INTERNATIONAL WOMEN DAY -2021 (DIVERSITY IS THE NEED OF HOUR)

 

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