Celebrating International Women’s Day

As someone who has spent a career studying women’s health issues, March 8th has a special meaning for me. A time to commemorate the economic, political and social achievements of women, International Women’s Day holds such great significance in today’s world, where there is much to celebrate but still much to do.

We are living in a pivotal moment in history. For the first time in the United States –– a country that ranks 71st in the world in terms of female political representation –– the next president might well be a woman. Worldwide, women now comprise an increasing share of the world’s labor force –– at least one-third in all regions except northern Africa and western Asia. And yet we are a long way from comprehensive and integrated services for all. According to the UN’s Statistics Division: women account for almost half of all cases of HIV/AIDS; women and girls comprise half of the world’s refugees and are consequently particularly vulnerable to sexual violence; and two-thirds of the world’s 876 million illiterates are women. The gender divide exists, and issues of social justice and equity remain.

As a society, our challenges are huge. In the area of community planning, we must design safe and accessible communities that are geared to the needs of women. They must take into consideration that women are often the ones responsible for integrating their family in the community. They must take into consideration the many roles of women, as mothers, workers, caregivers, wives, daughters, grandmothers, and everything else. CARE, a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty, recently published an article on climate change and its effects on women. When climate-caused disasters strike, women typically have less cash savings, lower levels of education, greater workloads and smaller social networks to draw upon than men, exacerbating the gender inequalities. CARE’s recently developed Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment tool therefore analyzes climate risks for women, identifies appropriate measures to adapt to climate change and integrates this knowledge into planning and decision-making. This model serves as an example of how the need to frame women’s issues in a broader context can be achieved.

This March 8th, as we celebrate International Women’s Day, let us also celebrate the movers and doers who have made women’s rights at the core of social justice. But let us remember that there are many more hurdles we must work to overcome, challenges we can only solve when we work together.