World celebrating International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day is celebrated around the world. The official website for the day says: “Celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women.

“Yet let’s also be aware progress has slowed in many places across the world, so urgent action is needed to accelerate gender parity. Leaders across the world are pledging to take action as champions of gender parity.”

IWD 2016 campaign theme #PledgeForParity

On the occurrence of the International Women’s Day, Google came up with a unique concept for a campaign to spread awareness about empowerment of the women of future and the importance of education in their lives. The campaign known as #OneDayIWill is promoted by a video, which was produced after meeting 337 women from 13 different countries across the world.

The International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8, is a global event aimed at inspiring women and celebrating their achievements.

Google posted a short video on its home page in which some women are seen sharing their aspirations, completing the sentence “One day I will…”

Liat Ben-Rafael, who co-created the doodle, told Mirror Online it was important to her to feature real women in the video, rather than animated characters, which usually appear in Google doodles.

“International Women’s Day is a celebration of the women who are here today working towards a better future, and in that sense it was important for me to make sure that we celebrate the real women,” she said.

“It’s the unsung heroes, this is what we’re celebrating, so not showing the real women behind this would be a big loss.”

Some Facts

  • The World Economic Forum predicted in 2014 that it would take until 2095 to achieve global gender parity. Then one year later in 2015, they estimated that a slowdown in the already glacial pace of progress meant the gender gap would not close entirely until 2133.
  • Only 22% of world parliamentarians are women. It doubled between 1995 en 2015
  • Only 50% of women of working age in the world actually work. For men it is 75%
  • Women earn 24% less then men worldwide
  • Out of the 500 companies listed by Fortune magazine in 2014, only 25 women (5%) are CEOs. There was only one women in 1998
  • Almost all developing countries have reached gender parity in primary schools.
  • Literacy has risen from 76% in 1990 to 85% in 2013 worldwide, but women account for 60% of all illiterate people in the world
  • Women’s presence in the media: 17% in 1995; 24% in 2010
  • In 2000 resolution 1325 of the UN Security Council recognises that wars have different consequences on men and women, emphasising the importance of having women involved in peace talks
  • Between 1992-2011 only 9% of negotiators participating in peace talks were women
  • One in every three women is the victim of physical or sexual violence worldwide, most of which is carried out by an intimate partner.

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