100 years of International Women's Day - 8th March

[WomanOfSubstance]

Each year around the world, International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8. Organisations, governments and women’s groups around the world choose different themes each year that reflect global and local gender issues.

Some years have seen global IWD themes honoured around the world, while in other years groups have preferred to ‘localise’ their own themes to make them more specific and relevant.



Below are some of the global United Nation themes used for International Women’s Day to date:


2011: Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women
- 2010: Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all
- 2009: Women and men united to end violence against women and girls
- 2008: Investing in Women and Girls
- 2007: Ending Impunity for Violence against Women and Girls
- 2006: Women in decision-making
- 2005: Gender Equality Beyond 2005: Building a More Secure Future
- 2004: Women and HIV/AIDS
- 2003: Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals
- 2002: Afghan Women Today: Realities and Opportunities
- 2001: Women and Peace: Women Managing Conflicts
- 2000: Women Uniting for Peace
- 1999: World Free of Violence against Women
- 1998: Women and Human Rights
- 1997: Women at the Peace Table
- 1996: Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future
- 1975: First IWD celebrated by the United Nations

For this year, Tanzania will celebrate IWD in style with a number of activities:
On 7th March Monday The United Nations and Tanzania will hold a symposium with the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania and the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to explore pathways to decent work for women in Tanzania as part of celebrations to mark the 100th International Women’s Day.The symposium will be held in Dodoma, to be followed by a procession to Parliament buildings, to seek the government’s ratification of the International Labour Organisation’s Convention 183 on maternity protection.

On the 8th of March, Tuesday, the UN will support the 2011 Tanzania Women of Achievement Awards, which pay tribute to exceptional women who have made a difference in their communities through business, science and technology and education.At the ceremony to be held in Dar es Salaam, the UN will launch a song by renowned Tanzanian artists Lady Jay Dee, Mzungu kichaa and Fid Q, that aims to raise young people’s awareness on issues related to maternal health.

LETS CELEBRATE OUR DAY!

 

[MaxShimba]

Happy womens day. Inafurahisha sana kuona Wanawake wapo mstari wa mbele na wanapewa haki yao. Nani kama Mama?

 

[BAK]

International Women's Dayon March 8 is the highlight of International Women's Week. This year's theme-Girls' Rights Matter-focuses on the importance of equality and access to opportunity for all girls and women throughout their lives. The United Nations theme for International Women's Day 2011 is Equal access to education, training, and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women

Happy Women's Day

 

[Mallaba]

Happy Women's Day

 

[Mallaba]

 

[BAK]

Has Lesotho bridged the gender gap?

By Karen Allen BBC News, Lesotho

Girls are given football training to raise their self-esteem

Lesotho sits like pearl in a shell, surrounded by the land mass of South Africa. But this tiny kingdom of 1.8 million people boasts another jewel, which is perhaps astonishing given its size.
Lesotho is ranked eighth in the world by the World Economic Forum (WEF) when it comes to bridging the gap between the sexes.
The reasons are cultural, political and economic, but one explanation keeps being repeated when you probe the gender issue, and it relates to Lesotho's recent past.

Extreme World is a new season of coverage on TV, Radio and Online, examining global differences. Over the next few months, BBC News correspondents will be exploring eight key themes that illustrate the divisions in our extreme world.

Historically, large numbers of men from Lesotho crossed the border to work in South Africa's mines, forcing women to step into their shoes and take up school places and jobs.
Many of the men have now come back, having been retrenched from the mines, and they face a more female-focused world.
In politics, one in five government ministers in Lesotho is female.
Dr Mphu Ramatlapeng, Lesotho's minister for health and social affairs, attributes this to the government's pro-women policies.
But more than that, she emphasises Lesotho's culture of learning.
"The defining factor is education. I think a lot of women have realised early on that they have to educate their daughters," she says.
WEF Global Gender Gap 2010 Ranking

1. Iceland
2. Norway
3. Finland
4. Sweden
5. New Zealand
6. Ireland
7. Denmark
8. Lesotho
9. Philippines
10. Switzerland

High literacy rates
Primary education is free in Lesotho and literacy rates among women exceed those of men - with 95% of women able to read and write, compared with 83% of men.
This is filtering into the jobs market - the chief of police is a woman, so too is the speaker of parliament and there are at least a dozen senior female judges presiding over the country's courts.
These women are the role models plucked from Lesotho's elite, but unemployment stands at 43% and, for more regular jobs, competition remains fierce.
Although 40,000 women make up most of the workforce in the energetic textile sector situated in the industrial hub of the capital, Maseru, many more risk being confined to the sidelines, as men who traditionally worked in the mines across the border look for work.

