More Wages, Less Gaps

The world is moving past the era of ‘traditional’ housewives, and the delegations of UN Women strive to continuously build up women of all backgrounds, cultures, and communities.

UN Women Meeting Room, Palmer – Questions arise in developed and undeveloped countries to where women can fit into a modern business setting. Economic mobility has been a recurring topic throughout the committee, with many resolutions being presented and debated throughout the first session.

One directive presented, titled S.P.P.A.R.K.L.E., raised many questions as well as answered them. Supported by the delegations of Qatar, Brazil, Colombia, Czechia, Venezuela, and India, the paper stressed the importance of political progress through underdeveloped countries, as well as strength between neighboring and regional countries. 

The paper also presented ideals of equal healthcare for males and females, making birth control accessible and keeping menstrual products at retail price. Despite these policies being universally agreed upon in the committee, their ideas going towards sex education and health classes stirred up more controversy.

The paper argued for sex education in health classes for children starting at the age of ten, the average age of puberty. However, some cultures and regions addressed concerns over this decision because of their norms. The delegations of this paper pressed that sex education did not need to contain anything that the country’s culture prohibited.

A different group of delegates proposed other ideals in their paper, titled W.S.W. In an interview with one of the signatories on W.S.W., the delegation of Italy voiced their plans to uplift women into education. “...there are more schooling opportunities, scholarships, and grants [for women]...” he stated, “Most of these scholarships would be given to developing countries who don’t have many women [in schools] through a fund.” W.S.W. also focused on political representation for women and abolishing gender norms. The delegation of the Republic of Korea stated, “Girls should be learning about whatever their male counterparts are.”

Although most delegations seemed to be on the same page of uplifting women, delegations such as the Russian Federation held differing opinions. “I’m working on a paper that focuses on more traditional roles,” the delegate of the Russian Federation voiced, “It’s what my country supports.” 

It is clear that most of the UN Women's delegates intend to make a change in the way women are able to move up in the business world, and many more direct solutions were presented to the committee. Despite the large number of delegates in the committee, it's evident that many had one thing in mind: power to working women.