International Women’s Day – a Step Towards Gender Empowerment

International Women’s Day – a Step towards Gender Empowerment

By –

Keshab Chandra Mandal, Ph. D.

E-Mail: mandalkeshab2013@gmail.com

Introduction

About one and a half centuries have elapsed since John Stuart Mill, the British Member of Parliament spoke vehemently in the Parliament for the voting right of women. Mill, the foreseer politician and philosopher, perfectly understood the necessity of voting right for women because it is the only weapon by which women can play decisive role in electing representatives of their choice and getting elected in democratic decision-making bodies. However, more than one hundred years later of Mill’s advocacy, the United Nations General Assembly accelerated the process by proclaiming the year 1975 as the International Women’s Year. This declaration was a turning point in the sphere of women’s empowerment. The United Nations Organization also declared 1976-1985 as the Decade for Women with a view to examine the status and rights of women and bring them into decision-making bodies at all levels.

 The first World Conference of the International Women’s Year was held in Mexico City in the year 1975. Since then a series of steps towards empowering women began to spurt. In 1979, the General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and set an international standard for establishing equality between women and men. The Second World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace was held in Copenhagen in July 1980 and the Third World Conference to review and appraise the achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women was held in Nairobi (1985). And finally the Fourth World Conference on empowerment of women was held in Beijing, China in September 1995. Besides, Five-year Review of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Beijing +5) was held in the General Assembly between 5 to 9 June, 2000. Similarly 10 -Year, 15-Year and 20-Year Review of the Beijing Platform of Action were held at regional, national and international level for ensuring empowerment of women and ending discrimination between men and women. 

Late Benozir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, who being a delegate in the Beijing Conference pointed out that, “Empowerment is not only the right to have political freedom. Empowerment is the right to be independent; to be educated; to have choices in life. Empowerment is the right to have the opportunity to select a productive career; to own property; to participate in business; to flourish in the market place.”

Backdrop of International Women’s Day

Being tremendously exploited along with unbridled oppression by the male-dominated society throughout entire America and Europe, let apart Asian and African countries, the newly-educated and upcoming progressive women, supported by a few liberal men, began to protest against tyranny of slave-owners, factory owners, political, religious and social bosses as well as landlords. Women, the most sufferers in the hands of the men, compelled to take to streets. They organized marches, strikes and other methods of protest since 1909. However, the earliest Women's Day observance was held on 28 February 1909 in New York, organized by the Socialist Party of America in remembrance of the 1908 strike of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.

In 1910 an international conference of working women was held in Copenhagen where Clara Zetkin, leader of the ‘women’s office’ for the German Social Democratic Party, tabled the idea of an International Women’s Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day, a Women’s Day, to press for their demands and promote equal rights and women's suffrage. However, the very first International Women’s Day was launched the following year on March 19, and like the present not on 8^th March. This day was observed for the first time by over a million people in European countries - Denmark, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The participating women demanded that they be given the right to vote and hold public office and protested against employment sex discrimination. However, soon thereafter, on March 25, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City killed over 140 garment workers. A lack of safety measures was blamed for the high death toll. Furthermore, on the eve of World War I, women across Europe held peace rallies on 8 March, 1913.

In the meantime, plans for the first International Women’s Day demonstration were spread by word of mouth and in the press. Success of the first International Women’s Day in 1911 exceeded all expectation. The first International Women’s Day was observed on 28 February 1909 in the United States following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. Among other relevant historic events, it came to commemorate the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Meetings were organized everywhere in small towns and even the village halls were packed so full that male workers were asked to give up their places for women. As a result, men stayed at home with their children for a change; and on the other hand, their wives, the captive housewives went to meetings.

In 1913 International Women’s Day was transferred to 8 March and since then this day has remained the global date for International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day is now an official holiday in China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The tradition on this day is that men honor their mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, girl students and others with flowers and small gifts. Some even teach them formally or informally how to protect themselves from societal and political oppression and aggression; how to be economically, educationally and culturally empowered; what are the importance of gaining equality between men and women and why to protect girl child. Annually on March 8, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate achievements. Though the International Women’s Day was being celebrated since the first half of the twentieth century, it could no longer stand on its own feet and failed to achieve something great. It was only from the sixties of the previous century that the IWD started to walk independently, which prompted the United Nations to take some concrete steps through the declaration of Women’s Decade (1976-1985).

