Mar 06 - International Women’s Day 2015 - “Make It Happen”
Each year all around the world International Women’s Day is celebrated on the 8th March. It represents the opportunity to celebrate the achievements made by women while calling for greater equality. In a statement to the press, the Women’s Branch of Unite Union says that it is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities. “This is the time to uphold women’s achievements, recognize challenges and focus greater attention on women’s rights and gender equality to mobilize all people to do their part,” said the union.
The statement continued:
“Women on all continents, often divided by ethnic, cultural and political differences come together to celebrate their day, looking back to a tradition that represents decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.
“This year’s theme is ‘Make It Happen’ encouraging effective action for advancing and recognising women. It envisions a world where each woman and girl can exercise their choices, such as participating in politics, getting an education, having an income, and living in societies free from violence and discrimination.
“The day was celebrated for the first time in 1911 but while there have been many achievements since then, many serious gaps remains. As Hilary Clinton told an audience at the U.N. Equality for women “remains the great unfinished business of the 21st Century “and pointed out the fact that “No country in the world, including my own, has achieved full representation”
“We acknowledge that in Gibraltar progress has been slow, uneven and in some cases women face new and more complex challenges. The gender imbalance is alive in Parliament as we only have two female politicians. Our political system is a representative democracy in which publicly elected officials represent the wishes and views of the community. This represents that half of the population is underrepresented in important decision-making about education, health care, child care, taxes spending and so much more. When we elect public officials to office, we are consenting to allow them to make important decisions for us. This is why it is crucially important to ensure we have a government that can represent everybody equally.
“In the over 100 years since women gained the right to vote, we have made strides, we now have a Minister for Equality, an Opposition Minister and Unite the Union for the first time in history has elected a female Regional Officer. But we cannot wait another 100 years to have women equally represented in politics. We truly believe that, “when we are not at the table, we are on the menu” As the ranks of elected women grow, voters more fully appreciate the collaborative, cooperative approach that women often bring to policy-making.
“The Women’s Branch of Unite the Union is a democratic and campaigning union and recognises the urgent need for the equality of genders. That equality does not discriminate, there is no such a thing as equality for women alone or for men alone or for the ethnic minority. We all need to ensure that the trade unions are the main forces fighting for all genders. However the world recognizes and accepts that women carry a disproportionate burden. As such our main priority is to ensure that equality is on the Trade Union bargaining agenda and that woman can turn to us for help and support Therefore today we recommit ourselves to working harder for gender equality.
“Let’s all educate ourselves and join together in the journey to achieving progress in social relationship and economic prosperity.
“Let’s build a groundswell action to bring women to the table of power and build a more perfect democracy that reflects the breadth and depth abounds when everyone is included by doing away with gender distinctions and rules based on these distinctions and respecting women’s natural abilities.”
