Context: Every year International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8 with an aim to recognition of the powerful changes to achieving gender equality.

Historical Background

• The fight for women’s rights has been taking place since 1908 when a group of 15,000 women took the streets of New York City to fight for shorter working hours, equal pay, and voting rights. 
• After the movement gathered steam in countries across the world, it was decided by the United Nations that March 8 would be observed as International Women's Day. 
• The first time it was celebrated was in 1975. Since then, every year, Women’s Day is held to celebrate the cultural, political and socio-economic advancement of women.
• And became a mainstream global holiday where member states were invited to proclaim March 8 as an official UN holiday for women's rights and world peace.

About Women's Day

• It is observed to commemorate the achievements — cultural, political, and socio-economic — of women who have come before us and to encourage the works of the current generation so they can inspire those who come after them. 
• The ultimate goal of celebrating International Women’s Day every year is to reach a point in society where gender parity does not exist and patriarchy is an outmoded concept.

Theme for 2022

• The United Nation's theme for this year’s observance is “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow” in recognition and celebration of the women and girls who are leading the charge on climate change adaptation and response and to honour their leadership and contribution towards a sustainable future.

Key Significance

• UNESCO states, “International Women's Day is an occasion to celebrate the progress made towards achieving gender equality and women's empowerment but also to critically reflect on those accomplishments and strive for a greater momentum towards gender equality worldwide". 
• It is a day to recognize the extraordinary acts of women and to stand together, as a united force, to advance gender equality around the world.
• Women have more opportunities in politics, workplace as well as better healthcare globally. Here’re the reasons why promoting gender equality can achieve sustainable social development in the future.

Why does gender equality matter?

• ‘Gender equality is a human right, not a female right,’ the famous Indian actor Freida Pinto once said that who is the main character of the movie Slumdog Millionaire. Gender equality is a basic and important human right. Also, it’s the preconditions of sustainable development goals worldwide.
• The world population of females represent near 50%.  Empowering women and girls help to develop economic growth and support social development. As a result, they can have better access to education and participate in the labour market.
• Moreover, women can contribute more to science and research in different aspects. Also, it helps women to the part of fighting climate change if women can have more power on the leadership level.

The Limited Progress of Gender Equality

• In the last decades, some improvements have been made to improve gender equality, including more girls having the opportunity to study and not being forced into early marriage, the parliament and positions of leadership seem to have more females, and the amended laws to further gender equality.
• However, there’s a lot of challenge that remains. According to the United Stations report, the pandemic worsens existing inequalities and reverses the limited improvements.
• Due to the closure of schools and nursing homes, it increases the unpaid care work of women. Because of lockdown, more women and girls encounter domestic violence.

How Can We Narrow Down the Gender Gaps?
Even though the scales of gender equality have tipped in the right direction, there is a lot of things we can do in our daily life to narrow down the gender gaps.
1. Share Housework and Childcare equally

• Aware of the Signs of Domestic Violence
• Report domestic violence or other abuse like verbal attacks (curses and threats) and psychological abuse (controlling and threatening behaviour)

2. Stop Public Harassment or Assault Against Women and Girls
3. Support Pregnant Women and Parents

• Offer seat in public transportation
• Advocate establishing breastfeeding friendly premises in public
• Ask companies to offer maternity and paternity leave for parents

4. Vote for Female Candidates
5. Pay Attention and Reflect on Unconscious Bias

• In the workplace, here are the solutions and benefits of promoting gender equality.

By: Shubham Tiwari