Today is Int'l Women's Day

8 MARCH 2014 (original Patch post date)

Putting a date on the calendar just for women is a good way to pause and look at the state of half the population – and that date is today, March 8.

International Women’s Day is a global day to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of today’s women and those who came before us, as well as those who will follow us. It’s recognized and celebrated in different ways, and in some countries it’s a national holiday.

A few ways it’s been acknowledged this year:

The personal care products company L’Occitane en Provence promoted the day by talking about its support of women’s emancipation in Burkina Fasso where the company’s shea butter is harvested.

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Climate Change secretariat, chose to talk about how women hold a unique position to address climate change. And thousands of others took to Facebook to share their thoughts. One of them was Madonna, who said we’ve come a long way, but still have a long way to go.

Madonna’s comment made me think of the 1960s ad campaign for the Virginia Slims cigarette brands, which stated, “You’ve come a long way, baby.” It mirrored the times – women’s liberation, the E.R.A., the Pill and other social changes for women. There was a sense of invincibility and hope.

So it’s important to celebrate the many successes, but this day is also a good opportunity to talk about how many challenges there still are throughout the world. As the UN’s Figueres noted in her commentary, half of the women in the world still burn coal, dung, wood and other traditional fuels for cooking inside their homes – resulting in high levels of black carbon being released in unventilated homes and causing 1.5 million deaths. That’s just part of the suffering. Add to that limited access to clean water, health care and education, among other hardships.

As well, there still are too many countries with high fertility rates, decreasing the likelihood that women in these countries can break the poverty cycle. The practice of female infanticide continues in some countries, as does female genital mutilation and child marriage. In Afghanistan, according to a report from Human Rights Watch, one Afghan woman dies every two hours because of pregnancy. The list is long and ugly.

Here in the United States we are not without our problems. Battles we thought were won for women’s health have arisen again, so we’re expending energy to fight the same battles.

There still are too many teen pregnancies. While the teen pregnancy rate has continued declining in the last 20 years, it remains higher than in Canada, the United Kingdom and other developed countries.

In the U.S. too, we’re continuing to permit a culture of abuse of women to exist by our ongoing failure to enforce our immigration laws. Women crossing the border illegally have been raped and murdered. Women who survive their border crossings then may be abused by employers, some of whom also are in the country illegally.

So, yes, there’s much for us to celebrate, but much for concern. As our numbers continue to grow unsustainably, the needs seem daunting. So it’s more important than ever that we double our efforts to educate about these issues, and to support policies and programs nationally and internationally that support education and empowerment of girls and women.

Here are a few recommendations:

• Californians for Population Stabilization
• Population Connection
• Population Media Center
• United Nations Population Fund
• World Population Balance