A/HRC/30/70 attitudes and confidence of women themselves. She said that if a woman wanted to obtain a senior position in the area of venture capital, or in other corporate structures, she could. It required a large amount of work, sacrifice and determination, but the door was open, as was evidenced by her own case. 52. Ms. Ollier pointed out that in the business world, women must be willing to take greater risks and have more confidence in their abilities. Women in jobs that are maledominated bore a responsibility to empower, mentor and teach young women that they were every bit as good and qualified as men and that they had everything it took to succeed. 53. Ms. Soto outlined a number of stereotypes in the Latin American and Caribbean region that prevented women from participating in the political sphere. The stereotypes included: women were seen as sensitive, uncompetitive and unfit for political life; women were seen as caregivers and confined to domestic work; successful women were expected to look and dress in a certain way and focus on their appearance rather than their policies; and a “good” woman was seen as having a family and children, being heterosexual and generally conforming to such dominant gender norms. 54. She said that politics was generally seen as the stamping ground of powerful men, and that women were often confined to social policies, commonly regarded as being of lesser importance politically—such as health care and sexual and reproductive health and rights. 55. To attack those stereotypes, Ms. Soto said that we needed to use education, mass communications systems and the media, the very institutions that had laid the foundations for such stereotyping. Measures such as quotas could also be effective in leading to greater participation of women in public and political life. Those measures also reminded everyone that women must be present in various spheres and contribute to breaking the existing monochromatic and monodimensional view of politics. She concluded by calling on States to observe the example of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, which had adopted a law against political harassment and violence against women and had achieved parity in Parliament, when 10 years previously, less than 15 per cent of parliamentarians had been women. C. Interventions by representatives of States members of the Council, observer States and other observers 56. In their interventions, States agreed that although progress has been made since the adoption in 1995 of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a significant amount of work remained to be done in all countries to ensure the full and equal participation of women in power and decision-making. The speakers agreed that multiple barriers, such as discriminatory social, economic, and political norms, harmful gender stereotypes, entrenched patriarchal structures, and unequal allocation and access to resources and opportunities continued to perpetuate discrimination against women, violate their human rights and inhibit progress in this area. 57. A number of States highlighted women’s economic contribution to development and observed that enhancing women’s full and meaningful participation in power structures across economic, political and social spheres was critical to advancing human rights. Yet, several speakers pointed out that women still suffered from unequal access to high-level positions in decision-making worldwide and more needed to be done in enhancing the visibility of female leadership and in utilizing successful women as role models to motivate and inspire. Some speakers observed that women’s participation in political and legislative bodies was crucial for shaping policymaking on issues that affected them and that particular attention should be given to including minorities and disabled women. 11