Grybauskaitė, who led a high-level discussion on economic growth through women’s empowerment at the UN General Assembly in New York, urged UN member states to wipe away laws that discriminate against women.
“Dalia Grybauskaitė pointed out that upgrading education and countering stereotypes would make things move forward faster. She underlined that world leaders had the responsibility to eliminate laws that discriminate women in their respective countries and urged the United Nations to help different regions to fight discrimination and overcome fixed gender stereotypes,” the president’s press service said in a press release.
The pay gap between men and women in Lithuania is 14.4 percent, below the EU average. Globally, however, women are paid 23 percent less than men on average for doing the same work and do twice as much unpaid work as men, the press service said.
“Fixing gender inequality would lead to 28 trillion dollars in global growth over the next seven years. But at the current speed, it will take around 200 years to reach economic gender parity,” it said.
Among those taking part in the event were UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Croatian, Estonian and Maltese presidents and the prime ministers of Norway and Bangladesh, as well as World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.