What also threatens to slide women back is the act of reproducing.
Lesotho has experienced a soaring maternal mortality rate in the past five years - a trend that the minister attributes in part to a rise in back-street abortions and complications in pregnancy. With mountains often separating a woman from medical care, Dr Ramatlapeng's mission is to persuade more women to come to hospital for help throughout their pregnancy.
"They're prepared to visit to have their health check ups," she says. "It's just convincing them to deliver their babies in hospital that is harder."
Self-esteem
Across the other side of town, Lash Mokhathi, who coaches a women's football team, smirks when she hears that Lesotho is ranked first in Africa for bridging the gender gap and eighth in the entire world.
Like many here she finds the figures hard to believe. "We need to boost women's self-esteem," she says explaining that is what the football training is all about.
The football project, which works with an HIV prevention scheme called Kick for Life, aims to divert vulnerable young women away from drugs, prostitution and street crime.
On the pitch, the roles seem strangely reversed. Young women, some in football gear that looks several sizes too big, scream with excitement every time a goal is scored, while a team of male cheerleaders stands on the sidelines singing songs of encouragement.

Dr Ramatlapeng (centre) says there is a big focus on educating girls
But life beyond the football pitch is still hard for Lesotho's women, complains Lash.
"It's not just the men that are holding women back, it is also the mothers," she says. She explains that they worry that men will be displaced by "over-ambitious" women.
"We are not here to pose a threat," she says. "I want to see more women engineers, more women construction workers, a political party run by a woman - then I will say that Lesotho has achieved equality."
Fifty per cent of Lesotho's population live in the rural areas. Until recently, customary laws applied in the countryside dictated that women were virtually redundant when it came to making key decisions in the home.
"Until the marriage act was passed, a woman had the legal status of a minor," explains Ahunna Eziakonwa-Onochie, the UN's resident co-ordinator in Lesotho.
That meant she could not sign contracts, could not inherit property and was, in effect, treated as a child.
Raw deal
The rules may have changed, but 79-year-old widow Teresia Joele says that she still needs a male patron. "You need a man to look after you here. My husband died in 1962 and so I have relied on his brothers to look after my interests," she says.

Women in rural areas used to have the same legal rights as minors
Like thousands of other women her age, Mrs Joele is part of an army of unsung heroes - the women who raise their grandchildren because their parents have died of HIV/Aids. Some 23% of Lesotho's population is infected with the disease, and it threatens to erode the gains made in female education.
"I can't afford to send my granddaughter Dironstso to school even though I know it is the best thing I could give her," Mrs Joele says. At 13, the child does not qualify for free education, and there are also books and school uniform to pay for.
The statistics that put Lesotho at the top table in the equality game may look impressive but they risk glossing over the challenges. There may be less of a gap in health, education and political participation than in many other countries, and clearly there is greater political will to recognise the important role of women in society.
But the perceptions of many women living their daily lives in Lesotho, is that they still get a raw deal.

 

[Ab-Titchaz]

I'm Elizabeth David. I'm 19 years old and I live in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. I
study at Arusha Secondary School, which is a boarding school. I'm in my last
year of advanced level (A-level), and I take three main subjects, which are
history, geography, and economics, and also two subsidiaries, which are basic
applied mathematics and general studies. My goals are to be a successful
businesswoman in 10 years, to help Tanzanian women in any way I can. In my
first year of A-level at Arusha Secondary, I joined the Kisa Project. It's a
project which deals with providing leadership education to girls in
Tanzania. In Kisa, we did different projects like teaching computer at our
school. Also, we had a leadership summit of 10 days in which we got many guest
speakers from different places and occupations. Some were women lawyers and
successful businesswomen and leaders. They inspired me a lot and made me
realize that I want to be a role model to my fellow African women and girls
and also help them in any way I can.

In Women's History Month, there are a lot of women who inspire me to reach this
goal and overcome any obstacle that I may face. One of them is my
mom, Mrs. Suzan Samson. I admire the courage she has shown
in raising me and my two elder sisters, making sure that my sisters get a good
education and go to university. She has always shown herself to be a
strong, tolerant, loving woman who is always ready to help others in
need, even if she doesnt have much herself. Also, I learn
from Oprah Winfrey, she had passed through a lot of hardships in life but
turned out to be a very successful woman. And Dr. Anna Makinda, my fellow
Tanzanian who is the first woman to be a parliament speaker in our country.
Tanzanian women are very hardworking women. They struggle a lot so that their
children wont starve or not get education. Although to some extent men still
see them inferior, nowadays the women don't care about it anymore. Instead,
they put extra efforts, and they end up proving the men wrong. A lot of
Tanzanian women who were just housewives decide to get out of their houses
and start their own small businesses--from them they have succeeded
to build their own houses, put the kids in school, and cover other daily house
expenses. So I might say that Tanzanian women are very strong, tolerant and
courageous.

Love,
Elizabeth