INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Mar 9th, 2010 by admin
March 8th every year, women all over the world celebrate and are celebrated. This years’ theme is ‘Equal rights, Equal opportunities, an idea central to the general empowerment of women. The day should particularly shed light on how far women have come since 1975 when they were first celebrated at the first International Women’s day organised by the United Nations. Thus far women have achieved a lot and done quite a lot to earn their place and respect. That a day is set aside to celebrate women irrespective of their colouring is a noble gesture because women are victimised, discriminated, intimidated against everyday.
So, women coming together under a platform to adderess these myriad of issues will continuously move women forward and empower them to rise above economic pressure, ignorance and illiteracy that sometimes affect them.
In Nigeria, women realise they have achieved a lot and much more could be done to empower them to attain their potential. Mrs Atta, a trader says it is a day worth celebrating as women play crucial roles in their families and countries. Besides, if women are given more opportunities they can do more. She says she has worked hard all her life and believes more could be done to empower women.
In Uganda women’s rights activists say equal rights for women are Non existent, Mothers still suffer and deliver babies on the floor. According to Wangari Maathai, a 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate and founding member of the Nobel Women’s Initiative “For years, we have been hearing African leaders calling for African solutions to African problems. And for many years, we have been waiting to see our leaders rise to the occasion and demonstrate strong leadership to resolve the many conflicts that are plaguing our continent. She was speaking at a
Maybe it’s time African women take the bull by the horns and rise and shine, articulate their problems and proffer solutions to them. According to UNESCO, the gender divide world wide is one of the most significant inequalities within the digital divide, and it cuts across all social and income groups, of the 774 million adults who cannot read, two-thirds are women. Women make up only one-quarter of the world’s researchers.
And of the world’s one billion poorest people, three-fifths are women and girls.