Women Can Make a Difference

When March 8 was designated International Women’s Day at the beginning of the last century, it was considered to be a coming of age day for the fairer sex. At a time when industrialisation had just taken off, the move made it possible for women to lobby for equal workers’ rights.

From thereon, Women’s Day has progressed to being a (usually) bright, sunny day, heralding the onset of spring, and a time when husbands, boyfriends, and male co-workers make their women feel special. Banks offer special schemes for women - and they say it’s because Women’s Day is round the corner.

Hospitals offer free medical check-ups for female patients. Film festivals showcase ‘women-centric’ movies.

Far from such feel-good offerings, it was poignant to read about 44-year-old Oum Abdallah Elwan spending International Women’s Day, with her seven children, in a cemetery mourning her husband, who was killed during the Israeli military offensive on Gaza. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged world leaders (the UN recognised Women’s Day and gave it more validity in 1977), as part of his Women’s Day message, to end violence against women in their countries: “Violence against women cannot be tolerated, in any form, in any context, in any circumstances, by any political leader or by any government.”

On Saturday, on the eve of International Women’s Day, 400 high-profile ladies demanded equal rights for women in Liberia.

The gathering included Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - Africa’s first female head of state - her Finnish counterpart Tarja Holonen, and Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean. “I’m telling you: give women the means to react and you will see less violence, you will see the end of sickness and illiteracy because women never forget that life is the most precious thing... Exclude women and you will fail,” Jean said. That is, effectively, the sum and substance of what Women’s Day should stand for.