I was having a conversation with a friend a few days ago. She said they were going through a lot in Nigeria at the moment. The naira currency has depreciated so much and food stuffsare so expensive in the market. She decided to apply for jobs so she could use the income to help out in the home. She was told her application was rejected because they were not employing married women. She went further to say the same thing happened last year when she applied for work. She wasn’t offered the opportunity because she was married.
The story of Oluchi is the story of many more women across the world. Women and girls continue to face gender biases and systemic discrimination which hinder their autonomy and obstruct their fundamental human rights.
The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD)is “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective”.
Let this not be just another year with Big IWD speeches, fliers, events, etc. Let it be the year we all take collective action to end the systemic issues that impact women and girls negatively in our communities and society at large.
Globally we are still centuries away from gender equality. According to UN Women UK, estimates say it will take up to 286 years to close legal gaps and remove discriminatory laws.140 years for women to be represented equally in positions of power and leadership at work and at least 40 years to achieve equal representation in national parliaments.
I will be long gone from this planet by then but history will have it that I played my part in promoting women’s rights across the world.
What are you committing to from today? What actions would you take to ensure that the rights, responsibilities, and opportunities of individuals will not depend on whether they are male or female, married or single, handicapped or able-bodied, young or elderly, white or black, from rural or urban settings?
#IWD2024 #Genderequality #Inspireinclusion #UNwomen#thetimeisnow
Looking for a gift to give someone this IWD, grab a copy of my ebook “A guideline on speaking up when experiencing Intimate Partner Violence(IPV).