformation, manipulation and violence which is present in the social media and in the online world. I'm not going to delve into that, but I did want to point that out that we're going down that route. And now I'm going to move to Lina Galvez, who, as president of the Commission of Women's Rights and Gender Equality, and I'm profoundly familiar with the historical frameworks, I wanted to ask you how you evaluate institutional architecture and equality architecture in the European Union, and what elements do you view as being indispensable to reinforce this architecture so that we can be capable of resisting the reactionary and retrograde movements which it's subjected to.


EP · President, Women's Rights & Gender Equality Committee · Lina Galvez [25:40]:

Well, thank you very much. I am delighted to be here in this roundtable, and I'm delighted to see so many colleagues in the struggle for women's rights for so many years.

And now it's an honor to represent the Commission of Equality from the European Parliament. We continue to make an effort, in spite of the changes and the balances in the European Parliament, we continue to move forward the agenda of women's rights. We continue to move it forward because we can see change just like anywhere else. Simply to give you a bit of data, in this legislative session that started out a year and a half ago, it's the first time that the percentage of women has gone down, though elected women to the European Parliament has gone down up to the last legislation center. We continue to increase our percentage.

We had gotten to a little over 40% in the prior legislation session. Now we're at 38.5%, so a little below 40%. But this is important because this is a tendency and there's a greater, more than a greater participation, better results for family, political families that don't believe in equality. And so consequently they don't believe that they should have women on their tickets because they don't believe. Up until recently there wasn't European elections, but there were Dutch elections.

There was a Christian party that had no women on their ticket because they said since we just came out of the ribs of a man, we had to have a secondary position. They got three deputies in the Netherlands parliament and of course they weren't participated from participating in elections. I think this, if they had a different religious fundamentalism, I think this would have happened. So what is happening in Europe has a lot to do with a certain degree of Christian fundamentalism. Now European values are identified a lot with that or there is an important part of European institutions that view things that way.

But we should never forget is that equality exists. Since the foundational treatise or treaty, many people forgot this and we have to continue reminding them of that. In the prior plenary there were people were saying that this bed of equality was something that had been imported from abroad. I said how can it be imported from abroad to Europe? It's simply to repeat the same slogans that are said everywhere else.

So Europe is suffering right now also from that international anti gender, anti equality and anti gender rhetoric that's present everywhere in the European Union. The policy has been more successful in terms of employability, favoring women participating in labor work without working about why we don't participate so much or why we do so differently.

You know, you're not going to run the same way where you, when you run, you wear the most recent type of sneakers than if you're running barefoot. So we couldn't incorporate ourselves into the labor work. With the perspective of work life balance and especially with COVID which showed clearly how there was a regression. All of us were at home. It was us who continued to exercise care giving functions.

So this care strategy and now the new equality strategy which was presented last week, we have the idea of this caregiving pact, but at the time of voting to see whether this is going to be financed in in terms of pluriannual financing, we'll see that. Because where we haven't advanced so much is in cross cutting gender policies bring equality to all policies. Throughout the entire political cycles in the prior legislative session we had some positive advances and we're very proud because the institutional Architecture of equality in Spain served as a basis as an example for the European Union and also for the Transparent Salary Transparency Directive. So there were many steps forward in this legislative session. We're not going to make many steps forward in terms of big laws or directives because there's no consensus.

So the focus will be on implementation and on this cross cutting nature. And where should the focus be? Aside from hope as a political category, I think we have to resist, we have to hold out. What we're realizing is that while we advance and we advanced by constructing this institutional architecture, the reaction has been fortifying itself with funds, with arguments, situating itself in institutions, in the courts, in the universities, in the think tanks.

And they have acted in coordinated fashion and they've been very strategic. And lastly, what was lacking was an attack on politics in the parliamentary sense of the term. And that's where they are now. And they're there to undo what has been achieved. They say we have gone too far with a feminist policy where we still haven't gotten there.

And here we have the data regarding equality and Spain is one of the best countries on the European Gender index. We're number four.

And we might even be better than others in some categories. And still we haven't arrived. And many countries in the European Union, they still have a long way to go. So now one third of the European Parliament is opposed to all of these policies. One third.

