International Women's Day
“To all the incredible women in the world, shine on, not just today but every single day. Happy Women's Day.”
[ Picture Source : Google ]
International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated each year on 8th of March to acknowledge the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women. It is also highlights the issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.
This year, UN IWD theme is 'Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow'. The goal behind Women's Day is to spread the message of gender equality, celebrate the achievements and contributions of women in different spheres and contribution towards building a society free of all gender biases, stereotypes, gender parity and discrimination.
Adoption Of IWD By United Nations
In the year 1975, The United Nations began celebrating International Women's Day. In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as an official UN holiday for women's rights and world peace. It has since been acknowledged by the UN and most of the countries around the world, each year UN came up with a theme focused on issues within women's rights.
IWD Around The World
IWD is an official holiday in several countries worldwide, including Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Germany (Berlin only), Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Zambia.
In some countries, such as Australia, Cameroon, Croatia, Romania,Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Vietnam, and Chile, IWD is not an official public holiday, but is widely observed.
FACT : In Italy, the holiday is observed by men giving yellow mimosas to women. This originated with communist politician Teresa Mattei, who chose the mimosa in 1946 as the symbol of IWD because the predominant symbols of the day, violets and lily-of-the-valley, were too scarce and expensive to be used effectively in Italy.
Facts and Figures
- Globally, 750 million women and girls were married before the age of 18 and at least 200 million women and girls in 30 countries have undergone FGM.
- The rates of girls between 15-19 who are subjected to FGM (female genital mutilation) in the 30 countries where the practice is concentrated have dropped from 1 in 2 girls in 2000 to 1 in 3 girls by 2017.
- In 18 countries, husbands can legally prevent their wives from working; in 39 countries, daughters and sons do not have equal inheritance rights; and 49 countries lack laws protecting women from domestic violence.
- While women have made important inroads into political office across the world, their representation in national parliaments at 23.7 per cent is still far from parity.
- In 46 countries, women now hold more than 30 per cent of seats in national parliament in at least one chamber.
- In Southern Asia, a girl’s risk of marrying in childhood has dropped by over 40per cent since 2000.