International Women's Day Celebrates 100 Years

Today, March 8th is International Women’s Day (IWD), a day that was established to commemorate the struggle women and girls across the globe have endured in order to obtain their ‘full’ human rights.  The 2011 theme is; Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women.  This year is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, The first International Women’s Day events were held in 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.  Now 100 years later, International Women’s Day is having its biggest celebration ever and is celebrated across the globe and is marked an official holiday in some 25 countries.  In the United States the entire month of March has now been designated as Women’s History Month, as officially proclaimed by President Obama on February 28, 2011.

Nonetheless while significant progress has been made for the improvement of the lives of women and girls across the globe since 1911, millions of women and young girls worldwide are continue to be denied their rights to equal and fair access to education and healthcare. Millions of women and girls every day are faced with Gender Inequality and many are faced with gender-based violence such as; Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)/Female Circumcision, Child Marriage, Child Trafficking, and other gender and sexually-based human rights abuses.   Not only do women continue to earn less than men for doing the same work, but they have less access to land ownership and, as girls, are less likely to go to school, said Michelle Bachelet, the head of UN Women (The Associated Press).

Tamara Kreinin, executive director of Women and Population at the United Nations Foundation, also remarked on the need to continue development and progress for gender equality, as seventy percent of the world’s poor are women, and addressing inequality is essential to achieving sustainable development goals (AlertNet).  It is many of these women who will risk it all in the hopes of provided a better economic future for their families, as millions of women from impoverished countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America have left their children behind to work abroad. UN Population Fund deputy executive director Purnima Mane said, “It is one of the biggest untold stories of this century…These women make a huge contribution but their contribution doesn’t show up in an official database and so too often we ignore it.” (The New York Times).

While many women and girls still struggle, others have set forth to be industry and world leaders, and it is these female leaders that will pave the way forward for the those who still struggle to achieve their ‘full’ and equal rights. The role of women and girls in all aspects of society is vital to a sustainable and peaceful global community. Celebrate women and girls, empower them and they will lead us towards a better tomorrow!

To see events around the globe celebrating International Women’s Day click here.