International Women's Day
07/03/2007
International Women’s Day, 8 March 2007, will be a global day of celebration of women and recognition of their role in society. Officially recognised internationally for the first time in 1918, International Women’s Day is celebrated by both men and women of all races and religions in countries around the world.
Although women’s emancipation became a hot topic for women in the UK and other Western countries many decades ago, inequality between the sexes continues to exist in many parts of the world. Latest figures show this quite clearly:
three quarters of the world’s poorest people are female
of the planet’s 875 million illiterate adults, two thirds are women
there are over 110 million children not in school as they should be. Two thirds of these children are girls.
SOS Children, however, offers exactly the same educational opportunities to the girls in its care as the boys as well as making places available at its schools and nurseries on an equal basis to girls and boys from the local community.
International Women’s Day is the chance to draw attention to the discrimination that does occur in some countries and the opportunity to actively encourage others - individuals, organisations, companies and governments - to make a difference and improve the lives of all women and girls in all countries around the world.
To celebrate the day, we’ve created a special section examining the situation of women around the world, focussing in particular on education: Women’s education.