International Women's Day March 08
International Women’s Day on 8th March
International Women’s Day is celebrated
on 8th March. It was first celebrated in the year 1911.
Industrialization population expansion and changing economic – cultural - climatic
condition brought changes in the woman movement for rights. Women movement started
with demands education, shorter working hours, higher pay, right to vote, maternity
leave, child care facility, there are 195 countries in the world, with 7.9
billion population in the year 2021, the female population in the world was
49.6%. Over the decades the female population of world was declining. Education, Child Marriage, Religious Bias and restrictions,
sentiments are the hurdles to the development of the women.
Women are the core of the
universe. Women is only endowed with giving birth. Women passes through infancy,
childhood, puberty, adolescence, reproductive age, climacteric period, elderly
years. Men supports the creation. In
relationship with men legally she will become wife. Women keep the seeds in the
womb, provides necessary environment, food and carries for 9 months and gives
birth to a baby. By giving birth to a baby, she becomes mother. Mother breasts
feeds the baby. Breast milk is very much crucial in developing baby immunity system
for rest of the life. Mother is the first teacher. Mother greatly influences
her children. Mother is the matriarch of any family. There are possibly no
homes where there are no women members.
Women plays many different
roles and as a mother, as a sister, as a daughter, as a grandmother in a blood
link. Apart from these roles she is a friend, she is a strength, she is the
positive in all round development of a person, she is the creator, she is the destroyer,
she is a philanthropist, she is generous, she is magnanimous, she is noble, she
is the entrepreneur, she is the accountant of a household, she is the best
cook, she is the best doctor, she is the guide, she is the counsellor, she is a
mentor, she thinks and plans for her children and her family, she cares less
about herself, she is the source of universal energy.
Who runs the household? Household
is run by the women. Any doubt! Men are only earners; actual runners of the
household are women. The women restlessly take care of the household in the
presence and absence of the men. Women is a word which describes the one who
work more altruistically throughout her life. 8th March is a day of
women to celebrate the achievements of women in socio-economic-cultural-literary-
scientific- political sector. This day is also dedicated to increase awareness
about the gender equality, gender parity, declining sex ratio, atrocities on
women worldwide, women rights in all forms. Without participation of the women the
sustainable all-round achievement of any goals is quite impossible.
History of International Women’s Day
Industrialization boom in 1900s provided the platform
for women’s rights. Industrialization required workers. As cities were short of
workers, workers started to move from rural areas and other countries. This
industrialization labor requirement lead to urban poor and development urban
slums.
·
In
1908 movement for reform began against oppression and inequality. 15000 women
marched through New York City demanding shorter work hours, higher pay, right
to vote.
·
28th
February 1909, the first National Woman’s Day was celebrated across the United
States, according to a declaration by the Socialist Party of America
·
In
1910, at Copenhagen, 2nd International Conference of Working Woman
was hosted.
·
The
Clara Zetkin, German Marxist theorist and activist, proposed the concept of International
Women’s Day. Over 100 women from 17 countries representing various
organization, socialist parties, working women’s organizations and the first
three women elected to the Finnish parliament, unanimously approved the Zetkin’s
proposal, International Women’s Day came to existence.
·
International
Women’s Day was first observed in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland in 19th
March 1911.
·
25th
March 1911 “Triangle Fire” in New York took the lives of more than 140 working
women, most of them Italian and Jewish Immigrants.
·
1911
Woman’s “Bread and Roses” campaign.
·
1913-14
– 1st World War campaigning for peace, Russian women observed their
first international women’s Day on 23rd February 1913.
·
Until
1913 women continued to celebrate the National Woman’s Day on the last Sunday
of February.
·
08th
March 1914, London, United Kingdom - march from “Bow to Trafalgar Square”
in support of women’s suffrage.
Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested in front of Charing Cross station.
·
In
1917, last Sunday of February, Russian woman began a strike for “bread and
peace” at St. Petersburg with demands to end World War-I, Czarism, Shortage of
food in Russia in response to the death of 2 million Russian soldiers in World
War I, This leads to Russian Revolution and 4 days later the Czar was abdicated
and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote.
·
“The
date the women’s strike commenced was Sunday February 23 on the Julian calendar
then in use in Russia. This day on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere was
March 8.”
·
In
1975 the United Nations began celebrating the International Women’s Day for the
first time. UN designated year 1975 as International Woman’s Year and organized
a world conference in Mexico City on status of woman.
·
1976-85
United Nations Decade for Women.
