World 'more gender equal than ever', but progress is reversible, warns UN Women regional chief

The world is more gender-equal today than at any point in history, but progress is not guaranteed and could even be reversed without sustained action, Belén Sanz, regional director of UN Women Europe and Central Asia, told Euronews in an interview. 

“Women have made a real shift in the world, but we are seeing that there is an alarming rollback, that discrimination is deepening, that legal protections are weakening, and that the funding and financing for gender equality is also shrinking,” Sanz said. 

According to a new UN Women report, Women's Rights in Review: 30 Years After Beijing, parity has been achieved in girls' education, maternal mortality has dropped by a third, and women's representation in parliaments has more than doubled in the past three decades. 

However, Sanz warned that today’s hard-won progress “can be shifted in a moment,” emphasizing the need for the European Union to remain “extremely vigilant” against potential setbacks, as Europe is not immune to the global backlash against gender equality. 

The report highlights that in 2024, one in four countries in the world reported a backlash on women's rights. For instance, Georgia abolished its gender quota for women in parliament, raising concerns about regression, Sanz noted. 

“We must anchor the policies the European Union has implemented and ensure strong monitoring and adequate resources, because without them, there is always a risk of rollback,” she added. 

At the EU level, around 50 million women still experience high levels of sexual and physical violence at home, at work, and in public. Between 2014 and 2024, the percentage of women aged 18-74 who have faced gender-based violence has barely changed (31.4% vs. 30.7%). 

Women across the EU also continue to face a stark gap in labour market participation, with only 44% of women employed compared to 69% of men. 

“The gender gap in employment remains a major issue in the region, along with the fact that care responsibilities and unpaid work still fall disproportionately on women,” Sanz said. 

Globally, women are occupied 2.5 times more on unpaid care work than men. In Europe and Central Asia, that gap is even wider, with women occupied 3.4 times more on unpaid care and domestic work than men. 

“Progress is possible, but it has been too slow, too uneven, and too fragile. The hard truth is that the world is failing women and girls,” Sanz argued. 

According to UN Women estimates, a girl born today would have to wait until age 40 to see women hold as many seats in parliament as men globally, 68 years for child marriage to be eradicated, and 137 years for extreme poverty to be eliminated. 

Recent global crises—including Covid-19, the climate emergency, and soaring food and fuel prices—have only intensified the urgency to act, Sanz warned, adding that 2025 will be “a turning point” for women’s rights. 

“We are also seeing that certain narratives misrepresenting gender equality are directly targeting the progress we have made,” Sanz said when asked about the impact of the rise of the far-right and anti-feminist movements on gender equality in public and political discourse. 

“We cannot afford another setback. Women and girls cannot wait—we must find a solution together,” she concluded. 

Investing in gender equality will have ‘high returns’

The recent suspension of US funding and foreign aid is affecting the work of the United Nations and UN Women, said its regional director for Europe and Central Asia.  

UN Women has been supported by US foreign assistance in Ukraine, Serbia, Tajikistan and Georgia, among others.  

"In Ukraine, for example, the suspension will reduce resources for women's peacebuilding efforts and safer spaces for survivors of war and violence," Sanz pointed out.  

In figures, the US aid cut will affect at least 4,500 women from Ukraine and will indirectly affect nearly 12,000 individuals across the country, led by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to UN Women.  

Over the past two or three years, more than half of UN Women's top 20 donors have shifted their development policies, weakening financial support for the UN agency. 

"Investing in initiatives that enable women and girls to grow, to develop in their communities and in their societies is a very good investment. It's not an expense, it's an investment with high returns for them and for their societies," Sanz said, calling on member states to continue to support the agency's work.