International Women's Day 2020

International Women's Day every year brings both celebrations of global progress and new efforts against continuing discrimination against women and lack of investment in their health and economic well-being. Today I remember the women I worked with in

Koutiala Mali. We celebrated IWD day two years in a row. Coming together to dance on a day dedicated to talking about women’s issue. One of these is the only day in Mali I heard talk of family planning out in the open.

The United Nations theme this year “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights.”  The United Nations expects more than 730 events in 50 countries to mark the 99th anniversary of the drive for equality for half the planet’s population – at home, under law, at work and in government. Conceived at a women’s conference in Copenhagen in 1910 as a way to celebrate women’s contributions, the day gained momentum during the suffrage movement and became a worldwide celebration.

It wasn’t until 1994 in the US when Congresswoman Waters of California introduced and arranged passage of a bill in the US Legislature that gave a national and political mandate to recognition International Women’s Day.  This national recognition has not trickled down to communities across our nation.

Even today in the United States where we hardly celebrated it at all.  What evolved out of the same sentiment here in the United States has become March, Women’s History Month. During March civic buildings and libraries all over the United States display important woman in our history and how they helped to shape our world of today.

Worldwide IWD  is an official holiday in Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia.

Many see that women and girls today enjoy better health, more rights and longer lives than their grandmothers did, but the average disguises serious disparities. Yet today in 2020 the global consensus is that despite this progress, real change has been agonizingly slow for the majority of women and girls in the world. Today, not a single country can claim to have achieved gender equality. Multiple obstacles remain unchanged in law and in culture. Women and girls continue to be undervalued; they work more and earn less and have fewer choices; and experience multiple forms of violence at home and in public spaces. Many of us believe there is a significant rollback of hard-won feminist gains.

We remember then First Lady Hillary Clinton when she spoke at the UN’s fourth world conference on Women in 1994 held in Beijing, where she gave her controversial speech declaring that Women’s rights are Human rights. The ridicule that followed echoed around the world and yet we women remember her for this insight. We also rtecall the ridicule she endured during her historical presidential run. Many of us see women’s rights moving backwards not only here in the United States but around the world.

AIDS has reversed gains in life expectancy in some areas: 17.5 million women are living with HIV, and three of every four of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet more than 200 million couples do not have access to contraceptive services that could both prevent HIV infection and help them space their children at healthier intervals.
Life for women continue to be hard. In Nigeria, for example, one in every 18 women has a lifetime risk of dying from complications of pregnancy and delivery, among the world’s highest rates. Only one in every 4,800 U.S. women will die of such causes. The global toll is more than 536,000 women every year – one per minute – nearly all in developing countries.
Around the world today women came out to the streets to voice their opinions. A number of Mexican women are  protesting against femicide in Mexico. A demonstration is taking place in the capital of Baghdad to call for gender equality.
The Prime Ministers of Iceland, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden have released a joint statement reaffirming their commitments to gender equality. These countries took what some called extreme measures by passing strict anti-discrimination or affirmative action laws in the last couple of years. These laws succeeded in bringing gender equality closer to a reality. In California The statement also highlights their “grave concern over the current pushback against women’s and girls’ rights” and calls on other world leaders to reject this.
In the United States Fargo ND, Kansas City MO, Cook Co IL, Murray, UT and Oklahoma City, OK, just some of the unlikely places celebrating International Women’s day today just to name of same the place that surprised me.

Today I celebrate the Women on Boards (Senate Bill 826) law  signed into law to advance equitable gender representation on California corporate boards. California is now leading the way as the first state in the nation to require all publicly held domestic or foreign corporations whose principal executive offices are located in California to have at least one female director on their boards by December 31, 2019. The change was brought by a convergence of factors, including a law passed in California in 2018 and mounting pressure from financial firms. Moreover, the mandate has inspired proposals in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Hawaii, New York and Illinois. Even if those similar ideas don’t turn into binding laws, the California mandate was “a real wake-up call,

Today on IWD we can only hope for a better future.