And in addition, there's another political group that knows it has two alternative majorities and it is at times paying, playing with these alternative majorities depending on the commission, not so much the Equality Commission, but the parliament in general. And we have to know exactly how to stop it, because we're talking about an issue of democracy. And I will conclude we have to hold out and we have to fight. Why do I say to fight? Because if in the prior legislative session these anti democratic groups, these anti equality groups were not participating actively in everything having to do with the construction or destruction of this gender institutional architecture, they're very active.

At the same time they deny structural gender violence. At the same time they are using equality to favor their own policies. The anti migration agenda, the pro natalist agenda, and for the xenophobic agenda, they identify the rapist with foreigners. They talk about the right of women to stay home when no one forces any woman to participate in the labor force. And all of this is part of a model which is completely different, which is what they're trying to impose.

So we have to resist with hope, but we have to fight back through alliances in a very strategic fashion because I think the architecture is weaker than what we thought. Sorry to end on such a pessimistic note, but we had discussed hope, but, But we have to fortify ourselves. That's true. We can't remain stand by with arms crossed. We need to continue fighting.


Spain · Moderator · Anna [35:28]:

I would like to give the floor to Maria Guijaro, the Secretary of State for equality. And in terms of what you said, Spain is the point of reference. It's true that Spain is the point of reference in the European Union and it's well perceived, it's admired. We're number four in gender equality in the European Union, you know that. And as you say, if the indicators were different, we might even be higher ranked.

But anyway, ranked number four is not bad. So Madam Secretary, Spain is a point of reference in all these subjects, inequality, parity and the prevention, eradication of gender based violence in the way we and furthermore in the defense and the achievement and the recognition of LGBQT people. I want to make sure I have the Q here. As a representative of the Spanish government, what do you believe were the key regulatory, institutional and social factors that allowed the consolidation of these advances and what role does citizen involvement play in consolidating and maintaining them in a context in which many of these achievements, as we've already heard, are being attacked, questioned and dismantled from the root. Thank you.


Spain · Secretary of State for Equality · Maria Guijaro [37:02]:

Going back to what Lina said at the end regarding the reactionary movement that we're facing in Europe and the world, but also in Spain, and we're very aware, all of us who are here, that that movement has two fundamental migration and women. These are the two most important areas where we're being most attacked, where our bodies, they want to control our bodies and they want to control. Here I'm going to make just mention give. We came out with, we don't, we came out with a publicity campaign. I don't know.

You saw this. Mr. We did.

We did a publicity campaign.

And there's some values from the 50s which are now present in the social media in 2025. The first issue from the architectural question is to know what we're facing from my perspective and to know who we're putting everything at stake for women's rights and women in particular. Although here let me say that men have to be our major allies because many of them are part of the problem, so they have to be perforce part of the solution. The architecture we were discussing in order to be able to take this on and this wave that is surging over us has three legs. What the ambassador was discussing now, which is civil society.

We have also have the obligation from every institution of every type to. It's true that in Spain, the feminist movement is a powerful, diverse, nuanced movement.

We're always demanded to move forward as a bloc where that's never the case with other disciplines. We know what the major issues we have to be united on. It seems to me that the feminist movement in Spain has been a movement that independent of the government that was in power. This was a movement that has never given in. And it's been a movement.

And I say this quite honestly, it's been an example for other feminist movements elsewhere. And this movement has an obligation which is to pressure from the streets, from the communication media and the digital sector. We're very aware of that in any forum and something and said that social media, we have to organize ourselves in social media. And the feminist movement has to be present there. It has to be coordinated with us.

There's the second leg of the chair, which is the regulatory park, which has to be constructed from a state from Spain, which is the National Gazette. We have to continue coming out with regulations. Since 2004, we've had salary equality parity or the state pact against gender based violence. With that tremendous consensus was hard to reach in the Spanish Parliament. Here many people are asking us about the state pact against gender based violence in Spain.

And I think that as always, true policies carried out through the National Gazette and the third leg of the chair is the institutional part. We were talking about how we dismantle structures and democratic governance that is observed elsewhere, how we have to articulate the state so that if there is a Ministry of Equality, we will always be safer than if there isn't, if there's a delegation of the government to fight gender based violence will be safer than if there isn't. If we have good women's institutes and I have a representative from the Basque country or the government of Catalunya, and we have those multi level institutes, we have all the structures of the state. If we have enough with a very good equality commission, which works on the municipal level, that reaches every municipality, every corner where a woman needs its state, because we are all the state since the European Parliament, down to the smallest municipality in Spain, that would be one of the great strengths. And we also have to make an effort, and I will conclude this first part, to think about new pacts in the state.

We have work that remains to be done among ministries. I wouldn't say it's easy. The Consistency of policies is not easy. In terms of equality. I think my colleagues from different levels of government, different ministries, we have to try to work with them in a different way.

We need to be consistent there. And I. I think we need to be very resilient. We can't allow ourselves to feel that we're imposters, Madam President. And we can't allow ourselves to be discouraged. We can't, because pessimism will only benefit other people who are waiting for us to leave them a gap they can fill.

We can't move backwards. We must continue to build. Thank you.


Spain · Moderator · Anna [43:06]:

Those men who are waiting for us to go back to home so they can attack power. I'm going to make a quick round of questions. I'm very conscious of the time limits. I'm going to ask you some very quick rapid fire questions. One minute for each of us.

Give me quick ideas. I'll start with you, Lucila. What key message should we get out so that the private sector, where you work and where you have contacts, can reduce gender equality? Gap is not an optional, but rather necessary for the sustainable development of entire society. Society.


Closing Gap · Lucila Garcia [43:53]:

One minute. In closing gap, it's very clear to us the four companies that support our association are working to come out with this data. We'll continue to come out with that as we're going to attach numbers and figures to every aspect of the Spanish reality. And if we conclude the gap, gender gap between men and women will increase our GDP by 16%. 270 billion euros are waiting for us.

That's a great bit of news to continue advancing in everything that has to do with this. How are we going to do that? Of course, with public private partnerships. This is an example to continue to provide data to the government. And fundamentally everything has to do not just with women's participation.

Yesterday on the Hudson I saw that magnificent structure sculpture by our great sculpture Plinth. It's a woman who is silently looking at the Hudson. I was thinking of that idea, the participation of that river that women have participated in for years. Looking on silently and we have to allow for greater participation. But fundamentally leading leadership, more women need to participate in that new architecture, that powerful change oriented future that all women and girls need.


Spain · Moderator · Anna [45:19]:

Thank you. Thank you very much, Madame President Bachelet. Here the question is as follows. What does everyone need to do?

What do all of us need to do together to build international partnerships that will protect women who enter the profession of politics, not political life. It's a paid profession. One minute.


Chile · Former President · Michelle Bachelet [45:55]:

Many times I was involved in politics without Any type of compensation?

Only when I had positions. But what was your exact question?


Spain · Moderator · Anna [46:12]:

What do each of us need to do together in order to build international alliances that will protect young women who want to enter politics?


Chile · Former President · Michelle Bachelet [46:22]:

The first thing I want to say, and based on what you were saying, Alina, is that what we need to reaffirm clearly, is that gender equality is not an option. It's an obligation of the states. The states have the obligation to abide by what they signed and the Beijing convention and the 2030 agenda. I think that's key.

But we have to continue, not only for young people, but for the people who are a little more advanced in age.

The enemies of democracy. Multilateralism and women are the same.

That's why we have to engage in strong alliances at every level, from the local level to the multilateral level, because we know that the best way to combat regression is when you act jointly. And we know that we're going to have more young women interest in the profession, in political life, whether they're financed or not, if they believe they have elements to develop themselves and that will protect them. I think that what is key in that sense is the protection of the people who protect advances. I'm talking about women politicians, journalists, human rights defenders, and environmental activists. They are facing severe harassment, and we can't allow fear to silence them.

And we need to. And this happens to do with what Lucila was telling. We need to strengthen governance based on data. It's not enough to be right. We have to be communicating to people who are not part of that movement.

We have to explain dialogue and explain this to the citizenry. Vivian is aware of this. I said that if you commit to women, there's not only what's fair, but it's an intelligent way of taking responsibility for a country. It was fair, of course, but it was always. But it also was intelligent.

