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Women are fighting the pandemic on the front lines: They are the majority of doctors, nurses, and care workers as well as among cleaners in public and private sectors, at home through the care of children, the elderly, and the sick. Women are also leading critical efforts as part of regional and local response; private and social initiatives.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, 9 out of 10 nurses are women, and they represent 57% of doctors (IADB, 2019). However:
- Women only hold between 8% and 25% of executive positions in hospitals (Boston Consulting Group, 2019 - UNDP, 2018),
- And only 22.9% of Ministers of Health are women.
If the lack of women’s representation in decision-making represents a shortcoming of our democracies, the exclusion or undervaluing of the experience of women leaders in health, economy and gender matters is even more worrying when their absence in managing this crisis may negatively influence the way in which the specific needs of women are addressed and its effects are analyzed in terms of gender.
The participation of women, their leadership and the breadth of their perspectives show that there are no gender neutral policies and that the perspective and specific needs and interests of half the population must have their own voice, which is even more fundamental now in managing a crisis of this proportion.
We have to raise women’s voices, their experience, and leadership in decision-making to achieve a greater plurality in addressing issues and to propose better solutions to the COVID-19 crisis. To do so, we want to generate awareness and mobilize actors along four strategic lines:
1. Call for action
Equity is a state issue:
In an inter-institutional statement, we call on States of the Americas to ensure equal women’s participation in decision making during the COVID-19 crisis.
[See the Statement: Spanish | English ]
2. Evidence
Equal representation is key to effectively achieve gender equity:
The need to count on data on women’s representation in leadership positions is essential to promoting and monitoring commitments that ensure their full participation in decision-making. We are seeking to identify and highlight the existing representation gaps among decision-makers involved in the response confronting the COVID-19 crisis.
3. Knowledge
Building on knowledge in leadership and gender perspectives:
Together with experts and women leaders, we will learn on challenges faced by women's leadership in management and crisis mitigation.
May 21, 2020: webinar COVID-19: Why can women’s leadership make a difference in the response? Challenges and opportunities in the Americas and the Caribbean beyond the emergency.
4. Recognition
Women are leading several initiatives facing the COVID-19 crisis:
We will seek to elevate and highlight women’s contributions in the health sector, as well as honor women leaders who are pursuing anonymous and innovative social and community response initiatives confronting the pandemic.
[Publication: "25 Stories of Women who are Leading the Response During the COVID-19"]
Who We Are
Reference documents:
The Task Force
The Inter-American Task Force on Women's Leadership is composed of key inter-American and international institutions with recognized experience and programming in areas related to women's leadership: the Organization of American States, through the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), ParlAmericas, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Women, the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), IDEA International, together with two civil society organizations: Caribbean Women in Leadership (CIWiL) and the Committee of Latin America and the Caribbean for the Defense of Women's Rights (CLADEM).
Pursuant to OAS General Assembly Resolution AG/RES. 2928 (XLVIII-O/18), the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) serves as Technical Secretariat of the Task Force.
Who We Are
Our history
During the VIII Summit of the Americas (Peru, April 2018), the leaders of the Americas created the Inter-American Task Force on Women's Leadership, charged with promoting gender equity and equality and the empowerment of women through greater cooperation and synergies between international and inter-American institutions.
Since its creation, the Task Force partners have held dialogues with governments and other stakeholders, seeking to define a road map that aligns and harmonizes efforts, through multi-sectoral alliances, to promote women’s leadership in various sectors and at multiple levels in the Americas.
Goals
Main objective
The main objective of the Inter-American Task Force on Women’s Leadership is to position the Americas as the leading region in achieving SDG 5.5. We aim to contribute to accelerated commitment and actions across all sectors and advance women's leadership in power and decision-making.
Target 5.5: Ensure women's full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.
Goals
Specific goals
- Improve the coordination and coherence of initiatives in pursuit of women´s leadership undertaken by international, intergovernmental, and inter-American institutions and other regional stakeholders.
- Scale-up existing initiatives led by Task Force members and leverage opportunities to make them more accessible to historically excluded groups.
- Create opportunities for women leaders to acquire knowledge, skills, and networks to support their continuous personal and professional growth.
Goals
Mission and Vision
Our Mission: Enhance the commitment of key actors and harmonize our efforts to promote and support women’s leadership in decision-making throughout the Americas.
Our Vision: Women leading decision-making on strengthening democracy and sustainable development in the Americas.
What We Do
Areas of engagement
To achieve our goals, the Task Force will work in three specific areas of engagement:
- Multi-stakeholder engagement
Effectively advancing women’s empowerment and leadership is only possible through multi-sectoral partnerships with stakeholders in the region, with whom we will seek to combine synergies to contribute to the empowerment and leadership of women. - Analysis of evidence for a better understanding to close gaps
We want to shed light on existing data on women’s participation in decision-making, as well as on the barriers to their empowerment and the initiatives to secure their right to participate in spaces of power, deepening these analyses and learning from evidence for more effective policy and decision-making. - Tools to support women leaders
We aim to support actions that promote and strengthen women's leadership, providing them with practical resources to improve their leadership skills in order to increase their empowerment in the areas in which they participate.
What We Do
How we work
- Knowledge sharing:
- Generating, disseminating and using knowledge on women’s leadership in different sectors to facilitate the identification of gaps and optimal strategies to address them.
- Reporting on our collective learning on the state of women’s leadership in the region.
- Coordinating our actions
- Implementing joint initiatives and disseminating the results of our work.
- Advocacy
- Advocating for greater prominence of women’s leadership as a policy topic within international and regional meeting agendas, declarations and at the individual leader level.
- Building alliances and partnerships across a wide range of actors to generate awareness and sustained change.
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