Pressure Builds for First Woman to Lead the United Nations as Selection Nears

Jan. 1, 2027, when António Guterres' second term expires. Calls are increasing for the organization to pick its first female secretary-general in its more than 80-year history, a push that gained visibility during the U.N. General Assembly week.

Who's running and where the vote stands

Seven candidates remain: four women and three men. Former Chilean president Michele Bachelet exited the race. In a recent 15-member Security Council straw poll, two women — U.N. trade chief Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica and Guyana's U.N. ambassador Caroline Rodrigues Birkett — led with the most "encourage" votes, while Argentina's Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was close behind.

Regional rotation and the veto reality

UN Women has framed the moment as both symbolic and practical. Its recent "gender snapshot" projects that at current rates it would take 171 years to achieve gender equality, a target the U.N. originally aimed for in 2015 and later reset to 2030. The snapshot includes stark findings: nearly one in three women globally has experienced sexual violence, nearly one in five girls is married before 18, and parity in parliaments won't be reached until 2089 at present trends.

Sarah Hendriks, a senior UN Women official, told the Associated Press that the General Assembly week exposed a male-dominated global leadership landscape in both representation and content. She argued that choosing a woman would be more than symbolic: it would align the U.N.'s leadership with the equality it advocates and reduce internal barriers that mirror those governments and companies are asked to dismantle.

Some national leaders voiced direct support for a woman secretary-general. East Timor's President José Ramos-Horta said after eight decades the U.N. should elect a woman of unquestionable integrity. Botswana's President Duma Boko called the absence of a female secretary-general "an unfinished chapter" in the organization's history.

Informal straw polls in the Security Council will continue to shape which candidates advance to formal recommendation. Because the five permanent members control vetoes, their private preferences will determine the final name sent to the General Assembly for approval. Delegations and candidates will use diplomacy, regional backing and public messaging during the coming weeks to try to build the necessary support.

This selection cycle combines a narrow candidate field, organized calls for gender change at the U.N., and the structural realities of regional rotation and Security Council veto power. The convergence of those factors will determine whether the United Nations names its first female secretary-general when the next term begins in 2027.