My edit piece for Lokmat Times, on Women’s Day

8th March. International Women’s Day.

It is a tradition that dates back almost a century earlier, when women were fighting for basic rights. Until then, even in the West, women were considered to be property of the men in their lives – first their father, then their husband. They neither had the right to vote, nor the right to own property, nor the right to divorce. When women worked, they tended to work longer hours for lesser pay than a man doing the same work. In 1908, women finally came out to protest against centuries of being considered chattel. 15,000 women took to the streets in New York to demand equality at the workplace, at home and as citizens.

The first ever International women’s day was celebrated on the 19th of March, 1911 – in Germany, Austria and other parts of the Prussian Empire – it was to commemorate the day of broken promises. Almost 60 years earlier, during the 1848 revolution in German speaking regions, King Frederick William IV, promised women equal citizenship rights, especially the right to vote. But nothing was done about them. At its core the International Women’s day stood for just one thing – Equality – in the eyes of the State, the law, at home, and at the workplace.

A century later, political demands have been met. Most states in the world have guaranteed political rights for women. Less than a century ago, armed police in the western world attacked women who demanded the right to vote. Today, apart from the Vatican City and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – no other country discriminates against women vis-à-vis voting rights. Equal Representation of women in politics has increased, and women have become increasingly more important as voters who exercise electoral decisions independent of men in their families.

There is still a long way to go. Equality at the ballot box does not translate to equality or even equity in the job market, nor does it translate into a fair share of economic resources. The UN world survey on the Role of Women in Development published in 2009, casts a light on the dismal state of women in terms of access to land, housing, property and productive resources. They also tend to have a limited access to technologies and services that would ease their work load. It is this unequal access to resources, believes the United Nations that makes women more vulnerable. As the United Nations states “In some regions, women provide 70% of agricultural labour, produce more than 90% of the food, and yet are nowhere represented in budget deliberations”. It goes beyond access to resources; it also manifests itself in wage disparity. It is estimated that women earn almost 20% lower than men for the same work. Women also tend to work in the informal sector with no benefits.

It is estimated that if women are paid as much as men, ‘America’s GDP would be 9% higher; the euro-zone’s would be 13% higher, and Japan’s would be boosted by 16% (UNESCAP, 2007). So on the 102nd women’s day, maybe we all need to move beyond the lip service of advertisers, platitudes of politicians and challenge the status quo. One hopes it will not take 100 more years for real meaningful economic equality.