International Women's Day by Alison Keogh

From birth to death, in times of peace as well as war, women face discrimination and violence at the hands of the state, the community and the family.

At least one out of every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in her lifetime. This figure comes from a study based on 50 surveys from around the world.

More than 60 million women are “missing” from the world today as a result of sex-selective abortions and female infanticide.

Every year, millions of women are raped by partners, relatives, friends and strangers, by employers and colleagues, soldiers and members of armed groups.

Violence in the family is endemic all over the world; the overwhelming majority of victims are women and girls. In the USA, for example, women account for around 85 per cent of the victims of domestic violence. The World Health Organization has reported that up to 70 per cent of female murder victims are killed by their male partners.

Small arms and light weapons are the main tools of almost every conflict. Women and children account for nearly 80% of the casualties, according to the UN Secretary-General.

As long as violence against women is hidden, condoned or ignored by society and authorities, as long as the perpetrators are not punished, violence against women will continue.

March 8th has become an opportunity for women all over the world to focus on the current status of women and demand gender equality under the law, safe and equitable working conditions and freedom from violence in society at large.

International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.

Great unrest and critical debate was occurring amongst women. Women's oppression and inequality was spurring women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. Then in 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.

Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. While there are many large-scale initiatives, a rich and diverse fabric of local activity connects women from all around the world ranging from political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events through to local women's craft markets, theatric performances, fashion parades and more.

There were several events held in Ireland this year:
Including a business presentation and networking evening for women in Mayo;
Talks held by Wealth of Women in Dublin; a public meeting with guest speaker Nadia Harb (Palestinian People's Party) held by the Communist Party of Ireland in Liberty Hall;
A seminar which focused on women and armed conflict held by UCD Women's Education Research and Resource Centre (WERRC) in UCD;
A celebration of women's work from the arts, humanities and sciences followed by a drama performance of statistics on gender equality issues in Trinity College, Dublin.


All of these events were kept low-key, with little to no coverage in the media. In Northern Ireland, on March the 8th the Equality Commission claimed that pregnant women are being forced out of their jobs as part of the worst alleged gender discrimination.

There was no official celebration of International Women’s Day at NUI Maynooth. In a college where the vast majority of the Heads of Departments, and those who sit on Governing Authority and Academic Council etc are men, we have to ask ourselves, is this good enough?
Now, I’m no radical feminist. In fact, I think it’s very sad to see a huge push towards the promotion of the female to the extreme where the male gets left out. I’m all in favour of balance. The truth of the matter is, women around the world are getting a raw deal. Whether it’s receiving lower wages, or to the more extreme areas of being victims of violence, there still lies a huge gap between men and women. A gap that many people in our parents’ generation fought to close. A gap that has not come any closer to closing in the last few decades. March the 8th is the official international day for acknowledging this gap, not just by women, by both sexes, to at least try to form a society of equality and respect. We have to ask ourselves, are we doing enough? Are we closing that gap? Are we going to be proud to tell our children that we made a difference? And if not, what are we willing to do about it?