Abstract
At an inflection point in the history of women’s leadership, this article looks at how at the national level, a shift from a primarily equal opportunity model to an equal empowerment model can transform the women’s leadership paradigm. This article posits that the new General Recommendation (GR) 40 of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) nudges us closer to that transformative model of full gender parity in leadership and decision-making in public life as the next generation model of gender equality. Further, this article analyzes how a representative critical mass of women in the political and public leadership spheres can lead to critical acts, furthering greater representation for women in the legislative arena. In other words, when the number of women in a given field reaches a critical mass, it helps to shrink tokenism and marginalization and elevates the role model effect of women’s leadership. In the final analysis, the paper argues that, 30 years after the Beijing Platform of Action established the 30 percent critical mass theory of women’s leadership, full gender equality calls for parity in leadership. The radical scope of GR 40 is such that it envisions moving past “targets and calls for 30% or one third representation of women in decision-making” because they are “incompatible with the Convention’s core aim of elimination of discrimination against women, as these convey a message that inequality between women and men is justifiable.” We are also at the cusp of the ten-year anniversary of the McKinsey Global Report on the “Power of Parity,” which argues that in a “full potential scenario” women’s gender equal participation in the economy could increase annual global GDP by an extra $28 trillion by 2025 – an increase equivalent to the combined economies of China and the US. The way ahead in a time of a global economic crisis could not be clearer.
Repository Citation
Rangita de Silva de Alwis,
From Critical Mass to Critical Parity in Women's Leadership,
10
U. Pa. J. L. & Pub. Affairs
(2024).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/jlpa/vol10/iss1/3