A conversation with Ilana Bet-El

International Women’s Day is on 8 March, but for women every day is Women’s Day: work and home, success and failure, families and friends, battles for equality and rights — they may come into focus once a year, but women live them every day.

The past is not a foreign country in this respect. In the 18th century women were battling for their rights no less than today — notably in Europe and what became the US due to the Enlightenment and revolution, but undoubtedly this was the case across all continents. For the sense of inequality had long been pervasive, and remains so now.

As the author Mary Wollstonecraft put it in The Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792):  “Women ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government.”

In this episode of Women Leaders Ilana Bet-El talks to Arancha Gonzalez Laya, who knows much about the rights of women as well as the deliberations of government. Former Foreign Minister of Spain and Assistant Secretary General of the UN, she is currently Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs, a member of Global Women Leaders Voices.

Exploring more historical facts around International Women’s Day, discover why as a young girl in Spain Arancha was fascinated by the European Union and the Spanish perception on international and European affairs. With deep insight, Arancha shares her view on the current transiting word and international system failures, based on her proven experience of governmental deliberations and international institutions.

The episode was recorded on the 28th February 2023