The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) and the BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF) have organised the event “Mujeres al timón: tres décadas de progreso y desafíos en la igualdad de género” (Women at the helm: three decades of progress and challenges in gender equality) in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Beijing+30).

A meeting in which experts from the public and private sectors analysed the progress made in Spain and Latin America, as well as the challenges that remain. Thirty years have passed since the Beijing conference, which achieved world consensus to make equality between men and women a global priority, but despite all this time, as Antón Leis, Director of the AECID acknowledged during the opening of the event: ‘in no country in the world have we yet achieved full and effective equality between men and women’.

The experts agreed in recognising the progress made, but without losing sight of the road that remains to be travelled in order to continue advancing, as Miriam Ciscar, Deputy Director of Feminist Cooperation, Economic and Human Development and Governance of the AECID made clear: ‘Investing in the political and economic empowerment of women is not only “the right thing to do”, it is also the most intelligent thing we can do for the development of societies’, she pointed out.

For Laura Fernández Lord, Head of Sustainability, Equity and Inclusion at BBVAMF, ‘we have a historic opportunity to achieve equality, but we must address the barriers that still persist, such as low participation in employment, the feminisation of poverty and the digital divide’.

Technological advancement fosters equality, however at the same time it represents a new challenge. María Solanas of the Elcano Royal Institute summed it up in this sentence: ‘Technology can be a powerful tool for the empowerment of women, but it can also perpetuate gender inequality’.

‘It is important and very positive that the digital transformation has a gender vision. Its advancement, or that of artificial intelligence, cannot leave women behind. We must take an active view so that the digital transformation favours them,’ said Andrés Allamand, Ibero-American Secretary General of SEGIB, who sees technology as a valuable ally in breaking down barriers and opening up new opportunities for women.

A palpable example of this reflection and of how technology breaks down geographical barriers and brings us closer to a world of possibilities can be seen in one of the protagonists of this event: Dania Riquelme, a Chilean artisanal fisherwoman, who has overcome her initial fear of technology and now combines crab fishing with the sale of household items and party decorations through Facebook Live sessions. She is part of a communal bank of Fondo Esperanza, a Chilean BBVAMF entity.

Alongside Dania Riquelme shared her experience Verónica Cazorla, a sailor and Galician boat skipper, whose career shows that women can do the same work as men, even if they often have to work twice as hard to prove their worth. ‘When I started, I was told that this was a man's job. I didn't give up, I kept going and today I am the skipper of my own ship. Women have to start by empowering ourselves and we have to support each other,’ Veronica explained to the people who attended the event and to the more than 200 who watched it online.

They live on different continents, thousands of kilometres apart, but both insist on the same thing: ‘Despite the difficulties, you have to follow your dreams,’ says Veronica. ‘To want is power. You have to have the courage to be able to do it,’ concludes Dania.

Finally, Ana María Alonso, Ambassador-at-Large for Feminist Foreign Policy of the Spanish Government, pointed out in her closing remarks the importance of gender equality as a fundamental human right: ‘The world cannot wait another 30 years to achieve gender equality. It is in our hands to be the generation that helps to close the gaps and achieve equal opportunities in our world’.