Supporting Goals of International Women’s Day Essays

Supporting Goals of International Women’s Day Essays Supporting Goals of International Women’s Day Essay Supporting Goals of International Women’s Day Essay The popular image of women’s liberation and emancipation in the United States is that of bra burning females of the 1960’s. Burning of items of feminine wear on 7 September 1968 has been permanently etched into American women liberation history as a revolution though writers as Berkeley (1999) conclude that this was an innocuous sub event in the overall protests by members of New York Radical Women. From this glamorized event to the more substantial issue of International Women’s Day, America as well as the World has come a long way. The Eighth of March every year sees the world celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD). This is a significant event and 2007 will mark the 30th anniversary of IWD. The UN established IWD in 1977 and provides an opportunity to celebrate the progress made in empowering women and to assess future challenges. IWD encourages the world to consider steps to bring about equality for women and girls in all th eir diversity and to celebrate the collective power of women past, present and future. International Women’s Day, recognizes both the great strides women have made and the critical need to end discrimination and violence against women globally. It is therefore significant that a Resolution was introduced in the US House of Representatives on 8 February 2007 supporting the goals of the IWD and â€Å"encourages† the President of the US â€Å"reaffirm his commitment to pursue policies to protect fundamental human rights and civil liberties, particularly those of women and girls.† (Resolution, 2006). The Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives on 8 February passed House Resolution No. 149, a resolution sponsored by the Democrat Representative from Illinois, Jan Schakowsky.   The bill had 83 co-sponsors, a majority of whom were Democrats. The Resolution calls on the US House of Representatives to support the goals of International Women’s Day, honour women around the world who have fought and continue to struggle for equality in the face of adversity, and reaffirm its commitment to ending discrimination and violence against women and to pursuing policies that guarantee the basic human rights of women and girls both in the United States and in other countries.   The resolution also encourages the President to reaffirm his commitment to pursue policies to protect the health and human rights of women and girls; and to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe March 8th, International Women’s Day, with appropriate programs and activities.   The resolution will now go to the full House for a vote. This resolution was considered in Committee, which has recommended that the House as a whole should consider it. Although the Resolution has been placed on a calendar of busine ss, the majority party leadership will determine the order in which bills are considered and voted on. On February 15, 2007 the House Foreign Affairs committee ordered it to be reported by Voice Vote. This bill is in the first stage of the legislative process where the bill is considered in committee and may undergo significant changes in Mark Up sessions. The bill has been referred to the Committee in the House on Foreign Affairs and House Judiciary. In the US House of Representatives, a simple resolution is a legislative proposal that does not require the approval of the other chamber or the signature of the President and does not have the force of law. Simple resolutions are used only to change the internal rules of one of the chambers of Congress or to express the sentiments of one of the houses. On February 8, 2007 the Bill was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned. On February 15, it was put up for Committee Consideration and a Mark-up Session was held. It is of interest that on the same day Eddie Bernice Johnson as a Democrat from Texas introduced a resolution (No. 146) in the Foreign Affairs Committee expressing the sense of the House that the United States should take action to meet its obligations, and to ensure that all other member states of the United Nations meet their obligations, to women as agreed to in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325. This related to women, peace, and security. The Resolution also states that the United States should fully assume the implementation of international law relating to human rights that protects the rights of women and girls during and after conflicts. Resolution no. 149 in its present form envisages empowering women globally. It is recognised that women have advanced and they account for 80 per cent of the world’s 70 million micro-borrowers, 75 per cent of the 28,000 United States loans supporting small businesses in Afghanistan are made to women, and 11 women are chief executive officers of Fortune 500 companies. (Resolution, 2006). The Sponsor of the Resolution aptly noted while introducing it in the House. She said it was important for Congress to put on record this resolution, which supported the goals of equality and opportunity and added that it was â€Å"a meaningful step.†Ã‚   (Press Release, 2007). It is acknowledged that women have made tremendous gains across the world, but the reality is that women still face political and economic obstacles, struggle for basic rights, face the threat of discrimination, and are targets of violence all over the world. But worldwide women remain vastly underrepresented in national and local assemblies, accounting on average for less than 10 per cent of the seats in parliament, except for in East Asia where the figure is approximately 18 to 19 per cent, and in no developing region do women hold more than 8 per cent of the ministerial positions. Additionally, it should be noted that worldwide, 130,000,000 girls and young women have been subjected to female genital mutilation and estimates are that 10,000 girls are at risk of being subjected to this practice in the United States. (Resolution, 2006). According to the Congressional Research Service and the US Department of State, illegal trafficking in women and children for forced labor, domestic servitude, or sexual exploitation involves between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 women and children each year, of whom 50,000 are transported into the United States. This is a real challenge facing the sole superpower in the world today.   International policies on women have evolved through interaction of a number of processes. Taking the example of European Union, it can be seen that despite being new coagulation of states the policy for greater autonomy to women was evolved through the process of a number of factors such as autonomy of institutions, state autonomy, policy structuring, influence of past policies and factors which are beyond the preferences of states. (Ellina, 2003). Thus the growth of International Women’s Day movement is not restricted to United States but extends across the entire Western World. The United States must follow the lead though on the issue of women’s rights the record in the US is mixed. One might take one example. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution was first introduced in the US Congress in January 1878. The Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920. But it took 52 years for the 19th Amendment to be ratified. The Women’s rights and liberation movement has a very long history. This can be traced back to as early as 1848 and continues to the present day. (D’Itri, 1999). Jane Austen was the proverbial women liberator who kept writing novels more for poseterity while attempting to keep the writings hidden from her relations (Lloyd, 1971). But ladies were particularly active in activities such as raising funds through charity bazaars throughout history (Lloyd, 1971).Between 1878 and 1920, champions of voting rights for women worked tirelessly, but their strategies varied for achieving the goal. Some women focused on a strategy of getting the government to pass suffrage acts in each state – nine western states had adopted woman suffrage legislation by 1912. Others took the path of legal action by challenging in the courts male-only voting laws. Many suffrage groups used tactics such as parades, silent vigils, and hunger strikes. There are no simple patterns to voting on women in the US Congress. As awareness grows in the national and state legislatures the voting model may also become more complex. Therefore it should not be assumed that the voting pattern regarding women, children, health and so on will be the same as in the case of foreign affairs or strategic defence matters. One should then look beyond the liberal-conservative model on this issue and see the emergence of a consensus on the issue of supporting the international women’s day as a matter of national US policy. This is what makes one suggest that this resolution might be passed in the Congress as a bill giving US women a major role in the global women’s movement. What this depends on is whether the ideological divide in the US Congress can be bridged progress made on this issue keeping in mind its multi-dimensional aspects. The fructification of focus on the International Women’s Day is thus the result of a large number o f men as well as women over more than 150 years of history (D’Itri, 1999). The US Congress thus needs to support the motion most vehemently.