UN chief: Legal equality for women could take 300 years as backlash rises against women’s rights

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The UN chief says legal equality for women could take centuries as the fight for gender equality has become an uphill struggle against rank discrimination and gross human human rights abuses. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a warning on International Women’s Day that “a global backlash against women’s rights is threatening,  and in some cases reversing, progress in developing and developed countries alike.” He told Friday’s packed U.N. commemoration that “a global backlash against women’s rights is threatening, and in some cases reversing, progress.” He says that at the current rate of change, legal equality for women could take take 300 years to achieve and so could ending child marriage.