[CNN]
Why we celebrate International Women's Day
By Melinda Gates , Special to CNN
March 8, 2013 -- Updated 1325 GMT (2125 HKT)
CNN.com
Editor's note: Melinda Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation. This piece was published in collaboration with the Skoll World
Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, a platform for accelerating entrepreneurial
approaches and innovative solutions to the world's most pressing social issues.
(CNN) -- The calendar is overflowing with occasions to mark. It seems like
there's a special day for almost everything.
For example, September 19 is celebrated by some as International Talk Like a
Pirate Day. But the surplus of observances shouldn't detract from the really
important ones, like Friday, March 8, International Women's Day.
The first International Women's Day was held in 1911, but it was international
only in the technical sense that women in four European nations marched. These
activists were ahead of their time in thinking about women's economic and
political equality; they may not have been so far ahead of their time that they
envisioned what it has come to mean for many of us today.
Now, International Women's Day represents a movement that is for every woman
and girl, no matter where they live. This year, Malala Yousafzai became the
youngest Nobel Peace Prize nominee in history by risking her life for the cause
of universal girls' education.
Her courage has inspired women across the world. Some of the bravest, most
revolutionary voices about empowerment are coming from women and girls like
Malala who are calling the world's attention to social norms that prevent women
from realizing their full potential.
I just spent some time visiting the poorest parts of Northern India, where I
met a courageous woman named Sharmila Devi. Because the government has invested
in its basic health system, she received a visit from a trained health worker
who told her that spacing her pregnancies was safer for herself and her
children.
Sharmila decided to use contraceptives despite the opposition of her
mother-in-law. In India, husbands and mothers-in-law have been at the core of
family decision making power structures for generations. Sharmila's courage in
seeking outside information and defying her parents-in-law as a way to
determine her own future and improve that of her children represents a huge
leap forward for women throughout the country.
Here is the reality we must confront on International Women's Day: The
decisions women make about their families are the key to improving life for
many of the poorest communities in the world.
The evidence shows that in the developing world, women play a different role
than men and are more likely to take care of their family's health care and
nutrition, things that children need to become productive adults and contribute
to the economic and social development of societies.
Melinda Gates' fight for contraceptives
Malala's story inspires film
In fact, research has shown that a child's chances of survival increase by 20%
when the mother controls the household budget. Yet in many places, women,
especially young women, have very little decision-making authority to be able
to effect this kind of change.
The work of making sure that women and girls everywhere can seize their
potential is about making specific changes that will set into motion these
longer term outcomes. For me, it means making sure they have access to the
contraceptives so many women tell me they want and need. It's also about harder
to measure changes like whether they have the information and the power to plan
their families on their own terms.
When I try to imagine the future, I am optimistic because I see women demanding
information and opportunities in the face of social norms that say they're not
permitted to do so. I'm also optimistic because no matter where I go, people
ask me, "What can I do to help?"
Malala and Devi aren't the only heroes. Millions of peoplemen and womenstand
by the conviction that empowered women are a source of progress, and they want
to take action.
That's why I'm proud to announce the launch of my team page on Catapult.org, a
crowd-funding platform dedicated to supporting women and girls. I identified
these three great projects from GirlUp, Breakthrough, and Jacaranda Health and
hope you can join Catapult to help fund them.
Our foundation will match every dollar donated to these projects. Together, we
can help women and girls determine their own future, no matter where they're
from.
To me, this is why marking International Women's Day is important. It's a
chance for so many people to move beyond "celebrating" and take action to
create meaningful and sustainable change for women and girls.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Melinda Gates.
© 2013 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All
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