Agence France-Presse
An anti-Gbagbo protester cries during a demonstration Tuesday in the Ivory Coast, where a disputed presidential election has sparked gun battles, including one that resulted in the deaths of seven women.Photograph by: Thierry Gouegnon, Reuters, Agence France-PresseWomen worldwide took to the streets Tuesday to mark the 100th International Women's Day, with protests against honour killings, the objectification of women in Italy and the shooting of seven women in Ivory Coast.
Drawing inspiration from the boardrooms of Finland and the toppling of autocratic regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, demonstrators staked their claim for equality, education and a better life.
A month before Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi goes on trial over allegations he paid an underage prostitute for sex, hundreds of women rallied in Rome. "Here women have sex with someone powerful to get into parliament. Women are treated like objects. I'm ashamed to have a prime minister like Berlusconi," said protester Irene D'Onfronio, 62.
In Turkey, women chanted "Don't turn our wedding dresses into shrouds" as they marched against honour killings, the murder of women by male family members because the women are deemed to have brought shame on their families.
Hundreds of women demonstrated in Ivory Coast, meanwhile, to condemn the killing of seven women at a rally last week demanding that strongman Laurent Gbagbo quit the presidency after losing elections.
In Guatemala, where nearly 700 women were killed in 2010, the head of a commission on "femicide" called for a specific statute on the killing of women.
Palestinian women took to the streets of Gaza to call for an end to the Israeli occupation. In the West Bank town of Beit Ummar, dozens of women blocked a major road for half an hour to protest Israeli roadblocks.
The European Union used the occasion to hail women's "crucial role in bringing about change in northern Africa."
"Amidst violence, women have joined the struggle for change," said the two female vice-presidents of the European Commission, Catherine Ashton and Viviane Reding. "Women must be at the heart of the discussions over the future order."
Whether in T-shirts and jeans or robes and veils, tens of thousands of women have recently made their voices heard on the streets from Tunis to Cairo and from Manama to Sanaa to demand reform in a region long ruled by autocracies.
Many around the world focused on gender equality, which OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria called "a moral imperative as well as an economic necessity."
"As we confront the scars of the financial crisis and search for new sources of growth, we cannot waste women's economic contributions," he said.
Visiting Finland, whose political leadership is top-heavy with women, U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden echoed the call, saying education of girls was the key to future global stability.
"The single most significant thing we can do in the 21st century to improve the prospect of peace and security is to educate more women," Biden said as he stood alongside Finnish President Tarja Halonen.
Biden praised gender equality in Finland, where the president, prime minister and opposition leader are all women.
In Greece, where the economic crisis has thrown disproportionately more women out of work, feminists staged a flash mob dubbed "Three Minutes Without Women" in a central square of Athens.
In Norway, the first country in the world to force large companies to gender balance their boardrooms, officials said the quotas should be extended to more companies.
The feminization of boardrooms "is going much too slowly," Trade and Industry Minister Trond Giske said.
A Moroccan human rights group called for the kingdom to enscribe gender equality in the constitution.
A leading rights activist in Morocco, where laws protecting girls from forced marriages are poorly enforced, blamed entrenched mindsets. In 2004, the minimum age of marriage for women was raised to 18 from 15, unless a judge grants special permission. Still, about 42,000 requests to marry minors were made in 2009, mostly in rural areas.
Cambodian women were unable to mark the day publicly as authorities banned a rally amid growing concern about a crackdown on freedom of expression in the country.
WOMEN'S DAY
HISTORY
International Women's Day was honoured the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19, 1911. More than one million women and men attended rallies campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, hold public office and end discrimination.
HEALTH
On average, women live six to eight ? ? years longer than men globally.
In 2007, women's life expectancy ? ? at birth was more than 80 years in 35 countries, but only 54 years in the WHO African Region.
Girls are far more likely than boys ? ? to suffer sexual abuse.
??
EDUCATION
The ratio of girls' to boys' enrolment ? ? has steadily improved, reaching 97 girls per 100 boys at primary level, 96 girls per 100 boys at secondary level and 108 women per 100 men at tertiary level in 2008.
Women are nearly two-thirds of the ? ? world's 759 million illiterate adults.
Access to university-level ? ? education remains highly unequal, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. In these regions, only 67 and 76 girls per 100 boys, respectively, are enrolled in tertiary education.
On average, across 121 countries ? ? with available data, women account for 29 per cent of researchers, and only 15 per cent of countries have achieved gender parity.
??
POLITICAL PARITY
Between 1995 and 2010, the share ? ? of women in parliament, on a global level, increased from 11 per cent to 19 per cent a gain of 73 per cent, but far short of gender parity.
