Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Guyanese Candidate for UN Secretary General: A Beacon of Hope on a Glass Cliff
On the 22nd of August, Al Jazeera reported that Guyana's nomination for UN Secretary-General, Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, emerged as a frontrunner ahead of eight other candidates in an informal poll for the next leader of the world's most international agency.
This marks a significant moment for Caribbean nationals and the diaspora worldwide, as Ambassador Rodrigues-Birkett could become the first UN Secretary-General from the region. CARICOM nations formally endorsed her on June 11th as their preferred choice for the role, which will become vacant later this year at the end of UN Secretary-General António Guterres' second term.
Ambassador Rodrigues-Birkett would not only be the first Caribbean national in the role, but also the first woman to head the global organisation. Ambassador Rodrigues-Birkett, if selected, would shatter one of the longest-standing glass ceilings for women in international public service.
A Glass Ceiling or a Glass Cliff?
The popularised term 'glass ceiling' describes the invisible barriers placed on women and people of colour from accessing leadership positions. These hard-to-reach places include Fortune 500 C-suite positions, heads of government, or, in this case, the head of the United Nations itself. Therefore, when someone from a disadvantaged background is placed in these positions of power, they are described as having shattered the glass ceiling, supposedly opening the path for many talented marginalised people behind them to follow.
Often, however, this hard-earned achievement is linked to a much darker reality: the glass cliff. A glass cliff is when a woman or other marginalised person is offered a prestigious position – one they are otherwise qualified for – in a time of deep organisational crisis or instability. According to Investopedia, this organisational strategy allows an institution to appear progressive to outside audiences without making meaningful adjustments to the organisation's overall structure.
When a woman is placed to lead these institutions without the necessary support, her failure reads as being inevitable, allowing those in favour of maintaining the status quo to uphold her as evidence that women are not capable leaders. Rather than being a leader, she is an experiment. If she succeeds, the company still gets credit for appointing the right person for the job.
A woman's appointment to the UN would be a monumental, historical, and, realistically, long-overdue moment for the United Nations. However, her appointment would also come at a time when the UN is facing crises unlike any other since its founding.
One is left to wonder what a call for female leadership means at a time when the UN faces enormous pressures: widespread public distrust, a clear failure of its peace-keeping mandate, growing global militarisation, and catastrophic failure to coordinate global efforts to ameliorate the climate crisis.
Perhaps the enthusiasm for a woman from one of the world's most climate-vulnerable countries says more about the organisation's current realities than about the candidate herself.
The UN at Present: A House of Cards?
On September 2nd, the UN declared in a first-of-its-kind report that the planet has entered 'overshoot'. This means that as a global society, we have failed to limit planetary warming below the 1.5-degree threshold, beyond which many of climate change's impacts will be irreversible. This report came on the heels of the devastating glacier collapse and flooding in Nepal, which killed over a thousand people and left thousands more missing under landslides and floodwaters.
Last year, the ICJ declared it countries' legal obligation to uphold climate justice, yet last year's COP30 in Brazil failed to take decisive measures as advocated by the world's most affected communities. Over the past decade, the UN has become a paper tiger in the eyes of many, as its powers are constantly tested and undermined. The global organisation could not stop a war in Ukraine because Russia sits on its Security Council and is a Permanent Five member which enjoys veto privileges.
Many activists and international governance experts have long called for UN reform to equalise power between nations. The nomination process for the Secretary-General is one such example of institutional inequality. Rodrigues-Birkett could have the support of nearly every member state and still never reach a General Assembly vote, because any one of the five permanent members of the Security Council can block her nomination. This allows certain countries to prioritise their interests within the UN against the common wellbeing of the other members.
Until the UN can hold powerful actors accountable and rectify its embedded injustices, it will never be able to fulfil its core pillars. While the UN has attempted over decades to become more egalitarian, critical analysis has led some researchers to believe these power imbalances are not mere flaws in the system; they exist by design.
Turning Peril into Progress
These frustrations, and the desire for reform among those in the UN, likely fuel much of the momentum behind her bid. In her campaign for office, Rodrigues-Birkett positions herself as a stabilising force, capable of leading the agency through necessary reforms and out of its current challenges. Her focus on reform and stability is mirrored by her closest competitor for the role, Costa Rican diplomat Rebeca Grynspan, who came second in the internal polls.
This pattern aligns with the prevailing belief amongst management experts that female leaders are better at crisis management.
Like the other women and minorities who ascend to positions of power on precariously placed glass cliffs, it is not Rodrigues-Birkett's background or identity that makes her less likely to succeed in this climate. The risk comes from the false belief that a woman at the helm is the last stop on the journey to equity. Systemic biases and hurdles have not been dismantled overnight just because one person managed to scale over them.
By the logic of the glass cliff, Birkett's popularity could be interpreted as the latest sign of a worrying pattern for a UN in crisis. Aside from its external challenges, the organisation also faces budget constraints as donor countries increasingly delay payments, forcing the UN to downsize by 20% in its last budget year.
However, one person's capabilities alone cannot resolve a crisis born of decades of institutional determinism. Those working in the UN are not blind to its limitations and have called for leadership willing to make the necessary adjustments to the organisation. This is the role that Rodrigues-Birkett will have to navigate.
Beyond pragmatism and reform, Rodrigues-Birkett has also spoken about championing climate finance, something her predecessor pursued with moderate success. In her stated vision, she also focuses greatly on development and the perspectives and priorities of the Global South. A leader with a lived, on-the-ground background in development in our highest offices can benefit the entire world – whether it is someone waiting for their life to be reconstructed in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa, or someone who saw their entire world swept away by the floods in Nepal.
Despite an impossible mandate, the UN adds order and stability to the world as we know it, which is why, even with its shortcomings, we still put our hopes in this rarefied symbol.
It is high time we had a female leader of the UN, but having her there in name is not enough. Her appointment, if selected, must go beyond symbolic change to advocate for reforms to the UN's power structures that allow for every voice to be represented – shattering the glass ceiling between us and global systemic change.
SOURCES
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