UN General Assembly ends with just 12% female speakers: ‘Where are the women of the world?’

‘When you’re sitting at the podium and you’re looking down, it’s true – I’m searching for the women and that has to get better’

Amina Mohammed, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, arrives at the UN headquarters (AP)

Fewer than 12 per cent women dignitaries addressed a high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York as top world leaders flagged the skewed gender representation at the biggest international gathering.

UN deputy secretary-general Amina Mohammed said member nations need to be called out for their poor representation of women at the UNGA meet last week.

A total 130 world leaders and more than 50 ministers addressed the annual meeting but only 21 of these dignitaries – six heads of state, four heads of government, one vice president, nine ministers and one vice minister – were women.

“We have to be courageous enough… to call people out, delegation by delegation, when you meet them,” Ms Mohammed said.

“It is clear and abundant in the hall, when you’re sitting at the podium and you’re looking down, it’s true – I’m searching for the women and that has to get better,” she said.

The women who addressed the UNGA included Australia’s foreign minister Penny Wong, UAE’s minister of state for international cooperation Reem Ebrahim al-Hashimy and Jamaica’s foreign affairs minister Kamina Johnson Smith.

Of the 189 member countries who spoke, there were 88 heads of state and 42 heads of government, said senior UN official Movses Abelian.

The remaining speakers were made up of deputy leaders and ministers, along with six ambassadors.

Only four nations did not address the six-day meeting, diplomats said. These were Niger, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Madagascar.

This is not the first time a poor gender ratio has been flagged at an assembly session.

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa drew applause on the first day of the UNGA meet when he said women comprised half of his cabinet. He also said he was accompanied to New York by an all-female delegation.

“It should be a matter of concern to us all that the majority of people who are sitting in this assembly are men,” he said. “The question we have to ask: where are the women of the world? The women of the world have a right to be here.”

Within the UN, there is gender parity among the top level of under secretaries-general, data from the world agency shows.

Throughout the entire UN system, women make up 44 per cent of international staff.