·
1980
The world conference of the United Nations Decade for Woman gathered in Copenhagen.
|
Year |
UN theme |
|
1996 |
Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future |
|
1997 |
Women and the Peace Table |
|
1998 |
Women and Human Rights |
|
1999 |
World Free of Violence Against Women |
|
2000 |
Women Uniting for Peace |
|
2001 |
Women and Peace: Women Managing Conflicts |
|
2002 |
Afghan Women Today: Realities and Opportunities |
|
2003 |
Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals |
|
2004 |
Women and HIV/AIDS |
|
2005 |
Gender Equality Beyond 2005; Building a More Secure Future |
|
2006 |
Women in Decision-making |
|
2007 |
Ending Impunity for Violence Against Women and Girls |
|
2008 |
Investing in Women and Girls |
|
2009 |
Women and Men United to End Violence Against Women and Girls |
|
2010 |
Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for All |
|
2011 |
Equal Access to Education, Training, and Science and Technology:
Pathway to Decent Work for Women |
|
2012 |
Empower Rural Women, End Poverty, and Hunger |
|
2013 |
A Promise is a Promise: Time for Action to End Violence Against Women |
|
2014 |
Equality for Women is Progress for All |
|
2015 |
Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it! |
|
2016 |
Planet 50–50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality |
|
2017 |
Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030 |
|
2018 |
Time is Now: Rural and urban activists transforming women's lives |
|
2019 |
Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change |
|
2020 |
I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women's Rights |
|
2021 |
Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world |
|
2022 |
Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow |
·
2001,
The internationalwomensday.com platform
was launched with the specific purpose of re-energizing the day - a focus which
continues to this day - celebrating and making visible the achievements of
women while continuing the call for accelerating gender parity.
o
The IWD
website also serves as a significant vehicle for charities and in 2020 a hefty
six figure sum was fundraised with 100% of donations going to charity.
o
The IWD
website's Charities of Choice are the World
Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) since 2007, and Catalyst
Inc., the global working women's organization, since 2017.
o
2021 sees
IWD's charitable fundraising opened up more widely to further registered
charities around the world.
·
2011the 100-year
centenary of International Women's Day
o
In the
United States, President Barack Obama proclaimed March 2011 to be "Women's
History Month
o
The then
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched the "100 Women Initiative:
Empowering Women and Girls through International Exchanges".
o
In the
United Kingdom, celebrity activist Annie Lennox lead a march across one of
London's iconic bridges raising awareness in support for global charity Women
for Women International.
o
Further
charities such as Oxfam have run extensive IWD activity. Many celebrities and
business leaders actively support the day.
Colors of International Women’s Day:
The color purple, green, and white are the Colors of
International Day. These colors are assigned by the United Kingdom Women’s
Social and Political Union.
·
The
color Purple is associated with justice, spirituality, mystery, royalty, imagination,
wisdom, creativity and dignity.
·
The
color Green represents the hope, prosperity, growth, harmony and health. The color
green is a generous and relaxing. It balances our emotions and leaves us
feeling safe and secure.
·
The
color white stands for the purity, innocence. It being a balancer of all colors,
it is also associated with cleanliness, simplicity and perfection. The white
color promotes open mindedness and self-reflection.
What is the contribution to world economy by woman?
In my view 100% of world
economy is directly or indirect contribution by world economy. Always in the
business investor or the proprietor invests for the profit, bonus shares, and
dividend and liquid fund for emergencies. Women is by birth a good entrepreneur
who manages right from morning till late-night safety including bread and
butter, washing, financing, counselling, guiding and other essential services.
Women is the original “Alexa, Siri”. Investing in women is a long-term
investment, Investment compounds with over the period of time with proper love,
care and affection.
Below are some of the most important statistics available on women in
the economy:
·
Women perform 66% of the world’s work,
produce 50 percent of the food, but earn only 10% of the income and own 1-2% of
the property.
·
Women and girls suffer
disproportionately from the burden of extreme poverty- they make up 70% of the
1.5 billion people living on less than a dollar a day.
·
Outside of the agricultural sector, in
both developed and developing countries, women still average less than 78% of
the wages given to men for the same work.
·
Globally, women represent 49.6% of the
total population, but only 40.8% of the total workforce in the formal sector.
·
Closing the gap between male and female
employment rates would have huge implications for the global economy, boosting
American gross domestic product (GDP) by as much as 9%, Eurozone GDP by 13% and
Japanese GDP by 16%.
·
Women dominate the global marketplace
by controlling US$20 trillion in consumer spending and that number is predicted
to rise to US$28 trillion by 2014.
Below are some of the most important statistics available on women as
business owners:
·
There are approximately 187 million
women entrepreneurs worldwide who own at least some of 32-39% of all private
businesses in the formal economy.
·
More women than men entrepreneurs
introduce innovations (new products and services) in developed economies.
·
In societies where women perceive they
have the capabilities for entrepreneurship, there is a greater likelihood women
will also perceive entrepreneurial opportunities. However, fewer women (47.7%)
than men (62.1%) believe they have the capabilities to start and run
businesses.[11]
·
According to preliminary research
conducted by WEConnect International, women-owned businesses earn less than 1%
of the money spent on vendors by large corporations and governments.
Covid and Woman
One of the major hurdles faced
by the women over the period got increased in different forms. One of it came
in the form of Covid pandemic. Covid pandemic disrupted the world economy
drastically. Covid pandemic spread across the globe like a wildfire, infected
millions and brought economy to standstill. Health and human mortality
increased and health system failures were brought to the forefront. The women of
the house hold fought from the front with precaution to face the covid. During this period apart from infection,
mortality, impact on education system, economy was hit, child marriages increased,
family planning methods neglected, and it give rise to the population increase.
