March 8 International Women's Day, 2011
time to turn the Gender Equality in Reality
Michelle Bachelet
Message Executive Director, UN Women About the author: Michelle Bachelet is the first Executive Director of UN Women, the UN organization recently formed and dedicated to gender equality and empowerment of women. Michelle Bachelet is a former President of Chile.
hundred years ago, women around the world took a historic step on the long road to equality. The first International Women's Day was organized to call attention to conditions unacceptable and often dangerous work that many women faced in the world. Although the occasion was commemorated in just a handful of countries, this led to more than one million women to the streets, where not only demanded better working conditions, but also the right to vote, hold office and enjoy equal with men.
I have the suspicion that these brave pioneers to today's world would look with a mixture of pride and disappointment. There have been notable progress, since in the last century there was an unprecedented expansion of women's legal rights. Certainly, we can say that the advancement of women's rights is one of the most profound social revolutions have been seen in the world.
hundred years ago, only two countries, women could vote. Today, this right is almost universal and now women are elected to lead governments in every continent. Women also occupy senior positions in professions that were previously forbidden to them. Much more recently than a century ago, the police, courts and neighbors still believed that the domestic violence was a purely private matter. Currently two thirds of countries have specific laws criminalizing domestic violence, while the Security Council of the United Nations now recognizes the use of sexual violence as a deliberate tactic of war.
However, despite progress in the last century, the hopes of equality expressed in the first International Women's Day are far from being realized. Almost two out of three illiterate adults are women. The girls are still less likely to attend school than boys. Every 90 seconds every day, a woman dies during pregnancy or because of complications related to delivery, although we have the knowledge and resources to ensure a safe delivery.
Worldwide, women still earn less than men for equal work. In many countries also face inequality in access to land and inheritance rights. And despite many positive advances, women still hold only 19 percent of legislative seats make up only 8 percent of the representatives in the peace negotiations and only 28 women serving as heads of state or government .
are not only women who pay the price for this discrimination. We all suffer from not maximizing the talent and potential half of the population. With this we are undermining the quality of democracy, the strength of the economies, the health of societies and the sustainability of peace. The priority theme of International Women's Day this year is focused on women's equal access to education, training, science and technology, underscores the need to harness this potential.
agenda to ensure gender equality and women's rights is a global agenda, a challenge for every country, be it rich or poor, north or south. It was in recognition of their universality and rewards of doing well that the United Nations joined four organizations Women above to create UN.
The aim of this new body, I have the great privilege of driving, is to encourage the entire UN system to fulfill the promise of equal rights for men and women of the UN Charter. That's something I've struggled all my life.
As a young mother and pediatrician, I went through the effort of balancing family and work and saw how the lack of childcare prevented women access to paid work. The opportunity to help remove these barriers was one of the reasons I joined politics. That is why I supported policies that expanded health care and child care for families and giving priority to public spending on social protection.
As president I worked hard to create equal opportunities for men and women to contribute their talent and experience to the challenges of our country. That's why I proposed a Cabinet that had equal numbers of men and women.
As Executive Director of UN Women, want to use my journey and the collective knowledge and experience I have around to boost progress towards true gender equality worldwide. We will work in close coordination with men and women, leaders and citizens, civil society, private sector and the entire UN system to help countries to deploy policies, programs and budgets to meet this laudable goal.
I myself have seen what women, often under difficult circumstances, can achieve for their families and society if given the chance. The strength, hard work and wisdom of women remains untapped resource of humanity. We simply can not afford to wait another 100 years to unleash that potential.
