In every country of the world, women are the primary caretakers of children and elders. It is noticed that woman performs the role of wife, partner, organizer, administrator, director, re-creator, disburser, economist, mother, disciplinarian, teacher, health officer, artist and queen in the family at the same time. Apart from it, woman plays a key role in the socio-economic development of the society. International studies demonstrate that when the economy and political organization of a society changes, women take the lead in helping the family adjusts to new realities and challenges. Women are the epitome of strength, love, sacrifice and courage. The population of females in the world is estimated at 3,904,727,342 or 3,905 million or 3.905 billion, representing 49.58% of the world population. The world has 65,511,048 or 65.51 million more males than females. In World the Gender Ratio in 2021 was 101.68 males per 100 females. International days and weeks are important occasions to educate the public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity. The existence of international days predates the establishment of the United Nations, but the UN has embraced them as a powerful advocacy tool. International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on 8 March. It offers an opportunity to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities. Clara Zetkin founded International Women’s Day in 1910. International Women’s Day, also known as IWD for short, grew out of the labour movement to become an annual event recognised by the United Nations. The seeds were planted in 1908, when 15,000 women marched through New York demanding shorter working hours, better pay and the right to vote. A year later, the Socialist Party of America declared the first National Woman’s Day. It was Clara Zetkin, a communist activist and advocate for women’s rights, who suggested the creation of an international day. She put her idea to an International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen in 1910 – and the 100 women there, from 17 countries, agreed to it unanimously. International Women’s Day was first celebrated in 1911, in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. The centenary was celebrated in 2011, so this year we’re technically celebrating the 111th. Things were made official in 1975 when the United Nations started celebrating the day. The first theme adopted (in 1996) was “Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future”. International Women’s Day has become a date to celebrate how far women have come in society, politics and in economics, while the political roots of the day mean strikes and protests are organised to raise awareness of continued inequality. Clara’s idea for an International Women’s Day had no fixed date. It wasn’t formalised until a wartime strike in 1917, when Russian women demanded “bread and peace”; four days into the strike the tsar was forced to abdicate and the provisional government granted women the right to vote. The strike began on 8 March and this became the date that International Women’s Day is celebrated. Why do people wear the colour purple? The colour purple is often associated with IWD as it signifies ‘justice and dignity’ Purple, green and white are the colours of IWD, according to the International Women’s Day website. “Purple signifies justice and dignity. Green symbolises hope. White represents purity, albeit a controversial concept. The colours originated from the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in the UK in 1908,” they say. How is Women’s Day celebrated? International Women’s Day is a national holiday in many countries, including Russia, where flower sales double during the three or four days around 8 March. In China, many women are given a half-day off work on 8 March, as advised by the State Council. In Italy, International Women’s Day, or la Festa della Donna, is celebrated by the giving of mimosa blossoms. The origin of this tradition is unclear but it is believed to have started in Rome after World War Two. In the US, the month of March is Women’s History Month. A presidential proclamation issued every year honours the achievements of American women. This year, celebrations will continue to look a little different because of coronavirus and virtual events are expected to take place around the world, including this one organised by the UN. What is the IWD 2022 theme? 2021 saw the inauguration of Kamala Harris as the first female, first black and first Asian-American US vice president. The UN announced their theme for 2022 as “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”. Their events will recognise how women around the world are responding to climate change. But there are also other themes around. The International Women’s Day website – which says it’s designed to “provide a platform to help forge positive change for women” – has chosen the theme “Break The Bias” and is asking people to imagine “a world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination” Womens are contributing in every field.
Many obstacles have been placed before women in science over the years, although occasionally a source of encouragement and practical help intervened on their behalf. The presence of women in science spans the earliest times of the history of science wherein they have made significant contributions. Historians with an interest in gender and science have researched the scientific endeavors and accomplishments of women, the barriers they have faced, and the strategies implemented to have their work peer-reviewed and accepted in major scientific journals and other publications. The historical, critical, and sociological study of these issues has become an academic discipline in its own right. The involvement of women in the field of medicine occurred in several early civilizations, and the study of natural philosophy in ancient Greece was open to women. Women contributed to the proto-science of alchemy in the first or second centuries AD. During the Middle Ages, religious convents were an important place of education for women, and some of these communities provided opportunities for women to contribute to scholarly research. The 11th century saw the emergence of the first universities; women were, for the most part, excluded from university education. Outside academia, botany was the science that benefitted most from contributions of women in early modern times. The first known woman to earn a university chair in a scientific field of studies was eighteenth-century Italian scientist Laura Bassi. We mention few women scientists to inspire young women to pursue careers in science (a) Ana Roqué de Duprey, born in Puerto Rico in 1853 started a school in her home at age 13 and wrote a geography textbook for her students, which was later adopted by the Department of Education of Puerto Rico. She had a passion for astronomy and education, founding several girls-only schools as well as the College of Mayagüez, which later became the Mayagüez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. She wrote the Botany of the Antilles, the most comprehensive study of flora in the Caribbean at the beginning of the 20th century, and was also instrumental in the fight for the Puerto Rican woman’s right to vote. (b) Lillian Gilbreth, an American psychologist and industrial engineer at the turn of the 20th century. Her long list of firsts includes first female commencement speaker at the University of California, first female engineering