PRESS CONFERENCE -- 'TAKE OUR DAUGHTERS TO WORK DAY'

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE -- 'TAKE OUR DAUGHTERS TO WORK DAY'

The United Nations has a very powerful and important role to play in helping to create better working conditions for women and encouraging governments to sign on to international conventions and protocols relating to them, the Permanent Representative of Australia, Penny Wensley, said at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

She noted efforts being made to focus on gender issues and women's issues, such as the work of the Division for the Advancement of Women in the United Nations. Support from the top was very important. "But still, this is a male organization. It is a male dominated organization", she said, adding that it was "changing, but it is changing too slowly."

The press conference was to discuss "Take Our Daughters to Work Day", which was observed at Headquarters today. Some of the participants spoke of their experiences and encouraged the girls to strive to achieve their goals. Those at the briefing included Gloria Steinem, the feminist writer and co-founder of Ms. Magazine, Roberta Guaspari, the violin teacher whose life story was the subject of the film "Music of the Heart", United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson Vendela Thommessen, who is also a model and actress, and Alex Berke, a 15-year-old reporter for Children's Express newspaper. A group of the girls who took part in a workshop in the morning were also present. Zohreh Tabatabai, Focal Point for Women in the United Nations, introduced the participants.

Asked why she thought there were fewer women permanent representatives, Ms. Wensley said not enough governments were giving opportunities to women to reach positions where they could demonstrate their capacities. Pressure had to be brought to bear on governments to encourage them to give women opportunities. Some foreign services had no women at all, while others had rules that forced women to resign on marriage. Each individual Member State had a problem.

Had she suffered discrimination as a woman? a correspondent asked. Ms. Wensley said she had encountered discrimination in many of the posts she had served in -- France, Mexico, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Geneva and now New York. In at least three of those places, she said, she was barred from membership of major clubs that were appropriate for her official entertainment of fellow diplomats and important decision-makers in the community. "So I decreed that none of my staff, male or female, either receive or offer hospitality in those places that discriminate against women. I believe that it was inconsistent with the norms and values that I represented as an Australian."

Responding to further questions, she said that among women permanent representatives there was an informal network. There were also decision-makers among women in the United Nations Secretariat who felt at times that there was discrimination. There tended to be a concentration of women in certain areas, and in certain parts of the system dealing with social or women's issues, she said. People were surprised that she was chairing the Fifth Committee, she added.

Asked whether she had seen a change in the participants who attended such gatherings over the years, and whether their perceptions were different, Ms. Steinem said she had seen a different kind of dynamics happening. Girls were taking much more initiative in determining what their interests were and what they wanted to achieve.

Ms. Guaspari spoke of the challenges she faced when her marriage ended and she started teaching violin to children in New York. Meryl Streep and Gloria Estefan had starred in the movie "Music of the Heart", which was based on her life story.

"Take Our Daughters to Work Day" was launched in 1993 by the Ms. Foundation for Women, and is designed to develop in young girls a sense of their own potential by having them work alongside adult mentors and see the accomplishments of women in the world.

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