“It will take a political, economic or religious crisis for women’s rights to be called into question again.” The new director of UN Women for the Americas and the Caribbean, Bibiana Aído (Alcalá de los Gazules, Spain, 48 years old), cites the phrase of the French feminist Simone de Beauvoir to evaluate the new attack by some countries in the region against women’s ministries. In recent years, Argentina, Panama and Ecuador have eliminated these departments under the guise of cutting public spending, despite the enormous challenges facing half of the continent’s population. Gender-based violence continues to be an emergency: in 2023, 3,897 women were victims of femicide in Latin America and the Caribbean, at least 11 died every day.
In the most unequal region of the world, poverty often has a female face. And, on the contrary, they are underrepresented in politics: only 35.8% of parliaments are occupied by them. “There are challenges in various areas because there are still many gaps,” he acknowledges in an interview with América Futura. One of these is political violence, one of the topics that interests Aído most. More than 17 years ago, when she was appointed the first minister of Equality in the history of Spain, at just 31 years old, she understood that she would become “a target of the patriarchy simply by existing”. The difference, he says, is that, at the time, he didn’t even know how to identify that type of violence. “You normalized it somehow. It was like the cost of being in politics. You had to endure, receive insults every day. Today, fortunately, I think we have been able to discuss, reflect on this much more, and Latin America is becoming a reference and a beacon, with laws that specifically address political violence and with political participation strategies that include the elements for this prevention.”
Nearly two decades later, after holding various positions at UN Women in America – from New York to Ecuador and Colombia, countries for which she was a representative – she became the organization’s regional director in September.
Ask. What will be your main challenges from this new position as Director of UN Women in this very difficult time?
Answer. I believe we find ourselves in a tremendously complex moment, with multiple intersecting crises – economic, political, environmental, social with high levels of polarization, insecurity – and with a game, with a threat to the rights agenda in general and the women’s rights agenda in particular. Faced with a panorama like this, I think we have many reasons for hope. It is also the region that is moving the agenda in the most sophisticated way, where there are debates, for example, on political violence, on the link between climate change, care and gender. It is the region capable of approving a commitment like that of Tlatelolco, signed at the Regional Women’s Conference, which recognizes the right to care, to receive care and to self-care. It seems to me that it is something very different, that it is bringing the region to the foreground, it is a reference, a beacon for other regions of the world. I think it is a region with a very solid regulatory framework, advanced in many issues and with a very vibrant feminist movement and very interesting female leadership, not only at the national level, but also at the territorial level, which I think gives us a lot of reasons to hope and to believe that it is possible not only to stop the regression, but to continue to push the agenda forward.
I think the priority is to continue to advance an agenda that takes into account territorial and local aspects. Changes also come from below and we cannot lose sight of this. Focus very much on the intersectional. In women who find themselves in a situation or circumstance of greater vulnerability: Afro, indigenous, disabled women, because we are not all the same. Inequality has many layers, and the situation of highly educated white women who want to break glass ceilings is not the same situation as the women who find themselves on those sticky floors. Taking intersectionalities into consideration will be very important. And continue to move forward in mobilizing funding and resources at a time when we know that multilateralism is experiencing enormous challenges. At this time when the winds are not as favorable as we would like for the agenda we defend, it is time to continue to build alliances among the convinced, but also try to add the unconvinced, work more with men, because this is not an agenda of women against men, but rather it must be of women and men against an obsolete, decadent, inefficient system that harms us all, which is patriarchy. And continue to work in intergenerational, public-private networks, in alliances between international cooperation and the women’s movement. The networks support. In difficult times, they are the ones who save you.
Q. Why is it important for men to be actively involved so as not to lose the entire decades-long fight for equality?
R. The fact is that feminism benefits society as a whole. This is not an issue of women against men, I believe it should be an issue of women and men against an inefficient system that does tremendous harm to us all. And I think that patriarchy has been clever in trying to generate division or deepen gaps or tell kids, especially younger ones, through social networks, that feminism harms them when, on the contrary, feminism also benefits men and patriarchy is their real enemy.
There was a very interesting moment in terms of a diverse and cross-cutting feminist movement in the streets, with women of different generations, with men coming together and I think this generated fears and they were able to generate strategies to try to stop the clear progress that was coming. However, there is no need to give up. I think that feminism, as a historical movement, what it has achieved in all this time is unthinkable. We have to see it in perspective, because sometimes we say, “Well, we’re in a time of regression.” Yes, but what progress has actually been achieved in recent decades? It’s amazing how women have increased their education. Today, more and more women are leaving universities, they have entered the job market en masse, they are occupying leadership positions…
Q. Within the region, if we talk about setbacks, are there any countries that particularly worry you?
R. I wouldn’t mention any specific country, but It is more important than ever to have data, evidence and work on concrete statistics that allow us to show how gender equality is positive for countries: from the economic point of view, of democratic construction, of more efficient and fairer societies. Let’s not tell stories, what they would say in some places, that this agenda should not be so politicized in the sense that it is positive from every perspective. I’m more afraid that authoritarianism, conservatism, will use it as a throwing weapon when gender equality is good for societies and good for all cities and countries, and I believe we have the evidence, the data to continue to do pedagogy with this.
Q. The UN is dedicating its week of action this 25-N to digital violence. What does it consist of?
R. Digital violence is real. It’s not something that only happens on social networks. Between 90% and 95% of the total deepfake online is aimed at women. According to recent surveys and studies by UNESCO, 70% of women say they suffer some form of violence, including sexual violence on social networks. It is time to raise awareness among the population and to sensitize the population to nonviolence in networks, to the impacts this has on the lives, especially of adolescents and young women, associated with a very high level, for example, of bullyinglevels of suicide. And the idea for this campaign and this strategy Joint and the 16 days of activism must be able to give visibility to this reality of digital violence and invite states to take measures, to adopt public policies that allow it to be prevented and to also work with the platforms.
Unfortunately I think we are far behind, even by international standards, compared to what should be done in this sector, which is moving at a much faster speed. And let’s not enter the world of artificial intelligence, of algorithms, which continue to be made of a very male hegemony. We also need to change this and try to have more women in decision-making processes in the world of artificial intelligence, women represent just 30% of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines. It also seems important to us to support greater participation of women in creating solutions.
Q. Some Latin American women, the Mirabal sisters, tortured by the Dominican dictator Trujillo, inspired the World Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Who inspires you within the Latin American feminist movement?
R. I learn from everyone every day. It is an inspiring, diverse, but not dispersed feminist movement. When they know they have a goal, they are able to band together until they achieve it. A transformative feminist movement that, despite the pressures, does not remain silent and that is important because it remains in motion pursuing transformations; which has managed to make issues such as gender violence visible with campaigns such as Ni Una Menos or green scarves, for example, with the issue of the right to abortion in the case of Argentina. It is a movement that inspires and a movement that takes action, which has its objectives clear and plans a strategy to achieve those objectives. In this sense I learn from them every day in terms of their ability to generate strategy and that here no one gives up, that it is always possible to continue walking together.
