Thirty Septembers Later: On Gender Equality
September 2025 marks the 30th Anniversary of the U.N. Beijing Platform for Action, when then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton made a famous statement at the 4th United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, that “human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights”. The outcome of that convening was the Beijing Platform and Declaration for Action (BPFA). This was the first time in human history where the community of nations came together to declare the values of gender equality and women’s empowerment as global priorities.
Fast forward to 2025, we have reached a very challenging moment. A survey, carried out by Ipsos UK and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College and published in March 2025, reported that men and women belonging to Gen Z are more divided than those of any other generation on the issue of women’s rights. In April 2025, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the decision to scrap programs instituted by the Women, Peace and Security Act, signed into law during the first Trump Administration, with the purpose of ensuring meaningful participation of women in conflict prevention and resolution. June 2025 marked three years since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States, impacting access to reproductive rights for women and girls around the world.
In 1995, I was 13 years old. The world in which I came into political consciousness led me to believe that humankind was on a forward-moving, linear trajectory grounded in a shared understanding that gender equality equals progress.
My misperception of reality did not come to light until the COVID pandemic, when the rates of violence against women skyrocketed; when women providing for their families equally or more than their partners carried the majority responsibilities for childcare, eldercare, sick care, and maintenance of the home.
I didn’t understand the fragility of this progress until August 2021 when the Taliban retook Kabul, and their most powerful symbol of power to communicate to the world, took the form of rescinding the rights of Afghan women and girls to learn, to work, to lead, to report, and eventually to simply exist in public.
In June 2022, when Roe v. Wade was overturned, I saw plainly how fractured the United States is as a country on whether or not a woman has autonomy over her body and her reproductive capabilities. Furthermore, this very serious matter serves as a tool to keep women divided from finding common ground and solidarity with each other. This critical moment conveyed to me that the 1995 formula for a more healthy and prosperous world did not enjoy as much “buy-in” as I once believed.
The final realization of a women’s rights movement in distress came in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on October 7. As reports and testimonies of sexual assault surfaced amongst survivors, initially the United Nations refused to acknowledge it, followed by important global actors and influencers who actively refuted and denied it occurred.
As we witness a backlash and rollback of girls’ and women’s rights, it is imperative that we call upon the very feminine attributes of patience and the ability to listen.
Patience – women excel in patience. Women require patience to traverse the journey of puberty as young girls; to successfully carry out a pregnancy with no guarantee that after 40 weeks that which you’ve cultivated within will arrive safely and that you’ll survive to share in the fruits of your labor; to witness the body go through another transformation in menopause, simultaneously needing to redefine one’s womanhood. Women’s lifetimes are full of waiting, watching, and co-participating in uneven processes that require tremendous patience.
The ability to listen – women have a heightened ability to stay still and receive information. When we can truly hear the fears and concerns of other sides, problem solving is more effective. The ability to listen is the quality that women activate when enjoined to help solve global conflicts, and why resolutions generated with women around the negotiating table last longer than those that exclude women’s participation.
Like the lives of women and girls, this journey is cyclical, not linear. From a place of shared truth and shared values, women and those who support them need to stand together. Arguably, our future depends on it.
