Associated Press ,
March 08, 2011
100th
anniversary of International Women's Day
By Edith Lederer
The head of the new
U.N. women's agency said Tuesday there has been "remarkable
progress" since International Women's Day was first celebrated
a century ago but gender equality remains a distant goal because
women still suffer widespread discrimination and lack political
and economic clout.
Former Chilean President
Michelle Bachelet said in a statement marking the 100th anniversary
that the pioneering women who launched the commemoration to promote
better working conditions, the right to vote and hold public office,
and equality with men, would probably look at the world today
"with a mixture of pride and disappointment."
It was discrimination
against women that brought over one million women and men from
the socialist movement onto the streets for rallies in Austria,
Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on what was originally called
International Working Women's Day on March 19, 1911.
The day became popular
in Eastern Europe, Russia and the former Soviet bloc, and eventually
spread around the globe. In some regions, it lost its political
flavor and became an occasion for men to express their love for
women with candy and flowers while in other regions, women's struggle
for human rights and political and social equality remained the
focus.
In 1975, during International
Women's Year, the United Nations began celebrating March 8 as
International Women's Day. Two years later the U.N. General Assembly
adopted a resolution proclaiming a day for women's rights and
international peace. This year, events are being held in many
countries to mark the 100th anniversary.
"The last century
has seen an unprecedented expansion of women's legal rights and
entitlements," Bachelet said, pointing to virtually universal
voting rights for women, major inroads for women in professions
from which they were banned, laws penalizing domestic violence
in two-thirds of the world's nations, and U.N. Security Council
recognition of sexual violence as a deliberate tactic of war.
But Bachelet, who became
the first executive director of UN Women in January, said that
despite this progress, "the hopes of equality expressed on
that first International Women's Day are a long way from being
realized."
Girls are still less
likely to be in school than boys, almost two-thirds of illiterate
adults are women, and every 90 seconds a woman dies in pregnancy
or due to childbirth-related complications despite the knowledge
and resources to make births safe, she said, and women continue
to earn less than men for the same work and have unequal inheritance
rights and access to land.
Despite some high-profile
advances, Bachelet said, only 28 women are heads of state or government
and just 8 percent are peace negotiators. Last week, the Inter-Parliamentary
reported that while the number of women in legislatures reached
an all-time high of 19.1 percent in 2010, "the target of
gender balance in politics is still a distant one."
Cracking the glass
ceiling also remains an uphill struggle for women in business,
especially getting into boardrooms and heading major companies.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture
Organization said in a report Monday that women farmers also face
serious discrimination.
Giving women the same
tools and resources as men, including better access to land, technology,
financial services, education and access to markets could reduce
the number of hungry people in the world by up to 150 million,
the report said.
Babatunde Osotimehin,
executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, said equal rights
are advanced when girls can avoid child marriage and enjoy equal
access to education, both men and women can plan their families,
and pregnant women no longer fear losing their jobs.
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