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Opinion | International Women’s Day: as Covid-19 has shown, we need more women leaders in the Asia-Pacific
- Women have been vital in the pandemic response but there are still too few women making decisions in the public sector
- For recovery to be effective and inclusive in the Asia-Pacific region, more must be done, and quickly
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Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, women in the Asia-Pacific have shown decisive leadership in steering their countries and communities with effective responses to the pandemic, whether it is managing their businesses and households, or standing at the front lines as health care workers.
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Yet, in the highest echelons of decision-making and the public sector, we see that many women’s voices are still not being heard. Only a small percentage of political leaders in our region are women, far lower than the world’s average.
This is a detriment not only to women but to the region at large. For the response and recovery to the pandemic to be truly effective and consider everyone’s needs, it is urgent that we fast-track progress towards women’s empowerment in decision-making in public life.
Today, as we celebrate International Women’s Day, we honour the often-overlooked contributions of women in the Asia-Pacific, reflect on the progress made towards gender equality, and renew our commitment to ensuring that women and girls are valued and empowered.
We also celebrate the women who have played and continue to play a vital role in the fight against Covid-19 in our region. Thailand’s efficient response to Covid-19 is, in part, thanks to the more than one million women health care volunteers who have worked tirelessly to inform, advise and care for people in their communities.
They have also been trained to prevent, detect and report cases of suspected communicable and non-communicable diseases, and have thus provided exceptional help to the Thai government in limiting the impact of the pandemic. In India, Accredited Social Health Activists, better known as ASHA workers, who formed the backbone of the community-level health care response, are nearly all women.
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