Why dedicate a day exclusively to the
celebration of the world's women?
The United
Nations General Assembly, composed of delegates from every
Member State, celebrates International Women's Day to
recognize that peace and social progress require the active
participation and equality of women, and to acknowledge the
contribution of women to international peace and security.
For the women of
the world, the Day is an occasion to review how far they have
come in their struggle for equality, peace and development.
You might think that women's equality
benefits mostly women, but every one-percentile growth in
female secondary schooling results in a 0.3 percent growth in
the economy. Yet girls are often kept from receiving education
in the poorest countries that would best benefit from the
economic growth.
Until the men
and women work together to secure the rights and full
potential of women, lasting solutions to the world's most
serious social, economic and political problems are unlikely
to be found.
In recent
decades, much progress has been made. On a worldwide level,
women's access to education and proper health care has
increased; their participation in the paid labor 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 society as policy-makers.
However, nowhere
in the world can women claim to have all the same rights and
opportunities as men.
The majority of
the world's 1.3 billion absolute poor are women.
On average,
women receive between 30 and 40 per cent less pay than men
earn for the same work.
And everywhere,
women continue to be victims of violence, with rape and
domestic violence listed as significant causes of disability
and death among women of reproductive age worldwide.
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