The other thing I want to say was that we have to conclude with a very deep commission. I think what women, young women are expecting are women they can share their experiences with that women who can show them how to navigate in such a complex world, whether they're compensated or not. And finally, I think that multilaterally, which is what you were asking about. The second thing is we shouldn't accept women being viewed as exceptional in their position, because that means they're an exception. Women are competent, and many of us are spectacular.

But we can't accept the adjective of being exceptional because that means that only a few can. Can gain access. And that means not paying attention to women's tremendous ability. I am convinced that defending equality is defending democracy. And so for that I hope that we can hope for a female Secretary General of the UN.

But not just any woman.

I'm not advocating for myself. I've met so many women who have no gender perspective and who say to me I'm where I am because I'm good. I said yes. And I have been elected president because I'm good. But I open up spaces for all the excellent women who are invisible.

So I think that for it to be there are men who put it all on the line for equality. But at a time of so much backsliding it would be great for to have a woman Secretary General.


Speaker 17 [50:34]:

Of course. Hopefully the next Secretary General should be a woman. Well Vivian in Latin America and the Caribbean what type of alliances do you think would be most effective to accelerate equality in these countries and what can states, companies and feminine organizations together do and other international partners so that the impact will be measurable? Some data and evidence are here. Secondly financing the gender equality agenda in every country throughout the region has been under financed historically.


UN Women · Regional Director · Vivian Ido [51:18]:

I think that was very clear in the evaluation of the 30 years of the Beijing Platform. Less than 1% of the budgets of the states are devoted to this agenda. And then that illusion of equality as if there was tomb too much investment and not enough investment. It's the opposite. We have to continue to insist on the necessity of solid financing and substantive parity.

The parity is the road. The goal is equality. But not just any woman. The women have to be committed to gender equality human rights peace, security and development. So at every level we have to commit to women who are committed to this agenda and to men who are committed to this agenda.

More wide ranging alliances. Maria was saying wide range.

Those of us who are convinced and it's important to support feminist movements and women's movements which are under financed and which are behind many of the achievements we've achieved. But we also need to work with the private sector. We need to work with philanthropy with data centers with technological companies and we have to work with men. I don't think we can avoid young men. The patriarchy has been very capable of dividing and saying that women's rights are contradictory to boys to men's rights and girls rights are antagonistic to men's to boys rights.

We need to combat that. We need to work with men. I'll leave it there.


Spain · Moderator · Anna [53:13]:

There is an overwhelming piece of data that all the women's organizations receive financing. I can't remember the percentage.000%. All the women's organizations financing is equivalent to one combat jet. That is an overwhelming piece of data.


UN Women · Regional Director · Vivian Ido [53:37]:

The truth is that that's a reality that leaves us discouraged.


Spain · Moderator · Anna [53:47]:

No, no. Be hopeful, be.


Speaker 22 [53:52]:

We are worth less than a fighter jet. Yes, if more funds were allocated to feminist groups and organizations, we would make a great step forward. But how can society, civil society, influence or act to change the course of what's happening in the European Parliament? Specifically, more than civil society, the feminist movements, to reinforce or strengthen the European Parliament, let me point out, you can shoot down a fighter jet, but not the feminist movement. We might get less financing, but there we are and we continue.


EP · President, Women's Rights & Gender Equality Committee · Lina Galvez [54:40]:

So you shouldn't let anything get by. I think. What is its base, this demonization which is being conducted with respect to NGOs and women's movements? We can't accept that in order to. It's essential to advance in human rights, dignity and the feminist agenda.

That is essential. We can't let that by. And above all, we can't let that by. When they're negotiating budgets. We're now beginning to start to negotiate the pluriannual financial framework in all the institutions of the Parliament.

And we're going to come to agreements with the Council, the commission and the legislators. And there the. The budgetary pressures are enormous because obviously they need to purchase many more fighter jets or anything else, and their women are not present, not as a combat force or workforce or as negotiators. We're pretty much absent. So that means a deviation of budgets towards other priorities which may not be ours.

And with austerity, we'll see what that means for women. So consequently, we have to work very clearly and very convincingly with respect to the budgets. Because if we. If that's not the case, I have. This is negative, but it's optimistic at the same time.

Otherwise we will end up saying these anti equality, anti democratic fascist movements are right.

They're all part of the same tendency. They say these policies aren't working, they're not improving women's lives.

