Intergenerational Engagement Takes Center Stage at CSW70 to Advance Young Women’s Leadership
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More than 500 policymakers, youth leaders, parliamentarians, women’s rights activists, and global partners gathered for the CSW70 side event “Intergenerational engagement for advancing young women’s leadership” under the EU-funded WYDE | Women’s Leadership initiative. Organized by UN Women, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), International IDEA, and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), and co-sponsored by the European Union Delegation, Portugal, and Sweden, the event highlighted how intergenerational alliances are essential to advancing young women’s leadership in public life.
Moderated by Abosede George-Ogan, founder and Executive Director of the Women in Leadership Advancement Network in Nigeria, the session was opened by Sarah Hendriks, UN Women Director for the Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division, who recalled that “when young women lead, they challenge long‑standing and deeply embedded social norms.” Ambassador Rui Vinhas, Portugal’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, emphasized that advancing young women’s leadership “is also about deconstructing stereotypes and gender roles, and about creating mentorship and networking opportunities.” Rounding out the opening, the Head of the Task Force for Equality from the European External Action Service, Julia Koch de Biolley, added that “by building alliances across generations, we can share knowledge, experience, and support — helping each other resist the forces trying to silence us.”
This timely discussion took place against a challenging global backdrop for democracy. Structural, socioeconomic, and cultural barriers continue to impede women’s participation in decision‑making, and young women remain the least represented of all. As of January 2026, only 28 countries are led by women and women make up just 27.5 per cent of national legislators. Young women are particularly underrepresented as women Members of Parliament aged 30 and under constitute only 1.2 per cent of parliamentarians worldwide, while those aged 40 and under represent only 6.9 per cent—both figures falling since 2023.
The recommendations of the Secretary-General’s report on the review of the implementation of the agreed conclusions of the sixty-fifth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (E/CN.6/2026/4) reinforced the urgent need to ensure women’s full and effective political participation — in particular of young women — notably through stronger mentorship, exposure to role models, access to policymaking spaces, and better protection from discrimination and violence. Responding to these priorities, the WYDE | Women’s Leadership initiative has convened intergenerational regional dialogues —a model designed to strengthen skills, build networks, shift social norms, and support young women’s pathways to leadership. This CSW70 side event offered a dynamic moment to reflect on lessons emerging from these dialogues and to hear directly from women leaders about what is needed to drive systemic change.
Building on these reflections, the moderated panel discussion brought together panellists from Kiribati, Türkiye, Kenya, Spain and Sweden shared lived experiences from parliaments, local governments, women’s organizations, and youth movements. They explored both promising practices and persistent obstacles, including gender‑based violence and, in particular, technology‑facilitated violence, which continues to silence and exclude women and girls from political and public life.
The panel opened with Maria Eugènia Gay Rosell, Deputy Mayor of the Barcelona City Council, who underscored that when women lead—especially at the local level—care becomes a structural pillar of governance, shaping policy through the lived realities of communities. Speaking with urgency rooted in her own entry into politics at age 22, Bina Maseno, Executive Director of Badili Africa in Kenya, exposed the brutal reality that for young women, political participation is too often “a matter of life and death.” Maseno highlighted how gender‑based violence, femicide, and exclusion from decision‑making intersect with the near absence of young women. Her response has been through activism: building feminist organizing models that transform everyday spaces — from salons to community savings groups —into civic classrooms, while rebuilding political pipelines and reclaiming narrative power.
From Kiribati, Minister for Women, Youth, Sports and Social Affairs Ruth Cross Kwansing delivered a powerful reflection on the structural barriers that keep young women out of leadership and stressed that special measures—reserved seats, quotas, and financial support—are not optional but essential. She warned that harmful norms, financial constraints, and technology-facilitated violence actively push capable young women away from public life. Recognizing the impact of the WYDE intergenerational dialogue in the Pacific, she said “what I witnessed was not just knowledge sharing; it was the transfer of courage - and that is what mentoring and thought leadership does”. Fatma Öncü, Member of Parliament from Türkiye, recalled that intergenerational engagement is not a one-way relationship: “young women bring new perspectives, innovation and energy to political life while experienced leader contribute institutional knowledge and strategic expenses”. She concluded by sharing that “when these perspectives come together, they create powerful momentum for change”.
Lydia Korsgren from Save the Children Youth Sweden offered a clear and compelling youth perspective, emphasizing that young people are not leaders “in the future” but leaders now. She described how meaningful youth participation must be intersectional, structured, and rooted in shared power: “It is not a choice between youth and experienced leadership. It is shared power, creating more than one seat at the table”.
The event also featured the presentation of the iKNOW Politics Young Women’s Empowerment Portal, introduced by Rumbidzai Kandawasvika-Nhundu, Principal Adviser on Democracy and Inclusion at International IDEA. This new digital resource aims to enhance young women’s and civil society organizations’ access to knowledge, mentorship opportunities, and pathways to political representation, advancing one of the core areas of the WYDE initiative.
From care-centered local governance to activist organizing strategies, and from the necessity of special measures to the transformative potential of youth-led leadership models, the panel interventions highlighted a shared conviction—that inclusive, intergenerational and intersectional leadership is not only beneficial for democracy, but indispensable.
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