Democracy doesn’t work without women, Kamala Harris tells UN

In her debut at the world body, the vice president said authoritarians are making big gains around the world

Authoritarians are gaining traction around the world, but involving more women in politics can help revive flagging democracies, US Vice President Kamala Harris said at a UN meeting on Tuesday.

In her debut at the UN, Ms Harris addressed the 65th Commission on the Status of Women, an annual meeting on sex equality and female empowerment.

She said democracy had been “under great strain” globally for 15 years and that 2020 was rated the “worst on record”, probably a reference to a recent study by the US-backed think tank Freedom House.

“The status of democracy also depends fundamentally on the empowerment of women,” Ms Harris said during the online gathering.

“Not only because the exclusion of women in decision-making is a marker of a flawed democracy, but because the participation of women strengthens democracy.”

Ms Harris, who has Indian and Jamaican heritage, was sworn in on January 20 as the first woman, first Asian-American and first black US vice president, serving under President Joe Biden.

She said American women are voting more frequently than men and increasingly are “their families’ breadwinners”. More women lead military units and are being elected to local and national bodies, she said.

“But friends, we cannot take this progress for granted, especially now Covid-19 has threatened the economic security, the physical security and the health of women everywhere,” she said.

“As women struggle to get the health care they need, the pandemic appears to be reversing the global gains we’ve made in the fight against HIV-Aids, tuberculosis, malaria, malnutrition, and maternal and child mortality.”

This year’s UN event is focused on ending violence against women and girls, the impact of the pandemic and promoting the role of women in public life.

A study released on Monday found that women made up only a quarter of parliamentarians globally, that only 22 countries are run by a woman and only 7.4 per cent of Fortune 500 companies were led by a woman last year.

“Women’s full representation and leadership are a prerequisite for making the best use of all our resources,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said at a different event on Tuesday.

“Women have proven this once again during the pandemic. Women essential and front-line workers, including health workers, have kept institutions, communities and societies afloat.”

US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield has said the US would take a leading role to combat sexual and gender-based violence around the world and to push for more women to be included in peace talks globally.

Under the administration of former US president Donald Trump, Washington led efforts at the UN against promoting women’s sexual and reproductive rights, which it viewed as a code for abortion.

The Trump administration opposed language about reproductive rights in UN resolutions, cut funding to UN family planning projects in 2017.

Last year it accused the UN of promoting access to abortion as part of its response to the pandemic.