a long way gone… MARCH 8th.

Not just a women's fight, but a men's must!

?International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.?

—António Guterres, UN Secretary General

According to the results of the 2017 Revision, the world’s population numbered nearly 7.6 billion as of mid-2017. 49,6% of those billions are Women. [1]

Out of the 10 fingers that human beings have, 5 in each hand, who in their sane mind would consider cutting one or two of them? Who would determine that it is unnecessary to have so many fingers? Would you ever, hypothetically, consider having fewer fingers, perhaps having removed your pinkie since it’s the smallest? Very likely, nobody in his/her sane mind would consider any the fingers useless or being a superfluous body part. 

But, if nobody in their sane mind would remove any finger, why does a society, so-called contemporary and developed, today persists on having half of the population (49,6%) nullified, relegated to a second level? Very often even to a third level. 

Gender equality is intrinsically linked to sustainable development and it is vital to the accomplishment of human rights for all. The overall objective of gender equality is a society in which women and men enjoy the same opportunities, rights and obligations in all spheres of life. Equality between men and women exists when power and influence are equally distributed between both sexes; have equal opportunities for financial independence through work or through setting up businesses; enjoy equal access to education and the opportunity to develop personal ambitions, interests and talents; share responsibility for the home and children and are completely free from coercion, intimidation and gender-based violence both at work and at home.

Yet, despite progress, women and girls around the world do not fully experience equal rights and their potential as economic, social and sustainable development change-agents remains untapped.

While 39 per cent of countries worldwide have used some form of quota system to increase women’s representation in politics, parity is far from reality—as of 2017, only 23.4 per cent of all national parliamentarians are women. [2]

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) publications[3],in the labour market, women worldwide make 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. At the same time, they carry out three times as much unpaid household and care work as men —from cooking and cleaning, to fetching water and firewood, or taking care of children and the elderly.

No country in the world is untouched by the pandemic of intimate partner violence—1 in 5 women and girls aged 15 to 49 across 87 countries reported experiencing physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner; 49 countries have no laws specifically protecting women from domestic violence. [4]

Harmful practices, such as child marriage and female genital mutilation, continue to impose limits to women and girls of equal opportunities. The numbers are staggering— at least 200 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation; and over 750 million women and girls today were married before their 18th birthday. [5]

Targeting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment is not only important from the perspective of guaranteeing women’s rights but is also an essential element of smart economies. Women are key agents of change and when women and men are equal, economies grow faster; less people remain in poverty, and the overall well-being of people increases. Harnessing women’s potential as economic actors, leaders and consumers result in higher levels of industrialization and more sustained growth rates. Global gross domestic product could increase by more than 25 per cent by 2025 if women played the same role in labour markets as men.

Poverty elimination can only be achieved by addressing its disproportionate burden, lack of access to education, health services, and productive opportunities borne by women. Gender inequality represents a huge loss of human potential, with costs for men as well as for women. Gender equality is therefore paramount to democracy, development and a human rights system, which all people are entitled to.

Empowering women and girls helps expand economic growth, promote social development and establish more stable and fair societies. Women’s economic empowerment benefits both women and children. It is pivotal to the health and social development of families, communities and nations. Further, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) underscore women’s empowerment as an important development objective, in and of itself, and highlight the relevance of gender equality to addressing a wide range of global challenges.

Several years after the World Conference on Women, during the Fifteen-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action ?Beijing+15?, Member States and Civil Societyemphasisedthe burning need of promoting an active and visible policy of mainstreaming of gender in all policies and programmes, implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to gender equality and empowerment of women. 

History gives outstanding names of women in all the different and unthinkable areas, from Aspasia de Miletoto Eleanor Roosevelt; from Isadora Duncan to Coco Chanel; from Concepción Arenalto Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti; who greatly contributed to our society development in such ways and in so many different fields of expertise that without them, most probably we would not be where we are at these days.

We, the so-called modern society, now and before, must search our own conscience and be carefully to think how are we contributing to reduce that abovementioned figure of 49,6%. Because, in the same way that nobody in his/her right mind would consider that any finger is superfluous, no society can be called modern and/or developed if constantly nullifying half of their population basically because being women. 

Nobody can do everything but everybody can do something!

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[1] United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017).?World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision?. New York: United Nations.

[2] Single House or Lower House. Inter-Parliamentary Union. ?Women in national parliaments?. November 2018.

[3] United Nations, International Labour Organization ?World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends for Women 2018 – Global snapshot?.Geneva: ILO, 2018, and ?Closing the gender pay gap: a review of the issues, policy mechanisms and international evidence?. Geneva: ILO, 2016. 

[4] World Health Organization, Department of Reproductive Health and Research, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, South African Medical Research Council (2013). ?Global and regional estimates of violence against women: prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence?and ?The World’s Women 2015, Trends and Statistics?.

[5] United Nations Children’s Fund, ?Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A global concern?, UNICEF, New York, 2016.

(*) Photo-collage, downward direction, right to left: 

Juana de Arco (1412-1431),Concepción Arenal (1820–1893),Clara Barton (1821-1912), Martina Bergman-?sterberg (1849-1915), Elvia Carrillo Puerto (1878-1968), Cleopatra (LX-XXX a.C.), Coco Chanel (1883-1971), Isadora Duncan (1878-1927), Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958),Indira Gandhi (1917-1984), Marga Gil Ro?sset (1908–1932),Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014), Frida Khalo (1910-1954), Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952), Ding Ling (1904 – 1986), Ada Lovelace (1815–1852), Aspasia de Mileto (V, a.C.), Maryam Mirzakhani (1977-2017), Florence Nightingale (1820-1910),Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928),Rosa Parks (1913-2005),Ana Pavlova (1882-1931),Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (1900–1978)Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), Murasaki Shikibu (978 – 1016), Madre Teresa (1910-1997), María Zambrano (1904–1991).

? CMadeCyC. Spain. 2019. 

#UN #UnitedNations #OSCE #ODIHR #EU #UNWomen #InternationalWomensDay #SDG #peacekeeping #democracy #humanrights #development #education #MewithHER #gender #GenderEquality #Standup4humanrights