Rabat – On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared statistics on female representation in diplomacy, noting that females constitute 43% of the Ministry’s staff.
“Celebrated under the theme “Gender equality today for a sustainable future,” Women’s Day is an opportunity to highlight the active presence of women in Moroccan diplomacy and to highlight their central role in defending the interests of the homeland,” tweeted the Ministry. Notably, UN Women chose the theme to highlight the necessity of gender equality for future development.
The Ministry revealed that 43% of its staff population is female, marking a 4% growth compared to 2017. The distribution of female staff is slightly higher at the Ministry’s headquarters in Rabat (47%) than amongst Moroccan delegations abroad (41%).
Impressively, the number of female directors within the Moroccan ministry has more than doubled in the past 5 years, rising from 13% in 2017 to 28% in 2022.
Although the majority of public, high-profile roles continue to be held by males, 21% of ambassadors, general consuls, secondary ambassadors, and chiefs of mission are females in 2022, an encouraging growth from 13.5% in 2017.
Female participation rates are also likely to grow further in the future, with women accounting for 51.3% of new recruits in the three most recent rounds of recruitment.
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Despite promising trends and the continued growth of female representation in many sectors over recent years, males continue to dominate leadership positions.
However, the situation is not limited to Morocco. The country has reiterated on several occasions its commitment to achieving gender equality and countering violence against women.
“No country in the world has achieved gender equality. Significant progress has been made, but much remains to be done,” tweeted the United Nations on March 7.
The ongoing gender inequality “is inherently about power, because our world and our culture are male-dominated,” commented UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “It is time to reverse the balance of power.”
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