One of the most important jobs for the United Nations in the 21st Century is its peacekeeping missions. Because the U.N. has an aggressive agenda for gender equity, you might instinctively think it would ensure that women play a prominent role in the peacekeeping arena.
However, you would be wrong, according to Rachael Mayanja, an assistant U.N. secretary-general and special advisor on gender issues and advancement of women. None of the U.N.'s 18 peacekeeping missions around the globe, she noted, is currently directed by a female.
Mayanja -- who spoke at the 2007 annual conference of the Association for Human Resources Management in International Organizations (AHRMIO), held at Wharton this month -- said that she was rebuffed when she lobbied key decision-makers at the U.N. for the appointment of a woman. They told her that "the heads of peacekeeping missions must have [experience] managing large numbers of people -- and you should not try to reduce the standards."
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