It has taken the 192 member states of the United Nations a little while (what, four years?) to come to a decision on how to best promote gender equality within the international institution. The result, agreed upon by General Assembly in a resolution beginning of July, is a newly formed agency within the UN, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women.
Now, ordinarily, one would refer to this UN unit henceforth under its acronym. Unfortunately, “UNEGEEW” doesn’t exactly role from the tongue. Nor does it ring with positive connotations — in US English, “eew” is an utterance of distaste and disgust. So, with tongue-in-cheek and decidedly unimaginative, the entity will be known in the future as “UN Women” or “ONU Femmes” in French. One can only hope that this nomen turns out to be a good omen, even as it downplays the gender dimension of its work… At least, the new structure provides some clarity and with the expected appointment of the head of the new UN Women agency at the rank of an Under-Secretary-General, directly reporting to the Secretary General and included in all senior-level management circles some much needed authority boost for gender equality issues at the United Nations. (more…)
