When Ambassador Lakshmi Puri speaks about gender equality, she does not frame it as a peripheral social issue. For her, it is architecture: global, structural, foundational.
A former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, Puri has spent decades embedding gender equality into the machinery of global governance.
Before her 15-year tenure at the UN, she served for 28 years in the Indian Foreign Service, including as India’s Ambassador to Hungary. That dual experience, national diplomacy and multilateral leadership, shapes her conviction that gender equality is not simply a moral imperative, but a development strategy and a security necessity.
“Gender equality and women’s empowerment are not only ends in themselves,” she says. “They are essential means to achieving every other global public good.”
The architecture of equality
At UN Women, Puri helped build what she calls a “global gender architecture,” anchored in five interconnected pillars: peace and security, sustainable development, climate action, human rights and democracy, and technology.
Take peace and security. Since the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000, the women, peace and security agenda has recognized women’s role in conflict prevention and peacebuilding. Under Puri’s leadership, gender perspectives were strengthened across UN peacemaking efforts. “Case after case shows that when women participate, peace agreements are more durable,” she notes.
In sustainable development, her influence was even more pronounced. Puri was closely involved in shaping the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 5) and mobilizing support for a standalone gender goal within the 2030 Agenda. “We ensured that gender equality was not an afterthought,” she says, “but a comprehensive goal in itself, and integrated across 11 other SDGs.” The message was clear: without women’s equal participation, economic growth and environmental sustainability are incomplete.
Climate negotiations, too, required a shift in perspective. Women are disproportionately affected by climate change, yet often excluded from decision-making. From the Paris Climate framework onward, gender equality provisions were woven into climate discussions, highlighting women not only as vulnerable populations but as agents of innovation.
Across all these arenas, Puri insists, gender mainstreaming must be a core strategy. “It is not pink-washing,” she says firmly. “From conception to policy design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, women’s voices and agency must be integrated.”
A woman in a man’s world
Yet Puri’s commitment to equality was forged not just in conference halls but in personal experience. When she joined India’s Foreign Service, women made up just five percent of the cadre. Today, the number is higher, around 13 percent overall, with 20 percent at entry level, but still far from parity.
“There were struggles,” she admits, “but I learned to turn challenges into advantages.”
She recalls an early posting in Tokyo, where she was told that the media would not accept a woman diplomat , “especially one in a sari.” Offered an administrative desk role instead, she refused. “Give me two months,” she said. “If I don’t succeed, you can withdraw me.” She proved them wrong. “It was a test of conviction,” she reflects.
Being underestimated, she says, became a “secret weapon.” It allowed her to surprise counterparts with competence and resolve.
She would go on to become the first Indian woman appointed Assistant Secretary-General at the UN.
The fiction of truth
In recent years, Puri has turned to fiction to tell another kind of story. Her debut novel, ‘Swallow the Sun’, is a sweeping historical saga inspired by her parents’ lives and India’s freedom movement.
The novel follows Malti, a young woman who defies child marriage, studies at Elphinstone College, becomes a lawyer, and joins the independence struggle. Historical figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Annie Besant intersect with the narrative, blending personal and national histories.
“I chose fiction because it reaches the heart, not only the intellect,” Puri explains. During the COVID lockdown, she completed the manuscript she had begun decades earlier. The book has since become a national bestseller and is being adapted into a web series.
Beyond fiction, Puri has also written ‘The Sari Eternal’, a cultural and civilizational exploration of India’s most iconic garment. The book examines the sari not merely as attire, but as a symbol of continuity, identity, empowerment and diplomacy. Drawing from her own experience of wearing the sari on global diplomatic platforms, Puri reflects on how it became both a personal statement and a political one, challenging stereotypes while asserting cultural confidence.
Progress and peril
Today, women’s representation in diplomacy is rising. At the UN, parity targets have pushed female participation in senior roles to as high as 40 percent in some tiers. Yet the world has still never had a woman Secretary-General.
“There is strong advocacy this time,” Puri notes, though she tempers optimism with realism. The UN itself faces institutional strain, funding withdrawals, and geopolitical fragmentation.
When asked about her legacy, Puri does not hesitate. She points to five enduring contributions: transforming UN Women into a global convener; strengthening international gender norms; mobilizing mass campaigns like HeForShe; embedding gender mainstreaming across the UN system; and driving a data revolution to “make women count.”
Despite current pushbacks, her tone remains resolute.
“Gender equality is the most important project for humanity,” she says. “And it is mission possible.”
