The Election at the United Nations: #SheforSG

A year and a half ago, a group of women from academia and civil society resolved that the next Secretary-General would be a women.  What began as a vague and distant dream soon materialized into a full fledged social media campaign.  I sat down with Dr. Jean Krasno to talk about how her Campaign to elect a Female Secretary-General has put real pressure on member states and civil society alike.

“The UN members who want a woman need us.  Because they need civil society to be pushing.  And they need to be able to say, ‘Well, we’re doing this because civil society wants it.  And if we don’t elect a woman, there’s going to be a terrible reaction," she said.

Dr. Krasno and her team are confident there’s a woman fit for the job.  That’s why they’ve sought out the best female diplomats from all over the globe.

“We wanted to show people that there can no longer be the argument that there aren’t enough qualified women to choose from,” Krasno said.

And they did that with a list.  The campaign asked for recommendations of qualified women, and vetted them.  In some cases, this even entailed going to that country’s mission to get more information.

A couple months ago, Dr. Krasno heard there was a talented woman from Moldova.  Colleagues helped her gather biographical information.  And her trip to the Moldovan mission did more than verify a resume.

“When the nominations started, I happened to see their deputy ambassador to the UN.  And I mentioned to her, ‘When are you going to nominate Natalia Gherman?’  And she said, ‘Oh!’ And I said, ‘You know, it’s a good time.’  So the next day, they nominated her.”

6 of the 12 candidates for Secretary-General are women.  And all of them are on Dr. Krasno’s list.