professor at Purdue, and first woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering. (c) Ruth Rogan Benerito, an American chemist, pioneer in bioproducts is credited with saving the cotton industry in post-WWII America through her discovery of a process to produce wrinkle-free, stain-free, and flame-resistant cotton fabrics. (d) Edith Clarke, a pioneering electrical engineer at the turn of the 20th century who worked as a “computer,” someone who performed difficult mathematical calculations before modern-day computers and calculators were invented. She paved the way for women in STEM and engineering and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2015. (e) Mollie Orshansky, a food economist and statistician whose work on poverty thresholds pioneered the way the U.S. Government defines poverty. Her work provided a way to assess the impact of new policies on poor populations, which to this day remains a standard measure of new policies, demonstrating the enduring impact of her work on American public policy. (f) Mary Engle Pennington, an American chemist at the turn of the 20th century. During her 40-year career at the USDA, Pennington’s pioneering research on sanitary methods of processing, storing, and shipping food led to achievements such as the first standards for milk safety as well as universally accepted standards for the refrigeration of food products. (g) Ellen Ochoa, first Hispanic woman to go to space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery. She has flown in space four times, logging nearly 1,000 hours in orbit. Prior to her astronaut career, she was a research engineer and inventor, with three patents for optical systems. She is also the first Hispanic (and second female) to be named director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. (h) Grace Hopper, was at the forefront of computer and programming language development from the 1930s through the 1980s. One of the crowning achievements of her 44-year career was the development of computer languages written in English, rather than mathematical notation — most notably, the common business computing language known as COBOL, which is still in use today. (i) Katherine Johnson, an African-American space scientist and mathematician, is a leading figure in American space. (j) Rachel Carson, a marine biologist and environmentalist — whose groundbreaking book, Silent Spring, has been credited as the catalyst for the modern environmental movement. (k) Ada Lovelace, considered to be the founder of scientific computing and the first computer programmer. (l) Sally Ride, transformed history when she became the first American woman to fly into space. (m) The ENIAC Programmers, as part of a secret World War Two project, six young women programmed the first all-electronic programmable computer. (n) Rosalind Franklin, a British chemist and crystallographer, best known for her research that was essential to elucidating the structure of DNA. (o) Farkhonda Hassan, Professor of Geology at the American University in Cairo served as chair person of the Commission on Human Development and Local Administration of the Shoura Assembly (Second House of the Egyptian Parliament). We have seen a significant step back in the global fight for women’s rights over the past year. The coronavirus pandemic continues to have an impact on women’s rights. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021, the time needed to close the global gender gap has increased by a generation from 99.5 years to 135.6 years. A 2021 study by UN Women based on 13 countries showed that almost one in two women (45%) reported that they or a woman they know experienced a form of violence during the Covid-19 pandemic. This includes non-physical abuse, with verbal abuse and the denial of basic resources being the most commonly reported. Despite concerns over coronavirus, marches took place around the world for IWD 2021. In Mexico, women’s groups turned metal fencing, erected to protect the National Palace, into an impromptu memorial for the victims of femicides. Meanwhile, women in Poland held protests across the country following the introduction of a near-total ban on abortion in January 2021. In the past few years though, there has been progress – especially in female leadership. Kamala Harris became the first female, first black and first Asian-American US vice-president in 2021. In the same year, Tanzania swore in its first female president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, while Estonia, Sweden, Samoa and Tunisia got female prime ministers for the first time in history. In January 2022, Xiomara Castro was sworn in as Honduras’ first female president. In 2021, New Zealand approved paid bereavement leave for women (and their partners) who have a miscarriage or stillbirth. While in 2020, Sudan criminalised female genital mutilation. And who can forget the impact of the #MeToo conversation, speaking out against experiences of harassment and sexual assault? It began back in 2017 but is now a global phenomenon. In January 2022, a university lecturer in Morocco was sentenced to two years in prison for indecent behaviour, sexual harassment and violence after university students broke their silence about demands he had made for sexual favours in return for good grades – a string of such scandals have tarnished the reputation of Moroccan universities in recent years. The last year has seen developments regarding abortion in several countries. In February 2022, Colombia decriminalised abortions within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. In the US, meanwhile, abortion rights have been restricted in some states, with Texas banning procedures from as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The UN announced their theme for 2022 as “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”. Their events will recognise how women around the world are responding to climate change. Advancing gender equality in the context of the climate crisis and disaster risk reduction is one of the greatest global challenges of the 21st century. Women are increasingly being recognized as more vulnerable to climate change impacts than men, as they constitute the majority of the world’s poor and are more dependent on the natural resources which climate change threatens the most. At the same time, women and girls are effective and powerful leaders and change-makers for climate adaptation and mitigation. They are involved in sustainability initiatives around the world, and their participation and leadership results in more effective climate action. Continuing to examine the opportunities, as well as the constraints, to empower women and girls to have a voice and be equal players in decision-making related to climate change and sustainability is essential for sustainable development and greater gender equality. Without gender equality today, a sustainable future, and an equal future, remains beyond our reach. On this year’s International Women’s Day, let’s claim “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”. The Generation Equality campaign is bringing together people of every gender, age, ethnicity, race, religion and country, to drive actions that will create the gender-equal world we all deserve.
( While Dr Bilkees Nazir is a Research scholar of department of zoology University of Kashmir hazratbal Srinagar, Dr Bilal A Bhat is a Senior Scientist at S K University of Agriculture Sciences & Technology-SKUAST Kashmir . Views are exclusively their own)