Air Force Senior Airman Raelyn Blevins assigned to the Delaware Air National Guard talks with a motorist at a drive-thru testing site for COVID-19 in Newark, Delaware, July 1, 2020. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Capt. Brendan Mackie)
The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the "devastating" results of thousands of years of "male-dominated culture," contends the United Nations secretary general.
"The #COVID19 pandemic is demonstrating what we all know: millennia of patriarchy have resulted in a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture which damages everyone – women, men, girls & boys," the United Nations tweeted Sunday, quoting Antonio Guterres in a speech last month.
Guterres was addressing a virtual town hall in New York on Aug. 31 when he declared the coronavirus has had a "disproportionate and devastating social and economic impact on women and girls."
He said COVID-19 is "deepening existing inequalities, including gender inequality."
"Already we are seeing a reversal in decades of limited and fragile progress on gender equality and women's rights," he said. "And without a concerted response, we risk losing a generation or more of gains."
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres (Wikimedia Commons)
The U.N.'s tweet drew some 13,000 mostly negative responses, with some calling for defunding of the U.N. and others urging Guterres to resign, DailyMail.com reported.
British political scholar Adrian Hilton challenged the U.N. chief in a tweet: "Since you are the ninth man to hold the position of UN Secretary-General since its creation, have you considered stepping aside in favour of a woman?"
In his Aug. 31 address, Guterres said that while women have been on the front lines of the pandemic as "health care workers, teachers, essential staff and as carers in their families and communities," only 30% are involved in decision-making roles.
He called for an "economic reset to ensure the rights to life, dignity and security for everyone."
"We must also emerge from this crisis with women's equal leadership and representation," he said. "The past months have seen a growing recognition in the media and through academic research highlighting what we have known anecdotally for years: that women leaders are extremely effective."
He said female "heads of state, ministers for health, health workers and community leaders are winning widespread recognition for their empathy, compassion, communication and evidence-based decision-making."
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