Female Frontrunners for Secretary General

By Diana L. Banister | 2026

Rebeca Grynspan

UNITED NATIONS, August 14 (C-Fam) – Two women have emerged from the first-round poll for the next Secretary-General of the United Nations. Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett received the most “encourage” votes by the U.N. Security Council and will work to consolidate support before the next vote in late August.

The July 30th straw poll vote was the first to gauge attitudes toward the seven candidates for the five permanent and ten temporary seats on the U.N. Security Council. Although held in secret, the results soon leaked to the media. Of the seven candidates in the race, Grynspan, the former Vice President of Costa Rica and current head of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), secured ten “encourage” votes, four “no opinion” and one “discourage” vote. Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Guyana’s permanent representative at the U.N., received nine “encourage” votes, two “discourage” and four “no opinions.”

The identity of the one discourage vote for Grynspan is not known but is rumored to be from one of the permanent members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom or the United States, which would knock her out of contention if one of them vetoes her candidacy.

Grynspan, the daughter of Jewish parents who fled Poland in the 1930s and whose grandparents were killed in the Holocaust, has been critical of Israel. An economics professor turned diplomat, Grynspan served as the U.N. Development Programme’s deputy administrator. In 2021, she was named head of UNCTAD by current Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who supports her candidacy to replace him when his term ends in December.

“She’s an entrenched part of the U.N. system,” said one NGO leader. “Grynspan is the ultimate insider and is one of its leading feminist voices.”

European Union countries and numerous NGOs are advocating for a feminist woman to head the U.N. for the first time in its 81-year history. Political activist George Soros is behind the 1 for 8 Billion campaign focused on promoting a woman, whose members include Oxfam International, which analyzes intersectionality, feminism and decolonization, and GQUAL Campaign that focuses on human rights and gender equality.

“Women can bring more humanism,” said the former president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, in April. Bachelet was the leading feminist candidate but received five “discourage” votes in the straw poll.

As a late-comer to the race, Rodrigues-Birkett’s emergence was a surprise to some. She has served at the U.N. since 2015, first in Geneva, then in New York as Guyana’s permanent representative. According to the Soros-aligned PassBlue, she has supported gender equality with “little evidence” of pushing feminist views on “sexual and reproductive health and rights, the rights of people of diverse sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

PassBlue identified Grynspan as a strong feminist in her candidate interview. As a Guterres acolyte, she would continue more activist social policies, particularly women’s “reproductive rights” and interpretations of human rights that include gender “transition” policies for children.

The United States has consistently called for a return to a strict interpretation of the U.N. Charter on the Secretariat’s role as more administrative, less activist.

“We need a Secretary General that is going to reform this institution, that is going to make it leaner, more fit for purpose, more relevant on the international stage,” said U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Mike Waltz, following the first vote.

Multiple rounds of polling will continue in the coming weeks and likely conclude in October. The process could take longer if no consensus candidate emerges. The only male candidate to emerge from the first round was Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who received seven “encourage” votes.

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter