68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women – High-Level Meeting To Advance Women’s Political Participation and Leadership in the Digital Age

FP Report

WASHINGTON DC: On March 13, on the margins of the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Government of the United States alongside the Governments of Canada, Colombia, and the United Kingdom, co-sponsored a high-level meeting at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations to discuss shared priorities for advancing women’s political participation and leadership, including by tackling new threats, such as technology-facilitated gender-based violence. Participants included senior leaders from governments, civil society, philanthropy, multilateral organizations, and the private sector.

This high-level meeting focused on opportunities for collaboration to address the consistent underrepresentation of women at all levels of public life, politics and government, including peace and security decision-making processes. Women leaders, researchers, and experts from civil society highlighted how longstanding barriers to women’s political participation and leadership—including lack of access to political networks and resources as well as gender-based violence both online and offline—continue to undermine their inclusion and advancement in democratic processes. Several participants noted that threats to women leaders have proliferated with the increased adoption of digital technologies and are likely to continue to grow with new and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence. Participants noted the urgency of addressing these systemic barriers to ensure a level playing field for elections set to take place around the world this year.

To address these issues, senior leaders from the Biden-Harris Administration invited partners to join a new multistakeholder initiative to advance women’s political participation and leadership in the digital age. This initiative, which the United States intends to launch on the margins of the 75th NATO Summit, will convene governments, philanthropy, civil society, private sector, and multilateral organizations to developcommitments focused on closing the gender gap in leadership, including through programs that address threats to women leaders on and offline. It will build on shared commitments and priorities, including the U.S. Strategy and National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security , the U.S. Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal, the Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online Harassment and Abuse, the Summit for Democracy Gender Cohort, and the Network for Gender Inclusive Democracy