Every 8th of March women are officially celebrated worldwide, focusing on their achievements throughout history with respect to achievement in core areas like economy, society and politics. The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is “Pledge for Parity”, according to the
International Women’s Day website, and “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality” according to
United Nation’s Women. An initiative organized by the UN Women, Step It Up for Gender Equality, hopes to achieve a world where all women and girls have equal opportunities and rights by 2030, asking governments to step up commitments through laws and actions, that will close the gender equality gap. Today, 91 out of 196 countries have signed up for this initiative.
Celebration for International Women’s Day was held for the first time in 1975 by the United Nations who also began the adoption of an annual theme in 1996 with the theme: Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future”. But women all over the world had before then raised their voices against being marginalized and abused. The most notable campaign in dated back to 1908 when a group of 15,000 women in New York raised their voices in demand for better pay and voting rights. In an international conference held in 1910, Clara Zetkin, Leader of the Women’s Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany, proposed the idea of an annual celebration in every country to press for the demands of women. Today, IWD is an official holiday in many countries.
Today, the official UN commemoration will take place at the UN Secretariat in New York City. Among other performances, two panel discussions will be held. The first panel will focus on the meaning of of gender equality and how to achieve it by 2030. The second panel, The Push for Parity, will probe the progress and examine challenges in achieving gender parity.
However, much more important than societal recognition, all women want to be safe in a world that we can also call ours. This is the cry for gender equality, being able to live as a human in what is perceived as a male dominated world. After all, women have no other place to live than in the same world they share with men. If this is so, why are they prey to sexual and domestic violence, denied rights to leadership, and not given equal opportunities in workplaces?
Nigeria still battles with such factors as abduction and displacement of girls, girl child trafficking, domestic violence against women, sexual abuse and cultural practices that do not favor women such as marriage of under aged women and genital mutilation. If we as a nation are still at the point of providing basic needs of safety for our women, the leadership issues such as equal opportunities in work places, equal employment rights as men and leadership in government might take a longer than is predicted by World Economic Forum. In 2014, the WEF predicted the achievement of global gender parity till 2095 and in 2015, bemoaned a slowdown in the pace, estimating that the gap would remain open till 2133.
We do not have to be at the mercy of predictions. 2017, 2030 or 2133 are still a long way off in concluding the fate of women. We can take a chance to stand now against gender inequality. Whilst joining in trending global online campaigns with hashtags #PledgeforParity, #InternationalWomensDay and #IWD2016, we should act locally to bring to reality the need for gender equality and a world safe for women.
