By Dr Ellane Simon
Zimbabwe Online Health Centre
The day is celebrated on the 8th of March every year.
2020 Theme is: An equal world is an enabled world.
It is just a day set aside to recognize social, economic, cultural and political achievements done by women that is an ordinary woman playing an extraordinary role. We do recognize what’s done by the women because back in the 18th and 19th century women were believed not to be able to do something extraordinary than their male counterparts.
Especially in the African culture there work was to get married, bear children, do house chores and farm while men would do all the other work. They were not even given a chance to go to school and attain education.
However as time moves people then realised that women can also do jobs that were labeled to be men’s jobs and actually do them better. A day was then set aside to celebrate those women who have done great works and to encourage women to also do great even those who think women are incapable to give them a chance to prove themselves.
The whole world thought it was a good initiative and on planning for tomorrow’s future kept that in mind.
When Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were formed they included women in their goals for 2030. Goal 5: Gender equality – Ending discrimination against women and girls is not only a basic human right but crucial for a sustainable future.
Empowering women and girls helps in economic growth and development.
It has been proven that girls who attend school are less susceptible to forced marriage, early pregnancy and gender-based violence. It is vital to give women equal rights to land and property, sexual and reproductive health, and to technology and internet to make the world a better place.
Facts and figures that shows women are treated differently from men as of 2018 showed that:
- Women earn only 77cents for every dollar that men get for the same job.
- 35% of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence.
- Women represent just 13% of agriculture landholders.
- Approximately 750million women and girls alive today were married before their 18th birthday.
- 24% of national parliamentarians were women compared with 11.3% in the 90s but is still low.
All these facts still shows there are improvements in gender equality but there is still a gap that needs to be covered. Everyone should encourage the girl child that nothing is impossible, what a men can do a woman can do and what a woman can do a man can do.
In Zimbabwe gender equality is improving significantly and people are accepting it slowly. The girl child have equal access to education with the boy child and to even encourage girls continuing with their education at University level, some requirements are lower for the girls than boys. Early marriages and child marriages are no longer allowed. Women have a say on reproductive health issues.
Women are also allowed to have high positions of power in offices even in the parliament. Let’s empower women and girls in our communities to make a difference, to move from being ordinary to being extraordinary. All this is done to have an equal world which is an enabled world.
follow/ like our Facebook page: Zimbabwe Online Health Centre,
email:[email protected]
twitter handle: @zimonlinehealt1
YouTube:zimbabwe online health centre
