A special Interpreter series ahead of International Women’s Day, 2025, on 8 March.
Australia launched its International Gender Equality Strategy last month, a decisive step in embedding gender equality within its foreign policy. Crafted with extensive stakeholder consultation, it reinforces Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy, with its focus on expanding economic opportunities for women in the region.
Just two weeks later, at the unveiling of the Australia-Southeast Asia Regional Development Partnership Plan (DPP), ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn underscored the importance of “empowering women and girls” as a catalyst for strengthening ASEAN-Australia ties.
This alignment with gender equality mirrors ASEAN’s 2017 Declaration on the Gender-Responsive Implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the SDGs. ASEAN has rolled out numerous gender-based initiatives, such as the 2021 ASEAN Gender Mainstreaming Strategic Framework, the Regional Plan of Action (RPA) on the Elimination of Violence against Women, and the ASEAN RPA on Women, Peace, and Security. But despite these efforts, gender parity remains elusive. In 2023, ASEAN women held 23% of seats in national parliaments, a record high, yet still trailing Australia’s 38% and the global average of 27%.
A closer look at the ASEAN Secretariat – a critical institution in coordinating, administering, and mediating ASEAN’s work – reveals the gap between rhetoric and reality. It remains dominated by men, especially at the senior executive levels. To date, despite over half a century of its existence, ASEAN has never had a female Secretary-General. At present, only one out of four deputy secretaries-general is female. Currently, males outnumber females by ten-to-two in occupying director positions. While at the assistant director level, the parity ratio is much better, males still hold a slight edge over females at 22 to 20.
These figures reveal that gender equality in the ASEAN Secretariat at the upper echelon positions remains a structural challenge that requires concerted action to overcome.
Australia has consistently supported ASEAN’s gender initiatives. Successive ASEAN-Australia cooperative plans of action have integrated gender equality as a priority, with initiatives aimed at boosting women's rights, economic participation, and empowerment. A key initiative of the ASEAN-Australia Centre is the development of a Young Women Entrepreneur Exchange. Likewise, Australia has partnered in regional projects, like the ASEAN Women’s Business Forum, and fostering greater cooperation on digital and financial inclusion.
At the 57th ASEAN Day celebration last year, Indonesian university students engaged in a roundtable with female ambassadors from ASEAN and Dialogue Partners, where Australia’s Ambassador to ASEAN, Tiffany McDonald, participated, reinforcing Australia’s active role in promoting female leadership in the region.
In ASEAN’s consensus-driven culture, where decision-making often favours dominant voices, the appropriate inclusion and representation of women is essential to ensuring diverse perspectives.
While sustaining and amplifying gender equality momentum, Australia must be careful not to impose Western ideals of gender equality in its efforts. That is to say that whilst Australia and ASEAN share a commitment to gender equality, the realisation of this is context dependent. A helpful analogy is found in the pavlova – an Australian (or New Zealand) meringue-based dessert. The success depends on its environment: humidity can cause it to collapse or “weep” sugar. Similarly, in gender equality partnerships, Australia must consider the socio-historical and cultural contexts of ASEAN member states, acknowledging the diverse dynamics of women’s empowerment across the region.
As Australia’s International Gender Equality Strategy commits to supporting “locally led approaches,” Australia can leverage the existing ASEAN Gender Mainstreaming in Human Resource Toolkit and regional best practices, including those of the Mekong River Commission (MRC), which has developed a handbook to integrate gender into its core functions.
Borrowing from Mercy Masta’s concept featured on The Interpreter of “using culture to change culture” in achieving gender equality through Pacific values of relationality and cooperation, leveraging ASEAN’s shared identity and understanding of gender equality can drive powerful transformation.
As the Indo-Pacific faces rising economic, geopolitical, and non-traditional security challenges in an era of global volatility, female leadership is more crucial than ever. In ASEAN’s consensus-driven culture, where decision-making often favours dominant voices, the appropriate inclusion and representation of women – who comprise half the population of both Australia and ASEAN – is essential to ensuring diverse perspectives and bolstering regional peace and stability. Gender equality is not merely a moral imperative; it is a strategic necessity, and it is in Australia’s best interest that women empowerment remains not just an aspiration but an embedded principle in its engagement with ASEAN.
Looking ahead, the Australia-Southeast Asia Regional Development Partnership Plan ends in 2028, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of ASEAN's first declaration on the advancement of women in the region as well as Indonesia’s turn to field its candidate for ASEAN Secretary-General. With gender equality as one of the due consideration selection factors mentioned in Article 11 of the ASEAN Charter for this important post, could this then be the year ASEAN finally has its first female Secretary-General? Such an outcome would further solidify the progress that Australia, as ASEAN’s first Dialogue Partner since 1974, has made in aiding ASEAN’s drive towards gender parity, ensuring that women’s empowerment continues to shape ASEAN’s future in line with Australia’s long-term goals of achieving regional stability, security, and prosperity. As Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong states, “Gender equality is not a ‘special interest’. Gender equality is a matter of national interest.”
