On International Women’s Day, call on yourself and others to help forge a better world
Perhaps with the current #MeToo movement we have reached a time when the shortcomings of our own society relative to the rights of women can be recognized and corrected. It is certainly not just here in the U.S. where treatment of women needs to be improved. Violence against women is one of the world’s most widespread human rights violation. It cuts across age, race, culture, wealth, and geography, and it happens everywhere. Up to 70 percent of women will be beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in their lifetime. The United Nations has recognized women for their hardships and special roles in the world’s societies.
Thursday is International Women’s Day, a celebration started at the turn of the century to commemorate women’s full participation in society. In 1977, the UN General Assembly proclaimed it United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace. In 2010, the UN brought together its efforts on women’s issues into a single agency called UN Women.
Are we making progress? Of course, we are. As with the #MeToo movement of today, changes have come a bit at a time. The UN has advanced gender equality, including the negotiation of landmark UN agreements such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Gender equality is not only a basic human right, but its achievement has enormous socio-economic ramifications. Empowering women fuels thriving economics, productivity and growth. Education of women is the single most important element in the development of a society. Here at the University of Iowa, the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program was established in August 1994. UI opened its doors in 1855 as the first state university in America to admit men and women on an equal basis. The Iowa Women’s Archives is 25 years old.
Yet gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched in our society. For women in the #MeToo movement, the right to be free of harassment both at work and at home is taking the forefront. In India, sexual harassment cases are finally being taken more seriously and ending up in court.
On this International Women’s Day, call on yourself and others to help forge a better working world — a more inclusive, gender-equal world. Women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics.
In Iowa City, the Johnson County United Nations Association is celebrating International Women’s Day with its annual Night of 1000 Dinners to commemorate our own successes as well as those around the world. An international buffet dinner will be served. It will be held Wednesday in the Robert A. Lee Recreation Center, 220 S. Gilbert St., to raise funds for the Shabele Primary School in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. Iowa City Councilor Mazahir Saleh will be recognized as the first Sudanese-American woman to be elected to public office.
There will be a panel of young people, now in Iowa City, who lived in the camp. In the world, more than 65 million people have fled their homes and risked their lives in search of refuge. Most are women and children, but less than half of these children have access to education.
Partnering with our sister UNA chapter in Chicago, we are supporting the Shabele Primary School in the Kakuma Camp, which has a population of 180,000. The population of this camp includes refugees from Somalia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Burundi and Rwanda. Only 65 percent of the elementary-age children (and 20 percent of the girls) are in school. We can do something to build a better future for the children in this camp.
Katy Hansen is a resident of Iowa City.