International Women's Day 2017

The International Women’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world to recognize and celebrate the social, cultural, political and economic achievements of women at national and international levels. Every year a theme is selected to focus on women empowerment by United Nations, organizations and individuals. This year (2017) the International Women’s Day theme is “Be Bold For Change”. The theme is selected to take innovative action that truly drives the greatest change for women. Last year, organizations and individuals around the world supported the “Pledge For Parity Campaign” and committed to help women and girls achieve their ambitions. There is a great need to accelerate the developmental efforts for women as the World Economic Forum predicts that gender gap won’t close entirely until 2186. But we can make a difference by being a leader within our own spheres of influence by taking bold pragmatic action to accelerate gender parity. Through purposeful collaboration, we can help women advance and unleash the limitless potential offered to economies all over the world.

The International Women's Day was first emerged from the activities of labor movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe. The first National Woman's Day was observed in the United States on 28 February when the Socialist Party of America designated this day in honour of the 1908 garment workers' strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions. While the first International Women’s Day was marked in 1911 as a result of the Copenhagen initiative (In 1910, he Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women's Day, international in character, to honour the movement for women's rights and to build support for achieving universal suffrage for women).

The Charter of the United Nations, signed in 1945, was the first international agreement to affirm the principle of equality between women and men. Since then, the UN has helped to create a historic legacy of internationally-agreed strategies, standards, programmes and goals to advance the status of women worldwide. Over the years, the UN and its technical agencies have promoted the participation of women as equal partners with men in achieving sustainable development, peace, security, and full respect for human rights. The empowerment of women continues to be a central feature of the UN's efforts to address social, economic and political challenges across the globe. The endeavor to support women’s development continued with the presentation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015 by the Head of State and Government and High Representative at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The 17 SDGs along with other challenges also addresses some key  challenges such as poverty, inequality and violence against women. Women have a critical role to play in all of the SDGs, with many targets specifically recognizing women’s equality and empowerment as both the objective, and as part of the solution. Goal 5 “Achieve Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls”, is known as the stand-alone gender goal because it is dedicated to achieving these ends.

According to the World Bank Report 2015 Pakistan constitutes 48% of women population while in economic sector their presence is not satisfactory. There is a need to engage more women in entrepreneurship in order to uplift the economic status of this country. The women are facing crucial problems in Pakistan such as domestic violence, work place harassment and inequalities, child marriages, acid attacks, dowry deaths, forced marriages and honor killing. Deep legal and legislative changes are needed to ensure women’s rights; the country has to focus on actual implementation of the existing laws on women rights and development. It is necessary to institutionalize those laws on top to grass root level. There is a need to amend the legal and social norms in favor of women. We also need to advance women’s political participation, leadership roles and economic empowerment.

References:

1.       http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/women-and-the-sdgs/sdg-5-gender-equality#sthash.oiUeNkTN.dpuf

2.       http://www.un.org/en/events/womensday/history.shtml

3.       The Global Gender Gap Report 2016

4.      Status of Women in Pakistan: Sanchita Bhattacharya