So today is International Women’s Day. In celebration, each year the UN selects a theme for the day. This year’s theme as part of the Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50”50 by 2030. The hashtag this year is #BeBoldforChange.
Some people may ask why this is a necessary topic of conversation. With the technological advances and globalization, women have more opportunities for those with the ability to access them. Juxtaposed with this additional level of opportunity, women also face income inequality, informality of labor, and humanitarian crises. Currently only about 50% of working age women are represented in the workforce. This is 26% less than men. In addition to this inequality in representation within the workforce, the majority of women are employed in domestic work and subsidizing care, which is often concentrated in low-pay, low-skill work with little or no social protection.
One of the keys to this goal is access to education. While we have a public education option, many girls around the world do not have adequate access to education. Sometimes these restrictions are cultural related to socialized gender roles, and sometimes it is simply because it is inaccessible due to poverty. As Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” If we want to make the lives of women better, we first need to ensure that they all have access to educate themselves. We all know the story of Malala Yousafzai, the young girl shot in the head by the Taliban for just attempting to go to school. Sadly, her story is not an isolated incident. Far too many girls are denied their right to receive an education.
Then we can begin to look at the treatment of women in the workplace. Of the industrialized nations, the US is the only country to not have paid maternity leave. Additionally, when looking at the issue of maternity leave worldwide, only 63% of countries comply with the minimum standard of 14 weeks of paid leave set out by the International Labour Organization. Then there is the issue that, of the countries that do have paid maternity leave laws, only an estimated 28% of women eligible can actually use the paid maternity leave.
This brings me to another issue for women in dealing with the wage gap. The Sony hack a couple years back brought some of this to the forefront in the entertainment industry, but this is a problem nearly across the board. On a global scale, women make 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes. This becomes more problematic in some areas of the world as women with children make even less than women without. In sub-Saharan Africa, women with children make 31% less than men while women without children make 4% less.
So what can we do? As part of this focus on the role of women in the workplace, there is also a nationwide protest called “A Day Without Women” to highlight the important role women play in the workplace. If you can’t take the day off of work for various reasons, you can wear red and support women owned businesses tomorrow. The thing to remember is that, while one day is a good start, we need to keep talking about these issues and fighting the good fight. We have opportunities here in the US that many women and girls do not have. We can’t waste our opportunities.
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