United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women
Angela E.V. King, Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women
The United Nations Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan appointed Ms. Angela E.V. King Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women. The appointment, at the level of Assistant Secretary-General, took effect on 1 March 1997. Ms. King chairs the Inter-Agency Committee on Women and Gender and Equality and supervises the Division for the Advancement of Women.
Angela E. V. King was named Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) of the Department for Economic and Social Affairs one year before, on 1 February 1996. She brought to the post, which is responsible for the follow-up to the Beijing Conference and for managing the central United Nations programme for the advancement of women, a wide experience in the economic, social and political work of the United Nations, in administration and in advancement of women.
Since 1987, Ms. King has served at the director level in the Office of Human Resources Management, as Director of Recruitment and Placement and Director of Staff Administration and Training. Most recently she was deputy to the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management and Director of the Operational Services Division. As such she worked closely with the Focal Point for the Improvement of The Status of Women in the Secretariat on such issues as special measures for women and sexual harassment. She represented the Office at the Fourth World Conference on Women at Beijing in 1995.
From 1992-1994, she was on assignment as Chief of Mission of the United Nations Observer Mission in South Africa (UNOMSA), one of only four women who have headed a United Nations mission on preventive diplomacy and peace-building.
Ms. King joined the United Nations Secretariat in 1966 from the Permanent Mission of Jamaica, where she was one of the first two women foreign service officers posted after Jamaica joined the United Nations and where she worked on matters relating to human rights and social development.
In her early career in the Secretariat, she worked in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs in the preparation of the Report of the World Social Situation, and later in the Branch for the Promotion of Equality between Men and Women where she participated in the first United Nations Conference on Women in Mexico City in 1975 and the second United Nations Conference on Women in Copenhagen in 1980. She has been involved with programme planning and coordination and was the first chief of the Central Evaluation Unit.
The new Special Adviser for Gender Issues has been active in work for the advancement of women in the United Nations Secretariat and was a founding member of the ad hoc Group on Equal Rights for Women and chairs the High-level Steering Committee on Improving the Status of Women in the Secretariat.
Ms. King has a BA (Hons) in History from the University College of the West Indies and an MA in Educational Sociology and Administration from the University of London, as well as further graduate studies in educational sociology at New York University. In November 1999 Ms King received an Honourary Degree of Doctor of Laws from The University of the West Indies. Ms. King has one son.