Today, March 8, is the International Women´s Day. It is celebrated around the world and has been for over a century now. The theme of this year is #ChooseToChallenge to indicate that a "challenged world is an alert world, and from challenge comes change".
Un Women also highlights the day with the theme "Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.” Explaining that the theme celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Further from the Un Woman webpage: The theme "is also aligned with the priority theme of the 65th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, “Women's full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”, and the flagship Generation Equality campaign, which calls for women’s right to decision-making in all areas of life, equal pay, equal sharing of unpaid care and domestic work, an end all forms of violence against women and girls, and health-care services that respond to their needs.
Women stand at the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis, as health care workers, caregivers, innovators, community organizers and as some of the most exemplary and effective national leaders in combating the pandemic. The crisis has highlighted both the centrality of their contributions and the disproportionate burdens that women carry.
Majority of the countries that have been more successful in stemming the tide of the COVID-19 pandemic and responding to its health and broader socio-economic impacts, are headed by women. For instance, Heads of Government in Denmark, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand and Slovakia have been widely recognized for the rapidity, decisiveness and effectiveness of their national response to COVID-19, as well as the compassionate communication of fact-based public health information.
Yet, women are Heads of State and Government in only 20 countries worldwide."
HAPPY WOMEN´S DAY!
Source: International Women´s Day / UN Women
Photocredit: from the UN Women Webpage, artist Yihui Yuan.