Progress in women's ? ? representation in executive branches of government is even slower. In 2010, just nine of 151 elected heads of state and 11 of 192 heads of government were women. Globally, women held only 16 per cent of ministerial posts.
Reuters
Source
Drawing inspiration from the boardrooms of Finland and the toppling of autocratic regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, demonstrators staked their claim for equality, education and a better life.
A month before Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi goes on trial over allegations he paid an underage prostitute for sex, hundreds of women rallied in Rome. "Here women have sex with someone powerful to get into parliament. Women are treated like objects. I'm ashamed to have a prime minister like Berlusconi," said protester Irene D'Onfronio, 62.
In Turkey, women chanted "Don't turn our wedding dresses into shrouds" as they marched against honour killings, the murder of women by male family members because the women are deemed to have brought shame on their families.
Hundreds of women demonstrated in Ivory Coast, meanwhile, to condemn the killing of seven women at a rally last week demanding that strongman Laurent Gbagbo quit the presidency after losing elections.
In Guatemala, where nearly 700 women were killed in 2010, the head of a commission on "femicide" called for a specific statute on the killing of women.
Palestinian women took to the streets of Gaza to call for an end to the Israeli occupation. In the West Bank town of Beit Ummar, dozens of women blocked a major road for half an hour to protest Israeli roadblocks.
The European Union used the occasion to hail women's "crucial role in bringing about change in northern Africa."
"Amidst violence, women have joined the struggle for change," said the two female vice-presidents of the European Commission, Catherine Ashton and Viviane Reding. "Women must be at the heart of the discussions over the future order."
Whether in T-shirts and jeans or robes and veils, tens of thousands of women have recently made their voices heard on the streets from Tunis to Cairo and from Manama to Sanaa to demand reform in a region long ruled by autocracies.
Many around the world focused on gender equality, which OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria called "a moral imperative as well as an economic necessity."
"As we confront the scars of the financial crisis and search for new sources of growth, we cannot waste women's economic contributions," he said.
Visiting Finland, whose political leadership is top-heavy with women, U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden echoed the call, saying education of girls was the key to future global stability.
"The single most significant thing we can do in the 21st century to improve the prospect of peace and security is to educate more women," Biden said as he stood alongside Finnish President Tarja Halonen.
Biden praised gender equality in Finland, where the president, prime minister and opposition leader are all women.
In Greece, where the economic crisis has thrown disproportionately more women out of work, feminists staged a flash mob dubbed "Three Minutes Without Women" in a central square of Athens.
In Norway, the first country in the world to force large companies to gender balance their boardrooms, officials said the quotas should be extended to more companies.
The feminization of boardrooms "is going much too slowly," Trade and Industry Minister Trond Giske said.
A Moroccan human rights group called for the kingdom to enscribe gender equality in the constitution.
A leading rights activist in Morocco, where laws protecting girls from forced marriages are poorly enforced, blamed entrenched mindsets. In 2004, the minimum age of marriage for women was raised to 18 from 15, unless a judge grants special permission. Still, about 42,000 requests to marry minors were made in 2009, mostly in rural areas.
Cambodian women were unable to mark the day publicly as authorities banned a rally amid growing concern about a crackdown on freedom of expression in the country.
WOMEN'S DAY
HISTORY
International Women's Day was honoured the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19, 1911. More than one million women and men attended rallies campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, hold public office and end discrimination.
HEALTH
On average, women live six to eight ? ? years longer than men globally.
In 2007, women's life expectancy ? ? at birth was more than 80 years in 35 countries, but only 54 years in the WHO African Region.
Girls are far more likely than boys ? ? to suffer sexual abuse.
??
EDUCATION
The ratio of girls' to boys' enrolment ? ? has steadily improved, reaching 97 girls per 100 boys at primary level, 96 girls per 100 boys at secondary level and 108 women per 100 men at tertiary level in 2008.
Women are nearly two-thirds of the ? ? world's 759 million illiterate adults.
Access to university-level ? ? education remains highly unequal, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. In these regions, only 67 and 76 girls per 100 boys, respectively, are enrolled in tertiary education.
On average, across 121 countries ? ? with available data, women account for 29 per cent of researchers, and only 15 per cent of countries have achieved gender parity.
??
POLITICAL PARITY
Between 1995 and 2010, the share ? ? of women in parliament, on a global level, increased from 11 per cent to 19 per cent a gain of 73 per cent, but far short of gender parity.
Progress in women's ? ? representation in executive branches of government is even slower. In 2010, just nine of 151 elected heads of state and 11 of 192 heads of government were women. Globally, women held only 16 per cent of ministerial posts.
Reuters
Source
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