IGP’s Susana Malcorra Hosts Roundtable on Global Gender Equality

IGP Carnegie Distinguished Fellow Susana Malcorra convened a closed-door roundtable on September 19 to discuss gender equality in global governance and how greater representation of women in leadership roles helps improve the lives of women around the world. Having held various leadership positions in traditionally male-dominated fields — as Argentina’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship, Chef de Cabinet to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and CEO of Telecom Argentina — the fight for equal gender representation is personal for Malcorra.

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Flavia Bustreo, vice chair of Fondation Botnar and co-chair of The Lancet Commission on Gender-Based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People, joined Thursday’s roundtable, which was moderated by Yasmine Ergas, director of the Gender and Public Policy specialization and senior lecturer of International and Public Affairs at SIPA. The roundtable was attended by both IGP Student Scholars and SIPA students specializing in Gender and Public Policy.

The discussants addressed a variety of topics, from increasing women’s representation in UN and national positions of power, to improving global health outcomes for women, to enhancing women’s economic empowerment.

Malcorra discussed her efforts to boost equal gender representation in leadership positions by co-founding GWL Voices, an organization of women leaders committed to building a gender-equal international system, in 2019. She was inspired to co-found the organization after women leaders came closer than ever before to breaking the glass ceiling in the United States and the UN in 2016. Eight years later, this opportunity has arisen again in the US presidential election and will again in the 2026 UN Secretary-General selection process, which is the focus of GWL Voices’ Madam Secretary-General Initiative.

Women’s representation in leadership is crucial, according to Bustreo, who highlighted her previous experience as Assistant Director-General for Family, Women's and Children's Health at the World Health Organization (WHO). There, she created the organization’s first-ever program for supporting girls and women sexually assaulted by a family member. Bustreo said this issue would not have been prioritized were it not for the stewardship of then-WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, only the second woman to serve in the position since the organization's founding in 1948.

Many other women’s health issues do not get the attention they deserve, the panelists noted. The devastating rise of maternal mortality in childbirth in countries around the world, including the US, can be attributed to societal-wide apathy concerning the value of women’s lives, Bustreo said. She stated that maternal mortality is not primarily a medical issue but mostly a public policy challenge requiring greater healthcare accessibility and affordability, as well as protecting reproductive rights.

Malcorra explained that campaigns for equal representation of women at the UN and in the governments of UN member states are crucial for fast-tracking equality from a legal, economic, and public health perspective. When a student asked whether quotas effectively bring about policy changes that improve women’s lives, Malcorra stated that she believes in quotas but cautioned it is essential for women leaders to be feminists if they are going to positively impact the lives of girls and women.

Bustreo noted that she had to repeatedly serve as her own advocate in a professional system that was not built to appreciate and advance female employees. It is all about knowing your inner value and fighting for yourself, she told the group.

The roundtable served as a vital reminder that while progress toward equal gender representation has been made, according to Malcorra, reform of national and international institutions is necessary to effectively meet the needs of women and girls worldwide.