Innovation or Mistake: The UN’s newest ambassador finds herself in the middle of a battle

            

             Since the UN announced Wonder Woman as its  ambassador for its social media campaign to raise awareness about  women’s empowerment and gender inequality, the conversation it hoped to spark about the challenges women face professionally has shifted to a debate over whether or not using this fictional character to represent a gender inequality movement is appropriate. In regards to the choice UN official, Maher Nasser said, "The focus [of the UN] was on her feminist background, being the first female superhero in a world of male superheroes and that basically she always fought for fairness, justice, and peace" (BBC 2016). Though the UN’s may have been well intentioned in its appointment of Wonder Woman, it probably didn’t expect the backlash that it would receive. Although Wonder Woman is a superhero, she can also be viewed as a hyper sexualized character. The use of her as an ambassador for the UN’s campaign trivializes the women’s empowerment and gender equality movement. This appointment of Wonder Woman and the resulting controversy is a clear example of when organizations try to be innovative and fail.

            First it should be noted while the UN aims to dismantle systems of patriarchy and fight gender inequality, it struggles to tackle those issues within its own structure. A recent analysis reveled that at the UN 9 out of 10 senior leadership roles go to men (BBC 2016). In contrast to this, Un states on its webpage for the campaign that, “The campaign is about women and girls everywhere, who are wonder women in their own right, and the men and boys who support their struggle for gender inequality, bringing about positive change in their homes, workplace, communities, countries and the world together” (UN, date unknown). Based on the uproar from women against this ambassador appointment and the fact that 1,000 anonymous UN staff members signed a petition stating that Wonder Woman is an inappropriate choice, it can be said that the campaign isn’t delivering on its message of “positive change” in the world. The authors of the article called When Innovation Goes Wrong state, “Innovation may lead an organization in a direction that does not fit its culture or its sense of purpose—it’s sense of ‘who we are’” (Seelos and Mair, 2016, p29).  Although wonder woman is not the first fictional character to represent a United Nations campaign, the UN should probably evaluate whether Wonder Woman fits the criteria of their campaign. It is hard for organizations to view themselves objectively when they are wrapped up in their mission. If the public views the UN in a certain light and their actions are criticized by the masses, they should take this into consideration.

            This publicized backlash to Wonder Woman’s appointment presents a learning opportunity for the UN to address the gender inequality problems within in its structure and gives it insight on how to better serve the gender it aims empower. The authors of When Innovation Goes Wrong also assert, “Organizations that seek to establish the conditions for turning innovation into impact need to identify specific pathologies that hold them back, along with the factors that cause those pathologies” (Seelos and Mair, 2016, p32). In this case, the specific pathology holding the UN’s campaign back may be it’s institutional understanding of what women need rather than what they want.

            It’s hypocritical for an organization to proclaim to foster positive social change while rejecting it within its structure. The UN risks this backlash outlasting the yearlong social media campaign that Wonder Woman is supposed to represent. As the authors state in When Innovation Goes Wrong, “Once an organization identifies the pathologies that create barriers to successful innovation, it can begin to design interventions in a way that will prevent those pathologies from taking hold” (Seelos and Mair, 2016, p33). For the sake of the campaign, the UN should consider replacing Wonder Woman for the ambassador job.

C. Seelos and J. Mair. (2016). When Innovation Goes Wrong. Stanford Social Innovation Review. 27-33. Available from Blackboard. [Accessed 21 October 2016].

BBC. (2016). Is Wonder Woman qualified to be a UN ambassador?. BBC. 21 October. Available from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37734623 [Accessed 22 October 2016].

Date unknown. UN. Stand up for the empowerment of Women and Girls Everywhere. UN. Available from http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wonderwoman/ [Accessed 23 October 2016].