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On the average, 15 out of 143 - or 10,4 % - of delegations were headed by women.

Composition of delegations, incl. their heads

MEMBER STATES

UN MEMBER STATES / ENTITIES / NON-MEMBER-STATES / INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AND AGENCIES REPRESENTED BY OBSERVERS

41,9 % of all delegations are made up of men only.

Women on Delegations at CSD-6, 1998

As we have done for UNGASS last year and the CSD Intersessional meeting this year, we looked again at the Provisional List of delegations to the CSD Sixth Session, published April 29.

MEMBER STATES

Heads of Delegations: 9 women, 41 men, i.e. 18 % of the 50 members states which were listing their representatives in the provisional list had women as heads of delegations.

Percentages of women among alternates and advisors (numbers in brackets):

UN MEMBER STATES / ENTITIES / NON-MEMBER-STATES / INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AND AGENCIES REPRESENTED BY OBSERVERS

Percentages of women on delegations (absolute numbers in brackets):

AVERAGE PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN ON DELEGATIONS: 21,01 %
(incl. member and non-member states, heads / representatives, alternates, and advisors)

35,3 % of all delegations are made up of men only.

From a social psychological point of view, this could be bad but promising: around 15 - 25 % is assumed to be the "critical mass" regarding the perception of minorities. Percentages above this level are likely to cause people to perceive the minority members as individual persons, not (only) as members of their group. This can cause to be listened to with less stereotypical expectations. However, the large amount of delegations without a single woman member (N = 41) contradicts this conclusion; a rough third of countries with purely male delegations adds to the perception of women as "other".

We will keep looking at the numbers of women and men on delegations and maybe, as the centuries go by, we will be able to track down some significant changes....Wasn't there a song by Laurie Anderson, called "Beautiful Red Dress"...

"...I just want to say something.
You know, for every dollar a man makes
a woman makes 63 cents.
Fifty years ago, that was 62 cents.
So, with that kind of luck, it'll be the year 3888
before we make a buck.
But hey, girls?
We can take it..."

(Minu Hemmati, UNED-UK; circulated via CSDGen, 20 May 1998)

Women on Delegations at the UN General Assembly Special Session / Earth Summit II / Rio+5 / UNGASS, in 1997

Was Earth Summit II a male-dominated meeting like so many others before? Or did female voices penetrate the atmosphere of the meeting?
This answer to this is again dismal news for women. In the general assembly, hardly any woman spoke on behalf of their countries. To find significant numbers of women at all, we had to look at the delegations.
Counting the men and women on delegations showed disappointing results: Only 2 out of the 94 listed member states (Provisional List of Delegates) have more than 50 % women on their delegations. Worse, 29 delegations did not have one single female member. In addition, in most delegations, women were by and large present either as alternate members or advisors. Among the 94 delegations reviewed here, we found only one with a female head: the Swiss. Among the government speakers to the GA, only 2 were women.
Are women still not "suitable" representatives of their countries at the international level? How will women become equal and equitable partners in leadership and decision-making when they are not even granted a voice? How long will countries allow themselves to operate without the perspective, expertise and effective contributions from half of their populations? ... We could as many such questions. But here are the facts and figures which speak for themselves: