Thursday, March 09, 2006

International Women's Day

Yesterday, March 8th 2006, was International Women's Day (IWD). IWD is celebrated worldwide and is even considered a holiday in many countries. It is defined as "a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women" (Source: Wikipedia), as well as “an opportunity to unite, network and mobilize for meaningful change” (Source: United Nations).

Knowing that this day would mean so much to women worldwide, I expected stories to be pouring in through the newswires about IWD celebrations around the globe. I spent most of the day online, waiting for news about all that has been accomplished as well as, all that still needs to be accomplished by women. At the end of the day, I was thoroughly disappointed. Yesterday was International Women’s Day! A worldwide celebration! How can that not be considered headline news? I was astounded by the lack of reporting on IWD. An event that, in my opinion, should have been one of the main, if not the main, focus of yesterday’s news. It was the perfect opportunity to discuss problems that are too often ignored. Instead, it was just another day to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that there are no problems, greater than our own.

I finally decided that if the news wasn’t going to come to me, then I was going to go find it myself. The initial results of my searches were also pretty disappointing. Nearly every article I found was either a rehash of UN Secretary General,
Kofi Annan’s speech, given earlier that morning or a fluff piece about children giving their mothers flowers to celebrate the day. After using spending a few hours digging around the Internet, I finally found a few articles that actually had some interesting insights about IWD.

I really enjoyed a piece entitled, “
International Women’s Day: Cutting through the crap”, in which the author address people’s “extreme ignorance of IWD and its role in the long-drawn-out effort across the world to establish the equality of human beings irrespective of sex (and other differences) and to secure women’s entitlement to fundamental human rights.” In addition, she mentions the other problem I encountered of IWD being “hijacked by commercial interests seeking to capitalize on anything and everything, it has in many ways been shorn of meaning and purpose, and placed alongside Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and so on, as an occasion for celebratory consumption.”

A large amount of articles I read, would mention all the positive accomplishments made by women, and never once touch upon the subject of what problems still exist. Therefore, I am thrilled that the author of “
International Women’s Day 2006” saw it necessary to inform readers that there exists a vast difference between government rhetoric and practice. Furthermore, she warned readers not to be “lulled in to complacency” about the struggle women still face. She urges that, “society too must take its responsibility and stop being complicit through its apathy, tolerance and silence.”

Another IWD article, entitled “
International Women’s Day: Time to rise up”, motivated readers to act by stating the necessity for gender equality and women’s empowerment to achieving fundamental human rights for women worldwide. In addition, the authors mention several startling facts about the current status of women.
  • Of the 1.3 billion people living on less than a dollar a day, 70% are women.
  • Only 16% of the world’s parliamentary seats are help by women.
  • Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury in nearly every country.
  • Each day, over 6000 girls undergo genital mutilation.
  • Women constitute two-thirds of the world’s illiterate population.
I hope that the articles I found have been, if nothing else, a bit more informative than the more common articles about IWD. Now, go forth and spread the knowledge. And if you have a few minutes to spare, and would like to learn more about International Women’s Day, try the sites listed below:

posted by tanvi @ 3:57 PM

1 Comments:

At 3/13/2006 9:59 PM, Blogger payal said...

Delicate,

Amazing post! Really excellent and sooo relevant. I'm still gathering my thoughts on your post and trying to read all the articles you linked so I'm going to wait to post a longer, more intellecual comment. However, I found these two links that I think are relevant to your post.
1)http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca200603/20060308womens_rights_different_to_human_right.htm

Quite a maddening post! womens rights=human rights. there is no difference according to the President of Sri Lanka. Um....WTF! NO!

2)http://blanknoiseproject.blogspot.com/

An amazing blog that tries to recognize "teasing as a sexual crime and establish the issue as something that may be normal, but is unacceptable." It also had a recent blog-a-thon with numerous bloggers from all over contributing to their mission. Just Brilliant. Check it out!

peace,
anklet

 

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