Responses to International Women's Day
Md. Masum Billah
Globally
on March 08, thousands of events take place to inspire women and to
celebrate achievements connecting women from all around the world.
Their activities range from political rallies, business conferences,
governmental works and networking events to fashion parades and more.
Why is this day observed?
The majority of the world's 1.3
billion absolute poor are women. For every 100 men, there are 98.6
women. There are nearly 1.0 billion adults in the world. Two out of
every three of them are women. Out of every four households in the
world, one is headed by a woman. There are 130 million children
worldwide who are not in school. Two out of every three of these are
girls. Over the last 50 years, most progress has been achieved in
securing political rights for women, the right to vote
and to be elected. Today, there are only a few countries where women
cannot vote or run for public office. However, even though women can
run for office in most countries, their participation in government is
still very low. Only 24 women have been elected heads of states or
government in this century, in 1995 there were 10 women heads of state.
Although women's representation at the highest level of government is
generally the weakest in Asia, four of these 10 held office in this
region. Only 14.1 per cent of the representatives elected to
Parliaments around the world are women, up from 11.7 in 1997. The
percentage of female cabinet ministers worldwide has risen from 3.0 in
1987 to 6.2 in 1996. In early 1995 Sweden formed the world's first
cabinet to have equal numbers of men and women. Of the 189 highest
ranking diplomats to the United Nations, only eleven are women. The
statistics themselves speak out why we should observe Women's Day
internationally.
International
women's Day has been observed since the early 1900's, a time of great
expansion and turbulence in the industrialised world that saw booming
population growth and the rise of radical ideologies. Great unrest and
critical debate were taking place among women. Women's oppression and
inequality were spurring women to become more vocal and active in the
campaign for change. Then in 1908, 15000 women marched through New York
City, demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. In
accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the
first National Women's Day was observed across the United States on
February 28, 1909. Women continued to celebrate National Women's Day on
the last Sunday of February until 1913. In 1910, a secondinternational
conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named Clara
Zetkin who was the leader of the Women's Office for the Social Democratic Party
in Germany, 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. Following the decision agreed at Copenhagen in 1911,International
Women's Day was honoured the first time in Australia, Denmark, Germany
and Switzerland on March 19. More than one million women and men
attendedInternational Women's Day rallies, campaigning for women's
rights to work, to vote, be trained, to hold public office and to end
discrimination. However, less than a week later on March 25 the tragic
Triangle Fire in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working
women. On the eve of World War 1, campaigning for peace, Russian women
observed their firstInternational women's Day on last Sunday in
February, 1913. On last Sunday of February 1917, Russian women began a
strike for 'bread and peace' in response to the death over two million
Russian soldiers' in war. Opposed by political leaders, the women
continued the strike until four days later when the Czar was forced to
abdicate and the provisional government granted womenthe right to vote.
Showing
due respect, the Day is now observed as an official holiday in China,
Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan,
Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. This
tradition encourages men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends
and colleagues with flowers and small gifts.
The new
millennium has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in
both women's' and society's thoughts about women's equality and
emancipation. However, great improvements have been made. We do have
female astronauts and prime ministers; school girls are entering into
colleges and universities. It is obvious that the tone and nature
ofInternational
Women's Day has, for the past few years, moved from being a reminder
about the negatives to a celebration of the positives. The United
Nations General Assembly, composed of delegates from every member
state, celebratesInternational Women's Day to recognize that peace and
social progress require active participation and equality of women and
to acknowledge the contribution of women tointernational peace and security.
On
a worldwide level, women's access to education and proper health care
has increased; their participation in the paid labour force has grown
and legislation that promises equal opportunities for women and respect
for their human rights has been adopted in many countries. The world
now has an ever-growing number of women participating in the society as
policy makers. In Bangladesh, over the last several years various
programmes have been undertaken both at government and non-government
initiatives. The Female Secondary School Stipend Programme ( FSSAP) of
the government has exceeded its targets. Beginning as an experiment in
1982 by a local NGO in a single upazila with the USAID financial
assistance under the supervision of the Asia Foundation, it covered all
secondary schools in 460 upazilas with the support of mutli-donors. It
was a ground- breaking programme which provided incentives to keep
girls in schools and resulted in large increase in enrolments, delays
in the age of marriage, a higher number of single-child families,
improved birth spacing, more females employed with higher incomes,
decrease in the amount of dowries and more confident and awareness
among females who are involved in their children's education. Girls'
enrolment has increased from an average 0f 7.9 per cent to 14 per cent
in some areas and drop-out rates have fallen from 14.7 to 3.5.
In
1993 the Adolescent Development Programme of BRAC launched 'Reading
Centres' which was later renamed as 'Kishori Kendra'. The initial
innovative purpose was to retain the literacy of BRAC primary school
graduates, who were not continuing the education. Now it is working
with an explicitly stated goal to improve the quality of life of the
vulnerable adolescent, especially girls of the villages. Now there
exist about 8500 Adolescent Centers throughout the country with 215050
members. The ADP club is its one-room rendezvous of a village which not
only contains reading materials but also has become a safe place where
the girls can socialize, play indoor games , sing , dance and exchange
views and experience, know about the health hazards during the changing
of their age and monthly periods. Some livelihood trainings are also
provided to make them economically solvent.
Women's equality
benefits mostly women, but every one-percentile growth in female
secondary schooling results in a 0.3 per cent growth of the economy.
Yet girls do not often get the facility to receive education in the
poor countries that would benefit most from the economic growth. Until
the men and women work together to secure the full potentials of women,
lasting solutions to the world's most serious social, economic and
political problems will not be found.
The writer is Senior Manager: BRAC Education Program, PACE. He can be reached
at
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=94194
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