What we need to remember……
The origin of the International Women’s Day can be traced back to 1910 when Clara Zetkin proposed the establishment of a global International Women’s Day at a Women’s Conference in Copenhagen. She called upon women everywhere to link their fight for equal rights with a fight to preserve international peace. While in 1911 millions of women celebrated the first International Women’s Day it really took hold between 1913 and 1917 when women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with their sisters.
And in 1977 finally the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.
Nowadays this Day is an occasion to review how far the women of the world have come in their struggle for equality, peace and development.
Since those early struggles, women have made great leaps in education, business , social and political life. As much as we want to acknowledge and celebrate such achievements, we are also aware that too many women still face injustice, discrimination and violence as a direct consequence of their gender. For example:
- An estimated 70% of the world's 1.3 billion poor people are women.
- Two-thirds of the world's nearly one billion illiterate adults are women
- Two-thirds of the 130 million children worldwide who are not in school are girls.
- 20 to 50 per cent of women experience some degree of domestic violence during marriage worldwide,
- The primary victims of today's wars are civilian women and their children, not
- soldiers.
- Women hold only 11.7 per cent of the seats in the world's parliaments.
Or to put it more plainly: Women are half the world's people, who do two-thirds of the world's work. They earn one tenth of the world's income, and own one hundredth of the world's property. (Source: United Nations.)
Violence against women affects women of all ages, races, cultural and socio- economic backgrounds.
Having recognized the discrepancy between proclamations e.g. CEDAW and national constitutions enshrining human rights , UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, initiated a global campaign bringing together the United Nations, governments and civil society to end violence against women, calling it an issue that “cannot wait.” “It is a campaign to stop the untold cost that violence against women inflicts on all humankind. But there is one universal truth, applicable to all countries, cultures and communities: violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable, never tolerable”
What can we do as Soroptimists?
Most of our clubs are creating awareness about this important day; Advocacy and actions are planned on many levels and often in partnership with other organizations.
Let us know if you plan an action which needs support from other clubs in your country and /or other countries. IWD has a great website on which activities for this special day can be registered.
If you look for information material to strengthen your advocacy case you find great resources on the internet (see below)
Soroptimists in solidarity with our sisters worldwide have to ensure that the International Women’s Day is observed until women and girls haven been given an equal opportunity in all spheres of life and violence against women is considered unacceptable.
Links to useful websites:
- The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations hosts a website that contains useful information relevant to the day at website: http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/women
- UNIFEM, the UN Development Fund for Women, is the main UN body working for women’s empowerment and gender equality. UNIFEM’S mandate and programme strategies can be viewed at: http://www.unifem.undp.org/
- The United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) is responsible for servicing the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the main UN policy-making body for women. DAW’s role in advancing the status of women can be found at: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw