00:00The most challenging situation, the most difficult place for women to live today is in Afghanistan.
00:06There's no question about that.
00:08But I think we need to always be looking at the opportunities, focus, still trying to make progress.
00:14And I think there's a lot of progress that is being made.
00:17And I think this is why also looking at women's economic empowerment is absolutely critically important.
00:25And it's important to remember that gender equality is not just it is a human right, but it's not only
00:32a human right.
00:33It's not only the right thing to do.
00:35It's also smart business.
00:36And I think we are very, very clearly seeing that when we have, for example, companies and businesses which are
00:43investing in gender equality, equal opportunity for men and women, they have stronger governance.
00:48They also have stronger, longer term economic performance.
00:52So we have a lot of good arguments also from the economic side to make sure that companies and businesses
00:59and the public sector are investing in gender equality.
01:02Well, how does the cost of child care, for example, factor into that?
01:06Because, you know, for better or worse, women often fall into the role of being the default caretaker for children.
01:13And, you know, it's one thing for businesses to invest.
01:16But if it doesn't make economic sense for, you know, one of the partners to not stay home, given the
01:21cost of child care, I wonder, you know, how that sort of bedevils those efforts.
01:26That's a really important point.
01:27I'm so happy that you raised that.
01:29We actually have a staggering number of over 700 million women who are working age who are out of the
01:38labor market because of the uneven care responsibilities.
01:41And the care responsibilities, of course, be it child care, be it elderly care, is extremely important.
01:47The economy would come to and the society would come to halt without it.
01:51But because women are carrying disproportionate portion of the care responsibility, they often are not able to finish their studies
02:01and progress in the same way, assume leadership positions as fast as we would like to see.
02:07So in some sense, it's actually really a very huge untapped potential that we have.
02:14And I think there would be a huge benefit globally and at the national level in all the different countries
02:22if we would invest in creating jobs in the care sector so that women are also able to get into
02:31the economic empowerment and get their own jobs.
02:34Everybody would benefit from that.
02:35Let's talk about some of the progress that you mentioned because also in the Secretary General's report, this stat also
02:41stuck out.
02:4287 percent of countries have enacted domestic violence legislation and more than 40 countries have actually strengthened constitutional protection for
02:51women and girls over the past decade.
02:53Now, I know the report also goes on to say that laws alone are not enough.
02:57But in terms of a starting point, I mean, how important are some of these figures?
03:00It's very important because the starting point, we need to have the legal changes, legislative changes.
03:06We need to have the policy changes.
03:08But of course, then we also need to have the accountability to make sure that they are implemented.
03:13And we've been clearly able to see that countries which have introduced legislation, for example, against domestic violence, we have
03:22seen reduced levels of domestic violence.
03:24So it is very important to see that these policy measures and legal measures really have a real concrete impact
03:31in women's lives.
03:33And if I may just share with you, I think it's a shocking fact that we also have every 10
03:39minutes somewhere in the world, a woman or a young girl is killed either by their family member or by
03:46their current or former partner.
03:48These are shocking figures. These are on top of all the women and girls who are killed in as part
03:53of conflicts.
03:54So it's really some an area where we need to also similarly as looking at the women's economic empowerment.
04:00We really need to have a very strong focus, ensuring that there is justice for women, that women are protected
04:07and they are given an opportunity.
04:10They have an opportunity to live in a safe environment.
04:13We really need to have an opportunity to live in a safe environment.
04:13We really need to have an opportunity to live in a safe environment.
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