Arancha González Laya (San Sebastián, 55 years old), former Minister of Foreign Affairs and dean of the Paris School of International Affairs, remains a convinced supporter of what she once called women’s diplomacy. So much so that, by video call, she spoke to EL PERIÓDICO in a conversation in which she made it clear that, in her opinion, we are in a phase in which it is time to elect a woman at the head of the UN to provide the perspective of the other half of humanity, still highly underrepresented in the highest international positions. Not to meet a symbolic quota, but so that the institution recovers part of its legitimacy and responds more efficiently to the global challenges it faces.
What difference would it make to have a female UN Secretary General?
I would bring a new perspective, a different leadership. For me, the value of this discussion is the value of diversity. I think that, at a time when the United Nations is going through a period of dislocation, new leadership is required, something we have not seen before, the leadership of a woman. Until now, we have seen European, African, Latin American, Asian general secretaries… what we have never seen in this leadership is a woman.
However, already on the occasion of the previous election, it was thought that there was a possibility of a female general secretary and everything came to nothing.
Well, I think we should not give up the effort, but the message must be sophisticated, [al explicar que] We must work to find a UN leader capable of guiding the institution in the midst of a huge storm. We need this rare pearlthis different personality, this new leadership. That should be our argument.
Don’t you think that, for the position of head of the UN, a gender rotation rule should be established, in the style of the one already used for the assignment of positions according to geographical areas?
There is no rule in the United Nations [escrita] that talks about “geographical rotation”; It is an informal practice, consolidated by custom, in these 80 years. But it is true that this practice speaks of a rotation to provide the institution with the legitimacy that diversity brings. […] We are accused of ‘ideologizing’ the position of general secretary, but it is not about that, it is about making it representative of the world. An institution is also legitimate when it is representative of the entire community and here is a community that has not yet had a visible face as the head of the United Nations. Therefore, I believe that it is precisely the time to do it without the need to formalize it in writing. That’s what this idea of new leadership is about.
In one of the last UN General Assemblies, [el ahora saliente secretario general, Antonio] Guterres said less than 10% of those addressing that forum were women. Are we in a moment of stagnation or even regression?
Yes, we live in a time when there is a glass ceiling and sometimes that ceiling seems like cement or concrete. And yes there is; Because otherwise we would not see such a terrible absence of women in positions of power at the regional, national and international level. […] When one looks at the economy, one sees how the company that has more women on its boards of directors is more likely to obtain better financial results; That is, there is a correlation between diversity, economic strength and growth; It has been studied, but we have not yet transposed it into our political systems and I think it is important to transpose it into our political systems. Yes there is a glass ceiling, yes there are times that glass ceiling that seems like concrete, and yes we have to continue with our demands, but I insist, as an achievement of society, not just of women.
Indeed the feeling is that, still in 2025, they are the ones who decide when and how wars begin and end. In your opinion, what consequences does this absence of women have for peace?
To me, what seems most crude in this 21st century is the cruelty in conflicts with women and girls, how women and girls are an object of predilection in the cruelest of wars, how men are waging war on other men using women as spoils of war, we are seeing it in Sudan […] and there is also an ideological or political dimension that diminishes women, that prevents girls from going to school and that treats them as second-class citizens.
We have not moved forward…
Let’s say that, in conflicts, I see a strong regression […]. We haven’t made much progress. It is very worrying and dangerous. This also has to be the object of a feminist foreign policy.
He spoke of the less influence of women in international relations also because of their lower representation in politics. In Europe we have seen many women leaders lead, but many of them from the right: Thatcher, Merkel and now Meloni, von der Leyen. Are there more resistances on the left?
Well, we have also seen left-wing women leading countries, in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, progressive women who have sought to lead their countries with principles and values. I am not saying that the principles and values of feminism are not solely and exclusively the heritage of social democracy, although social democracy places special emphasis on these issues. […] And, in addition, we also see men, political leaders enormously committed to equality.
Nor in Spain has a woman reached the top.
I return to the idea of the glass ceiling, which is more of a concrete ceiling. Politics is a particularly inhospitable profession for women.
As Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, did you face any specific difficulties for being a woman at negotiation tables or meetings?
Yes, of course there is a constant microaggression due to being a woman. Nobody talks about the minister having a bad hairstyle or wearing a jacket like this or that. […] When I went to present feminist foreign policy to the Foreign Commission of the Spanish Congress, of course there was some funny person who said that meant that I was going to paint the ministry pink. The reality is that there were very important issues that I did believe needed to be worked on, such as, for example, the situation of women in international conflicts, [la necesidad de] equality for girls in access to education or water, or the training of our armies and armed forces so that, when they are deployed on peace missions, they would be sensitive to these issues.
How can this absence of women in relevant positions in international relations be reversed?
I think we need alliances of men and women who understand that democracy also depends on this. To imagine a different future, also for young people, we need different faces in decision-making spaces.
Are you optimistic or pessimistic?
I am neither an optimist nor a pessimist; I am an activist. Of course, today there is a very strong movement that tries to silence these demands by describing them as wokismoideology or extremism. But let’s not be fooled. Little by little, where we have a plot of space, let’s continue to insist.
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