International Women’s Day is one of the most important days of the year to honour women’s accomplishments, promote awareness about gender equality, campaign for gender parity, and generate funds for female-focused charities.
It is a world-wide event that honours women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements. The day also serves as a call to action for achieving gender parity sooner rather than later. This year’s International Women’s Day is focused on “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow, recognising the contribution of women and girls around the world, who are leading the charge on climate change adaptation, mitigation, and response, building a more sustainable future for all.”
Gender equality has a significant impact not only on women’s and children’s well-being but their families and communities would substantially benefit, them and subsequently countries would be able to reach their full potential for prosperity. Women and girls play a significant role in the growth and development of a nation. However, because they are subjected to various forms of inequality, women in developing nations are caught in an “inequality pit.”
For sustainable development and increased gender equality, it is critical to empower women and girls to have a voice and participate equally in climate change and sustainability decision-making.
Thus, they bear huge economic expenses for their families and countries due to their lack of resources. Attention to women’s economic role and economic differences by gender started in the 1960s, and there were feminist critiques of received economic theories in the 1970s and 1980s. Feminist economic historians carried out historical studies of how race, class, and ethnicity have situated women differently.
At the core of all the Millennium Development Goals, 2015 is goal 3, which emphasised gender equality and empowerment of women through improving health and fighting disease, reducing poverty and mitigating hunger, expanding education and lowering child mortality, and increasing access to safe water. Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals, titled, “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls,” is made up of nine targets that will help accomplish the goal by 2030.
Furthermore, Goal 17 of Agenda 2063 also emphasised that full gender equality in all spheres of life can improve educational practices and participation, technological advancement, new employment opportunities for women. It solves inequitable resource allocation, raises the opportunity costs of staying at home, and encourages the evolution of new social institutions and norms that overcome prior discriminatory practices, all of which contribute to economic development.
Gender equality is thus essential for a world that is peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable. It is a fundamental human right to eliminate all types of discrimination against women and girls. But despite the progress towards gender equality and women’s rights, the COVID-19 epidemic has partially undone the minimal progress. Since the spread of the virus, evidence showed that violence against women and girls has been at an all-time high.
This is because, women and girls already experience inequality and prejudice, which combine and magnify when disasters occur. However, the UN agency dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment initiated the shadow pandemic public awareness campaign to draw attention to the global rise in domestic violence as a result of the COVID-19 health crisis. Although, women are the most afflicted by the pandemic, but they are also the backbone of community recovery.
Thus, putting women and girls at the centre of economies would fundamentally drive better and more sustainable development outcomes for everyone, enable a faster recovery, and put the world back on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.
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Furthermore, climate change is not simply affecting our weather; its implications affect millions of people worldwide daily. Climate change is anticipated to affect both men and women who work in natural resource sectors such as agriculture. The impact, however, is not the same, and women’s vulnerability is due to a variety of social, economic, and cultural reasons.
Too often, women are viewed only as vulnerable victims. Women are increasingly being recognised as being more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men because women make up the majority of the world’s poor and are more reliant on the natural resources that climate change threatens.
Also, when heavy rains fall more frequently, creating floods or droughts that persist for several years, it is mainly women and girls that fight to live and recover.
Thus, women and girls are more prone to increased rates of violence, dropping out of school or missing classes, early child marriage, high death rate, food insecurity, and lack of good source of livelihood during climate change.
For sustainable development and increased gender equality, it is critical to empower women and girls to have a voice and participate equally in climate change and sustainability decision-making. Sustainable development in the future, much alone an equal future, is now out of reach without gender equality.
Gender equality is thus relevant in all aspects of economic development since gender inequality is most pervasive. Its pervasiveness cut across all socio-economic strata (affects both the rich and the poor). There is now a shared understanding within the development community that development policies and actions that fail to take gender inequality into account and address disparities between males and females will have limited effectiveness and severe cost implications.
In conclusion, achievement of gender equality is therefore seen as a catalyst for the realization of poverty reduction, economic growth, and sustainable development. Thus as the world and our Nation mark this year’s International Women’s Day, the ideals and aspirations inherent in the Day should be pursued with patriotic vigour. This is in order to ensure that the other half of humanity is given its Rightfull place in our collective quest to ensure a better and harmonious world for all.