In reality only 50% of the
working-age women are in the labor market. Unpaid domestic and care work falls disproportionately
on women. “Twenty-five years since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, progress towards equal power and equal rights for women
remains elusive. No country has achieved gender equality, and the COVID-19
crisis threatens to erode the limited gains that have been made. The Decade of
Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals and efforts to recover
better from the pandemic offer a chance to transform the lives of women and
girls, today and tomorrow” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
On average day women globally spend
about three times as many hours on unpaid domestic and care work as men (4.2
v/s 1.7) In Northern America and Western Asia that gender gap is even higher,
with women spending more than seven times as much as men on these activities.
In terms of power and decision
making, women held only 28% of managerial positions globally in 2019 – almost
the same proportion as in 1995. And only 18% of enterprises surveyed had a
female Chief Executive Officer in 2020. Among Fortune 500 corporations only
7.4%, or 37 Chief Executive Officers, were women. In 2021, the proportion of women in senior management roles
globally grew to 31%, the highest number ever recorded. Ninety percent
of companies worldwide have at least one woman in a senior management role as
of 2021
Women’s senior
leadership roles are also shifting.
While women leaders
are still more likely to be HR directors compared to other roles, this
proportion has decreased from 2020 to 2021. In the same time frame, the
proportion of women in other leadership roles like CEO, Chief Finance Officer,
and Chief Information Officer has increased.
- In 2021, 26% of all CEOs and managing
directors were women, compared to only 15% in 2019.
- The Fortune Global 500
reported an all-time high of 23 women CEOs in 2021, including six women of
color.
|
The proportion of women in
senior leadership differs by region: |
|
|
Region |
Percentage of Women in Senior Management (2021) |
|
Africa |
39% |
|
Southeast Asia (ASEAN) |
38% |
|
Latin America |
36% |
|
European Union |
34% |
|
North America |
33% |
|
Asia Pacific (APAC) |
28% |
In political life, while women’s representation in parliament has more than doubled globally, it has still not crossed the barrier of 25% of parliamentary seats in 2020. Women’s representation among cabinet ministers has quadrupled over the last 25 years, yet remains well below parity at 22%.
Women’s participation in education
on the rise worldwide
The world
has made substantial progress in achieving universal primary education, with
girls and boys participating equally in primary education in most regions.
While school closures related to COVID-19 are likely to set back progress on
access to education, evidence shows that girls, once they have access to
schooling, tend to do better than boys in terms of academic achievement. In
tertiary education, women outnumber men, and enrolment is increasing faster for
women than for men.
However,
women continue to be underrepresented in the fields of science, technology,
engineering and mathematics, representing only slightly more than 35% of the
world’s STEM graduates. Women are also a minority in scientific research and
development, making up less than a third of the world’s researchers.
Violence against women and girls
remains a global issue
During
COVID-19 lockdowns, many women and girls have been isolated in unsafe
environments where they are at heightened risk of experiencing intimate partner
violence. Around one third of women worldwide have experienced physical and/or
sexual violence by an intimate partner; and 18% have experienced such violence
in the past 12 months. In the most extreme cases, violence against women is
lethal: globally, an estimated 137 women are killed by their intimate partner
or a family member every day.
While
female genital mutilation is becoming less common in some countries, at least
200 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to this specific
form of violence across Africa and the Middle East where the practice is most
prevalent.
In a sign
that attitudes are changing, women’s acceptance of being beaten by their
partners decreased in almost 75% of countries with data over the past seven
years. But laws to address domestic violence are not yet universally available,
with only 153 countries having such laws. Gaps are largest in Northern Africa,
Western Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where 43% and 35% of countries
respectively have not passed such laws.
Reliable and timely data are
critical
Reliable,
timely and disaggregated data are critically needed, particularly now as the
international community responds to the COVID-19 pandemic, to effectively
measure progress in achieving gender equality. Closing the data and evidence
gaps through regular collection and use of gender statistics is crucial.
“I call on
all countries to accelerate efforts towards the empowerment of women and girls
and towards improving the evidence base to monitor progress: data gaps in the
coverage of key gender topics need to be filled,” said Liu Zhenmin, UN
Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. “Timeliness and
comparability of data over time and across countries need to be improved, and
data disaggregation and dissemination by age, sex, location and other key
variables need to become a priority in order to fully measure and address
intersecting inequalities, respond to crises, and ensure gender equality by
2030.”
About the World’s Women report
Produced by
the Statistics Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social
Affairs, the World’s Women report has
been produced every five years since 1990 and provides the latest data on the
state of gender equality worldwide.
·
International
Women's Day - Wikipedia
·
About
– InternationalWomensDay.org
·
12 Color Meanings - The Power and
Symbolism of Colors (Infographics) (color-meanings.com)
·
What
do we know about women in today's economy? | ConnectAmericas
·
Facts
and Figures: Economic Empowerment | UN Women – Headquarters
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