Pressure Builds for First Woman UN Secretary-General as Race Narrows

As the United Nations prepares to select its next secretary-general, momentum is growing for the first woman to lead the organization in its more than 80-year history. The push comes as UN Women warns that gender equality remains far off track, with a recent report suggesting it could take 171 years to achieve at current rates.

Seven candidates are vying to succeed António Guterres, whose second term ends on December 31. Four are women and three are men, following the withdrawal of former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet. In informal Security Council polls, two women—Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica, the UN trade chief, and Guyana's UN ambassador, Caroline Rodrigues Birkett—have led, though each faced at least five "discourage" votes from the 15-member body. A third straw poll is set for Tuesday, and diplomats say the results could draw new contenders.

By tradition, the position rotates by region, and this time it is Latin America's turn, although two African candidates are also in the race. The five veto-wielding Security Council members—the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France—have largely stayed silent on their preferences, though Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday that Grynspan and Rodrigues-Birkett "meet the criteria." The General Assembly holds the final vote, but the decision effectively rests with the Security Council.

During the recent high-level General Assembly meeting, several leaders spoke out in favor of a woman leading the UN. East Timor's President José Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said that after more than 80 years, "we ought to have enough wisdom and elect a woman with unquestionable integrity." Botswana's President Duma Boko described the absence of a female secretary-general as "an unfinished chapter" in the UN's history.

Sarah Hendriks, a senior official at UN Women, welcomed the broad support for a woman candidate, calling it "energizing" and noting it cut across regions and political divides. "This is not just a question simply of symbolism," she said. "It's a question of whether the UN actually reflects the equality it asks the world to uphold." She added that the UN cannot ask governments and companies to dismantle barriers to women's leadership while maintaining its own.

Hendriks also expressed concern that gender equality was less prominent in this year's General Assembly speeches, overshadowed by conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine, and elsewhere, as well as debates on UN reform, climate change, and artificial intelligence. She warned that women hold only 22% of AI professional positions and 14% of leadership roles globally, and that ignoring the gender dimension of technological change risks embedding inequality.

In his farewell address, Guterres called gender inequality the most universal form of inequality, noting that women's rights are being rolled back and their freedoms treated as bargaining chips. He highlighted that over his decade in office, the UN achieved gender parity for the first time in its senior leadership and professional staff. "Equality is not a dream. It is a decision," he said. "If the United Nations can change, so can governments."