Lack Of Women In UN Leadership Positions Is a Reflection of Current State Of Women In Business, Former Argentine Foreign Minister Says

Eighty years after the United Nations was formed, a woman has still never occupied its top job, which also reflects sexual discrimination within the business world, Argentina's former foreign minister said.

Susana Malcorra, who is president of GWL Voices, a body comprised of international leaders who fight for gender equality, launched an unsuccessful candidacy to be UN Secretary General in 2016.

"For young women to see a woman at the top of the United Nations at the top is uplifting. It is a reference. It shows it is possible. This is badly needed today," Malcorra told the Latin Times. "Having a woman as a leader will have a very real symbolic impact."

She was speaking as the 2026 GWL Voices report, released on Thursday (Jan. 29), found 46% of women hold leadership positions in 62 multilateral organizations within the UN, a rise from 42% in 2023.

However, 21 UN umbrella organizations have never had a female leader and 20 have only had a woman leader once, the report found.

This year, Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile, and Rebeca Grynspan, the current UN secretary general on trade and development, will be among the female candidates vying for election to the top position at the UN.

"The picture is bad (at the UN). There is a better representation in so-called softer issues, but in harder issues like peace and security there is not a good representation," said Malcorra, Argentina's foreign minister between 2015 and 2017. "Soft issues are children and education but in harder issues the situation is not good. And of course there is no woman secretary general."

She added that "in education and health in the world, lots of women work in those areas but if you look at the ministers in those areas, they are often men. There is a selection process which is skewed towards men."

Beyond the UN, Malcorra sees the current state of women in businesses as "not good" in terms of holding leadership posts.

"There is a notion that women have gone far enough and there is pushback. It is a clear regression that we are seeing in the rights of women and the rights of minorities. What we are talking about here is power. We are not talking about poetry."

Women remained underrepresented in top business roles, occupying only 11% of Fortune 500 CEO positions in 2025, The figure, however, rose from 10.4% in 2024.

The former foreign minister also noted that shifting political tides in some countries are hindering what progress was made in terms of female leadership. "The extreme right movements that we see in the world, one of the issues that they use is the role of women. It is a comprehensive push to allay the role of women in the spheres of power," she said.

Malcorra said U.S. President Donald Trump was part of this push back against the rights of women, but it was also happening in Latin America and Africa.

"There is something clearly happening in the U.S. but it is not only the U.S."

Malcorra also noted algorithms used in AI were feeding biases against women. "The use of AI as a tool of violence against women and you can see that in the way politicians are being targeted using pornography," she said.

Silicon Valley was largely dominated by male bosses, Malcorra contended. "The percentage of women in significant roles is absolutely minimal," she said. Women occupy the CEO roles in only 4.7% of leading 150 Silicon Valley companies, according to figures from Silicon Valley Bank.

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