Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. Well, this is International Women's Day comes at a tense time on the global stage. Now. I recently got the chance to sit down with Kursey Maddie you Want, Assistant Secretary General and You and Women, Deputy Executive Director for Resource Management, Sustainability and Partnerships, asking her about the UN's latest report, Ensuring and Strengthening asks Access to Justice for All Women and Girls. Here's part of that conversation.
The most challenging situation, the most difficult place for women to live today is in Afghanistan, There's no question about that. But I think we need to always be looking at the opportunities focus still trying to make progress, and I think there's a lot of progress that is being made. And I think this is why also looking at women's economic empowerment is absolutely critically important. And it's important to remember that gender equality is not just it is a
human right, but it's not only a human right. It's not only the right thing to do. It's also smart business. And I think we are very very clearly seeing that when we have, for example, companies and businesses which are investing in gender equality, equal opportunities for well, men and women, they have stronger governors. They also have strong and longer
term economic performance. So we have a lot of good arguments also from the economic side to make sure that companies and businesses and the public sector are investing in gender equality.
Well, how does the cost of childcare, for example, factor into that, because you know, for better or worse, women often fall into the role of being the default caretaker for children. And you know, it's one thing for businesses to invest, but if it doesn't make economic sense for you know, one of the partners to not stay home given the cost of childcare, I wonder you know how that sort of devils those efforts.
That's a really important point. I'm so happy that you raise that. We actually have a staggering number of over seven hundred million women who are working age who are out of the labor market because of the uneven care responsibilities, and the care responsibilities of course, be childcare bid elderly care is extremely important. The economy would come to and
the society would come to halt without it. But because women are carrying this proportionate portion of the care responsibility, they often are not able to finish their studies and progress in the same way assume leadership positions as fast
as we would like to see. So in some sense, it's actually really a very huge untapped potential that we have, and I think there would be a huge benefit globally and at the national level in all the different countries if we would invest in creating jobs in the care sector so that women are also able to get into the economic empowerment and get their own jobs. Everybody would benefit from that.
Let's talk about some of the progress that you mentioned, because also in the Secretary General's report, the stat also stuck out eighty seven percent of countries have an acted domestic violence legislation, and more than forty countries have actually strengthened constitutional protection for women and girls over the past decade. Now, I know the report also goes on to say that laws alone are not enough, but in terms of a starting point, I mean, how important are some of these figures.
It's very important because the starting board, we need to have the legal changes, legiative changes, we need to have the policy changes, but of course then we also need to have the accountability to make sure that they are implemented. And we've been clearly able to see that countries which have introduced legislation, for example, against domestic violence, we have seen reduced levels of domestic violence. So it is very important to see that these policy measures and legal measures
really have a real concrete impact in women's lives. And if I may just share with you, I think it's a shocking fact that we also have every ten minutes somewhere in the world, a woman or a young girl is killed, either by their family member or by their current or former partner. These are shocking figures. These are on top of all the women and girls who are killed as part of conflicts, so it's really an area
where we need to also. Similarly, as looking at the women's economic empowerment, we really need to have a very strong focus ensuring that there is justice for women, that women are protected and they are given an opportunity, they have an opportunity to live in a safe environment.