Gender Equity Abroad and At Home
Top Diplomats shed light on global priorities and challenges for gender equity.
Seattle, WA – International Women’s Day honors the efforts of those committed to gender equity across the world. On Friday, March 8, the Washington State Women’s Commission (WSWC) hosted a gathering of students, as well as women leaders from government, academia, and non-profit to reflect on the progress made and the challenges remaining before every woman and girl is healthy, safe, prosperous, and empowered to achieve their full potential.
Our guests engaged in a panel discussion entitled “Celebrating International Women’s Day: Global Voices on Gender Equity.” WSWC Executive Director Grace Yoo moderated the conversation between three leading international voices in Seattle: Eunji Seo, Consul General of the Republic of Korea, Prakash Gupta, Consul General of India, and Nathalie Beaudoin, Consul Consulate General of Canada. Each diplomat shared their country’s unique trajectory towards empowerment for all women.
For the Republic of Korea and India, diplomacy is one of the fields leading the charge in representation. Consul General Seo shared that she is the first woman Consul General for the Republic of Korea in the Pacific Northwest. Since she assumed the role in 2022, she says more of her colleagues are now women, including her newly arrived Deputy Consul General shared that of the last 40 diplomats to join the Indian Foreign Service, 35 were women.
During one of the most striking points of conversation, Consul Beaudoin from Canada explained that policies like subsidized childcare and 18-month paid parental leave remove economic barriers from a woman’s decision to start a family. When Beaudoin mentioned that childcare costs only $6 a day in Canada, parents in the audience looked at each other with expressions that read, “What would that be like?”
Executive Director Grace Yoo addressed key areas of progress and concern for women in Washington. Yoo explained Washington State Women’s Commission is focusing on closing Washington’s gender pay gap, which ranks among the ten worst in the nation. Yoo also pointed out a recent promising development, the passage of a bill expanding Washington’s Equal Pay & Opportunity Act to encompass all "protected classes." Once signed into law by Governor Jay Inslee, this legislation will provide greater protection for women with multiple marginalized identities beginning in July 2025.
The Women Painters of Washington Gallery opened their exhibit “About Time” to host their third International Women’s Day event. The walls surrounding the conversation were filled with personal interpretations of moments from the past and present, along with musings on the future. These works felt particularly poignant as global leaders addressed the strides their countries have made towards gender equity, in addition to the areas that need attention.
ABOUT THE WASHINGTON STATE WOMEN’S COMMISSION
The Washington State Women’s Commission, created by the Washington State Legislature in 2018, aims to improve the well-being of women by identifying and developing policies to remove systemic barriers and address critical issues that disproportionately impact women, including childcare access and affordability, domestic and gender-based violence, equal pay, and intersectional inequities.
