There are forty-four most senior positions in the United Nations system, excluding the Secretary General himself.

As of this week, twenty three are held by women.

On Tuesday, Nahla Valji, the UN senior advisor for gender equality, announced on Twitter that half of the 44 members of the Secretary General’s Senior Management Group are women. Full gender parity among this group had been achieved.

The Senior Management Group is effectively the “cabinet” of the Secretary General, who serves as its chair. It comprises the executive directors of UN agencies like UNICEF and the World Food Program; the heads of major offices like UN Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Affairs; and the leaders of the UN’s regional offices and other major UN entities. It meets regularly to discuss top-level policy issues across the UN system.

In 2015 the Senior Management Group included 26 men and 16 women.  Now, for the first time in the 77 year history of the UN, it is comprised of an equal number of women and men.