As United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres moves to make good on a decades-old commitment of gender parity, some U.N. observers and staff representatives are questioning the way the potentially transformative, system-wide strategy is being carried out.

Guterres aims to reach gender parity at senior leadership levels — meaning all under-secretary-general and assistant secretary-general positions — by 2021, and achieve parity across the entire U.N. system “well before 2030,” according to the system-wide strategy plan released in mid-September.

All staff with hiring responsibility will need to personally sign off on “departmental statistical status on gender parity” before making a final decision on a candidate. And the U.N. Secretariat is developing a public website to track the demographics of its workforce.

The strategy also addresses some of the underlying issues — such as inequitable parental leave policies and inflexible work options — that could influence some women to leave the U.N. or reconsider advancing their careers there. A 2016 an Impact polo study of present and former U.N. staffers showed that women who left the U.N. saw their careers progress more than those who remained.

Where this is new and something that isn't the culture, of course there is going to be pushback. If you [have] always been in a position of privilege, you don't like to give it up,” [Anne Marie Goetz] said.

Read the full article by Amy Lieberman about gender equality from Devex International Development