8^th MARCH 1908, WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?

To put it radically, you, I, & most of us have our blood boiling about this entire wildfire of International Women's day, but honestly speaking we hardly come across someone who knows what went behind to have a day dedicated to it globally.

It's never too late to learn, as they say, and there is a sheer delight in sharing this information about the origin of International Women's day i.e. 8th March 1908 is the day when thousands of women came out on the New York streets to raise their voice against the sufferings, bias, pay parity, equal rights, unfriendly working conditions, abuse, voting rights, and more.

Fast forward 100 years and today we are sitting at a comparatively better scenario for women, of course, we haven't achieved wonders yet, but we are working towards it.

Commemorating the advancements that we have witnessed over the years and with the United Nations playing their part in recognizing this day's importance, the overall global importance of this undeniable fierceness has pushed the overall progress to another level altogether.

The CEO Magazine is going to list a few facts about international women's day, these facts will be inspiring and infuriating, both, so be forewarned;

• After the advent of this day on 8th March 1908, the first official celebration didn't take place for another 3 years and even when it did only Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Austria. Also, the UN hadn't recognized this day till 1975.

• President Obama declared the month of March 'Women's History Month' in 2011 in honour of the centennial of the first international women's day.

• A report that was released by the United Nations, it was clearly depicted that regardless of the fact that women were working longer hours in comparison to men when unpaid and paid work both are counted, the women are earning less comparatively less than the men. In fact, in South Asia, the wage gap is the worst in comparison to the world.

• The economic growth that has been analyzed by experts depicts that the increase in the percentage of educated women has directly affected the boom in the economy, more the number of educated women, better and the economy. It has been noticed that in comparison to other countries where the rate of educated girls is slow, the economy hasn't progressed with the same growth in the past half a century.

• Surprisingly, on a global count, there are only 22 countries across the world that can state that the top-level position or the state head levels are being governed by women.

• Regardless of the fact that the United Nations has declared elimination on any nature of violence against women back in 1993, across the world there still are 1 out of 3 women who face sexual or physical abuse of some kind and it mostly comes from partners.

• Taking the fact into consideration that women today are performing as well as men and even better in each space, be it education, profession, special skills, etc. the ration of unemployment for women is far high.

• It is sad, that there are more than 500 million girls around the world who do not have decent access to sanitation, private space, or menstrual hygiene awareness, etc. according to UNICEF. That amounts to half a billion girls who sadly cannot access the most basic necessities of life to deal with routine period, sanitation, or hygiene issues.

• In the list of the Fortune 500 companies, only 24 companies have female CEOs at a decision making position.

• Over the years in comparison to earlier the rate of child marriage has drastically decreased in most parts of the world, but they're still are countries that haven't emerged from this problem. There are one out of four girls around the world even today who face child marriage and a report suggests that more girls are killed due to early marriages than due to AIDS, Tuberculosis, war, etc. The problems in maximum scenarios are biologically inclined and cases of complications and early pregnancy are medically fatal.

Our country and even around the world, all of us are sitting at an issue that requires attention and solution, both at a global level. From safety platforms to awareness camps in schools and classrooms, the need to build an environment reach of equality for all genders has become the dire need of the hour.

United Nations has come up with a theme of #EachforEqual, #IWD2020, #InternationalWomensDay, and #SeeHer this year to remind all of us about equality, this focuses on change, parity, equal rights, etc.

The time has come when the world realizes the long due importance of female in the ecosystem and stop treating her like a doormat or furniture that demands space and no rights, women, of each country, on all levels demand and deserve equality of all natures.