INTERNATIONAL WOMEN
DAY -2021 (DIVERSITY IS THE NEED OF HOUR)
International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the
social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also
marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is
witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women's achievements or
rally for women's equality.
Marked annually on March 8th, International Women's Day
(IWD) is one of the most important days of the year to:
·
Celebrate women's achievements
·
Raise awareness about women's equality
·
Lobby for accelerated gender parity
·
Fundraise for female-focused charities
Evert Year we all celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD)
on March 8 and throws the spotlight on women and their rights. Beginning early
1900s, IWD is “a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and
political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for
accelerating women’s equality,” according to the official IWD website.
The earliest Women's Day observance, called "National
Woman's Day", was held on February 28, 1909, in New York City, organized
by the Socialist Party of America at the suggestion of activist Theresa Malkiel.
In August 1910, an International Socialist Women's Conference was organized to
precede the general meeting of the Socialist Second International in
Copenhagen, Denmark. The following year on March 19, 1911, International
Women's Day (IWD) was marked for the first time, by over a million people in
Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.
The theme of 2021 is let’s all Choose to Challenge. “We can all choose to
challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek
out and celebrate women‘s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an
inclusive world. From challenge comes change, so let’s all choose to
challenge,”
Purple, green and white are the colors of International
Women's Day. Purple signifies justice and dignity. Green symbolizes hope. White
represents purity, albeit a controversial concept. The colors originated from
the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in the UK in 1908.
Some of the quotes that will mark the importance of
International Women Day 2021 are:
·
“No nation can rise to height of glory unless
your women are side by side with you” – Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
·
“There is no limit to what we, as women, can
accomplish.” – Michelle Obama
·
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast
a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” – Mother Teresa, Activist.
·
“A girl should be two things: Who and what she
wants.” –Coco Chanel
·
“Feminism isn’t about making women strong. Women
are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that
strength.” –G.D. Anderson
·
“The best protection any woman can have is
courage.” –Elizabeth Cady Stanton
·
“Where there is a woman, there is magic.”
–Ntozake Shange
·
“Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s
rights are human rights.” Hillary Clinton, American politician.
·
“After all those years as a woman hearing, ‘not
thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this enough, not that
enough,’ almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, ‘I am enough.’”
–Anna Quindlen.
Women face unique barriers in pursuit of social and
political equality. Employing the term “women’s issues” to address these
obstacles or the uneven playing field can give visibility to the particular
difficulties that women face, as opposed to other groups. So while women’s
rights are human rights, using specificity to define them brings visibility to
a population whose voice has been silenced.
While celebrating International women Day we in general
forget the basic major issues faced by most of the women of the world
irrespective of their Geographic’s and demographics’ as Women are involved in
all parts of society, but some matters affect and touch women more than others.
Whether you’re new to the topic or a
veteran advocate, this cheat sheet should help clarify what we mean when we talk
about something as broad as girls’ and women’s issues.
1. Access to Education
2. Domestic Abuse.
3. Over Reproductive Rights and Health.
4. Employment Opportunities
5. Maternal Health.
6. Workplace Sexual Harassment.
7. Forced Sex, rapes .
8. Sexism and Gender Bias Equality & Violence.
9. Child Marriage & Teen Pregnancy.
10. The Power of the Women's Vote
11. Gender Pay Gap
12. Female Genital Mutilation.
13. Water & Sanitation.
14. Women in Powerful Positions.
What I can suggest here max is Women’s marginalization, and
the patriarchal system where ingrained gender roles further perpetuate
inequality, do not exist in a bubble. The use of the term “women’s issues” can
be an oversimplification that removes from men the onus of participating in
solutions. Any hope of resolving these issues requires a shift in focus to
include everyone in the conversation.
We need a better understanding of the root causes of issues
labeled as “women’s,” and perhaps a new word that hasn’t yet tired from overuse
and become jargon. Men: label it gender inequality, label it a challenge for
society, but don’t ignore an issue labeled as “women’s.”
Beside all I pointed out above let me clarify another myth
on this International women Day that “more women on boards doesn’t guarantee diversity” and my
today’s small message is based on this element. As I believe that although more
women on boards is seen as an important indicator of gender equality and board
effectiveness, however there’s a problem in thinking board gender statistics
alone indicate significant progress on diversity if the women getting picked
for boards generally belong to the same networks as the male directors, thus it
does not solve the issue that because people from similar backgrounds and
social circles are less likely to have very different perspectives, or be
prepared to challenge the group.
Gender is only one facet of diversity. Ideally a board
should have members who are able to not only arrive at different solutions but
also voice these solutions. But for greater gender equality to really
contribute to greater thought diversity, we have to think about all the other
factors that might be just as important, such as ethnic, cultural and
socio-economic backgrounds, work and life experiences, educational attainment,
or even personality traits. Based on that I would say that lets just not raise
voice to place more and more women on higher seats but should follow the other
elements of diversity too.
Meanwhile, advocating for women and girls within development
is pretty popular right now. The UK women and equalities minister, Justine
Greening, stated last International Women’s Day that “the world cannot wait for
women’s empowerment”, while Australia’s minister for women’s affairs, Julie
Bishop, pledged to put gender equality and women’s empowerment at the heart the
country’s aid and trade strategies. Similarly, the folks at Davos, the World
Bank and World Economic Forum are all putting gender on their agendas.
Recently, even the Economist magazine has been waxing lyrical about gender
budgeting.
In short all I can say is the wheels of change are in
motion, and we need to maintain the passion and momentum as we’re not there
yet. When we reach our goal with gender, we can address our other diversity
challenges including ethnicity and age.
So let’s keep our fingers crossed either the slogan is Choose
to Challenge or any other, our focus should be on protecting and giving
Women their due share and respect in the Society.
BY:
Ovais Asad Khan
