The Platform for Action gives due emphasis to the fact that women globally have continued to have insufficient access to the resources necessary to achieve economic independence.
With the adoption of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the international community sent out a clear message that gender based violence will not be tolerated.
On many occasions New Zealand has spoken about the need to ensure that women's concerns are fully integrated into all aspects of the United Nations' activities and structures, not marginalised in one part of the Secretariat.
The serious problems facing the world today will never be solved until women are able to use their full potential on behalf of themselves, their families, and their global and local communities, as the World Bank and others have discovered.
What we need is to understand that women won't often apply for a job until they're almost 95% qualified. So they tick the box and say, 'If I can't do it all, I can't be qualified.' Men look at the same job, and as long as they get to about 60%, they'll apply.
I am not a supporter of the rhetoric of, 'Dear, dear, the toys have got lead paint.' If I had a manufacturer in China that allowed that to happen, I'd fire them instantly.
When I hear people flatteringly say, 'You're an expert on East Asia...' I'm certainly an observer of East Asia, and central Asia, and ASEAN, and to a lesser extent South Asia and the Gulf, but there's always something behind the wall in China.
Chinese people as consumers, while they've always valued food and beverage for the health food qualities, they are also now wanting it in terms of other values: 'Does this speak about my position in society? Am I now middle-class, and does this matter to me?'
The serious problems facing the world... will only be solved if women have a seat at the table and are listened to as to what is required. These issues will never be solved until women are able to use their full potential on behalf of themselves, their families and their global and local communities.
I was brought up in a family of leaders, and I think leadership is a life sentence. I like changing things that will shape the future.
People often think that people like me don't have ordinary lives. I have the greatest pleasure, and in fact, the greatest success in my career is having been a mother.
I do remember when I first went into politics, one of my competitors asked me, 'Well, Jenny Shipley, who's looking after your children?' I don't think many of my male colleagues have faced a similar question.
In New Zealand, men and women would not take a party seriously if it did not have a good gender - and increasingly racial - mix. It's not about being politically correct; it's just who we are.
The first day you're a leader is the beginning of the end of your political career.
I'm not sure that it matters as much to women as to our male colleagues to have the public adulation and be on the public mind.