Perhaps the issue is that we are not implementing them properly because we are not budgeting them with sufficient funds, because we are not incorporating them into all policies. If we continue to advance in policies and directives and we don't finance them, we don't give them the proper priority, we'll end up proving them right. And that would be very disappointing if we want to advance through wide, broad alliances. It is in the area of the digital. We have the European directive of violence against women and artificial Intelligence.

But since we don't have this cross cutting aspect. And so.

The law of digital services and digital markets, all of that provides certain tools, but they're not enough for the excessive use that the anti gender, anti equality platforms makes of the social media to seduce young boys. 23 minutes is what some platforms, I'm not going to mention what they are, if they detect that a young boy is using them for him to receive anti feminist, anti women propaganda. And we should never forget, and I'll conclude with this, and I think this is our strength and this is why they're attacking us. And feminism is the most profoundly democratic movement of the last century and a half, maybe more, but at least the last century and a half. Those who want to put an end to democracy and who want to empty out democracy are attacking us precisely because we are democracy itself.

So weave Alan's alliances and stick them, insert them into the budget. Thank you.


Spain · Moderator · Anna [59:04]:

We now bid farewell to President Michelet.

And now to conclude, Secretary of State, the final question, the rapid fire question. What are the initiatives that the Ministry wants to implement as part of a feminist roadmap that will insert equality at the heart of the Spanish democratic project? We have so much work ahead of us. I said that spontaneously, I always say, and once again I'll say it.


Spain · Secretary of State for Equality · Maria Guijaro [1:00:00]:

One of the fundamental challenges is to.

In Spain, in many places throughout the world, we need to consider male versus female gender based violence at the center of government policy.

We have a major challenge in this area. We always say this, but if the three murders which are not confirmed. I know, see, she always criticizes me for mentioning this before it's confirmed they were burned.


Spain · Moderator · Anna [1:00:43]:

She's not using the mic.


Speaker 27 [1:00:48]:

They were at home. She's.


Spain · Secretary of State for Equality · Maria Guijaro [1:00:53]:

I think we need to shut a country down when this happens. And we don't do that because they're women. Because they're women. They were murdered because they're women. And that's very concerning for all of us.

But for people who are working in institutions of equality, it's brutal. But the country is not paralyzed. And I'm really sorry, but I think this is the major challenge we have in this country and in Europe, of course, and throughout the world, in general, to paralyze everything, shut everything down because we are being murdered because we are women. And that's one of the major challenges as part of this brutal male based violence against women. We have a clear roadmap.

There are two forms of violence which are very clear which we want to address.

Sexual trafficking and also prostitution. We presented a poll that talked about the convince our conviction in the Ministry of Equality, which reflected everything the immense majority of the Spanish population consists views. Prostitution is a form of male against female violence. We have advanced a lot in drafting the text. We also have course of control, vicarious violence.

I think that's an obligation of ours and also to digital violence. I know that in the Parliament they have the law to protect minors in digital environments. I think that's a major area. And then there's some regulations which are underway, such as the law of parity. But they have to be implemented.

We have to follow up on them. We have to meet the way we meet with the CMV to say give us the data. And we ask for help from the data collectors to follow up. And we need social shields with gender protection. We know that when the minimum income that affects women.

When we talk about the caregiving economy and how we have to provide greater time, often more core responsibility. We're helping women. And indeed, I believe, and I insist on masculinity because I think this is a very important issue as a challenge to us and as part of the work that we have to carry out from now on. And as a final challenge, I think that these alliances that you're mentioning of all types, and to go from the local to the global by interrelating everything, the academic world, the management, labor, the government, of course, the multilateral organizations, all types of parliaments. I think that fundamentally this is the greatest power that we can have to weave and to network, consensus and a lot of dialogue.

Otherwise we'll be swept away. These are our challenges.


Spain · Moderator · Anna [1:04:19]:

So after that, I believe we can conclude today's side event and I would wish you a fantastic rest of the day. We'll continue seeing each other in the hallways and in meeting rooms for other side events. Thank you so much.

I think all of this makes us stronger in the face of everything that's coming down. On behalf of the Ministry of Equality, I want to thank you all for having attended. Thank you so much.