Celebration of IWD in 2015

The International Women’s Day (IWD-2015) is being celebrated globally through different colorful    events. This year’s IWD celebration highlights the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a historic roadmap attended by 17,000 participants and about 30,000 Non-Government activists and signed by 189 governments 20 years ago that sets the agenda for realizing women’s rights even today. All the participants were remarkably diverse, came from around the globe with a determination to advance gender equality, development, peace and empowerment of all women, everywhere in the world. As a defining framework for change, the Platform for Action made comprehensive commitments under 12 critical areas of concern. Even 20 years later, it remains a powerful source of guidance and inspiration.

The Beijing Platform for Action seeks to establish such a beautiful world where each woman and girl can live freely, peacefully and happily; exercise her freedoms and choices; enjoy all her rights – educational, political, economic, cultural, physical and social. In her message for International Women's Day 2015, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka says, “Gender parity must be reached before 2030, so that the sluggish trajectory of progress can be reversed that condemns a child born today to wait 80 years before they see an equal world.” She calls on all countries to “step it up” for gender equality, to reach ‘Planet 50-50’ before 2030. In his message for International Women’s Day 2015 Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary General says that, "When we unleash the power of women, we can secure the future for all."

Why Especially International Women’s Day Celebration is Necessary?

The necessity of observing the International Women’s Day can be well understood from the following statement of Gro Harlem Brundtland, Prime Minister of Norway, who attended the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995: “Today, there is not a single country in the world - not one - where men and women enjoy equal opportunities. So we must go back from Beijing to the shantytowns of third world megacities, to the croplands at the desert’s edge in Africa, and to the indigenous communities of Latin American rain forests. We must go home to change values and attitudes. But not only there: we must go to boardrooms, to the suburbia of Europe and North America, to all of our local communities, to our Governments and to United Nations Headquarters. This is where change is required - both in the North and in the South.” Her observation in the nineties of the previous century is still relevant in the second decade of the 21^st century. Gender empowerment and equality between men and women are two most vital issues of this century too.

Gender empowerment is now a sine qua non for the all-round development of a nation in particular and the world as a whole. Without equal participation of women and girls in all decision-making bodies and their equal participation in work force and attainment of education and without development of skills, sustainable development of a country is next impossible. If we have a glimpse into the Human Development Report - 2013 we will find that still there is a huge gap between countries with very high human development index and low human development index. There is a big gap between men and women in regard to labor force participation as well as political participation in local, national and international bodies including the United Nations. There is not a single country where women enjoy equal de facto rights and enjoy equal treatment in office, home or society. Except a few Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) and African Rwanda, women’s presence in their respective national parliament is much lesser in comparison to their population. Women earn lesser than their men counterpart in all countries. In matters of familial health expenditure women and girls are deprived and discriminated. Women have little freedom and choice in their reproductive matters. One could find it most difficult if travels in the entire world where women, in general, work lesser time than men and own more wealth than men. Women are the poorest; the condition of single mothers is indescribable.

At present there is not a single locality and country where a girl is not abused or beaten or discriminated by her male counterpart. Only place where both boys and girls have gained parity is the enrolment in primary education. But there is a remarkable gap between the number of male and female teachers, players, coaches, researchers, scientists, astronauts, prime ministers, presidents, political decision-makers and where not?

Conclusions

The Beijing Platform for Action is still forward-looking at 20 and offers important focus in gathering and rallying people around gender equality and women’s empowerment, because the two most vital issues are still unresolved.  There is no denying of the fact that, there has been important progress in achieving equality between women and men. In the beginning of this century we have got Millennium Development Goals, some of which highlight women’s economic, educational, political empowerment and health. Many Governments have enacted legislation to promote equality between women and men and have established national machineries to ensure the mainstreaming of gender perspectives in all spheres of society. International agencies, Non-Governmental agencies, private players have focused greater attention on women’s status and roles. In last twenty years we have achieved a lot, and a lot more needs to be achieved.

We need women at all levels of management – academic to sports and government - local as well as national government. All girls and women must have modern, liberal and scientific education. But only education will not suffice, they need to develop skills, so that they can do some economic activities by themselves and earn money. Women need to learn methods of self-protection through judo-karate, boxing and others. They must cherish independent mentality and not parasitical mentality. Political participation at all levels will make positive changes in their own life as well as benefit family and society. When women take political decisions they think about children, young and old of the locality and constituency. They are good managers, less corrupt and hard-working persons. Only educated and liberal women can give better governance and bring down corruption.

Women occupy half of the sky. They need half space in every sphere and occupation and they must enjoy fifty percent of the fruits of development. As they are not in a position to enjoy equal rights and dignity and do not hold equal decision making power, therefore, it is perquisite to move on for ensuring equality between men and women and achieving empowerment of all women. If women are unhappy and distressed, no family, society, institution, country and the world as a whole can ever be happy and prosperous. Hence, women’s equality, dignity and empowerment are the highest need of this hour.

The end.