It shocks, disappoints and angers me that in a world where man has traveled to the moon and where we can connect to people anywhere on earth instantly online, men and women are still not equal.
The statistics are sobering. Across the globe, gender-based violence causes more deaths and disabilities among women of child-bearing age than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined. Even in the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo, it's safer to be a soldier than a woman. Women do two-thirds of the world's work for a paltry 10 percent of the world's income and own just 1 percent of the means of production.
On the centenary of International Women's Day, I urge you to stop and think.
Last year, I did just that. I participated in one of 119 bridge events for International Women's Day involving 20,000 women across four continents. It was a moving and powerful show of strength. I saw many wonderful women there, standing up for equality, justice and peace. But I was struck by how many other amazing women weren't there. It seemed to me that some people must think we already have equality. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, huge gains have been made since 1911, but we still have a mountain to climb. We need to persevere with this for the sake of our daughters, our granddaughters, and the generations to come.
Motivated and inspired, I became convinced that collectively we could make a loud noise. I want this year's centenary celebrations for International Women's Day to be a turning point, a catalyst for tangible and positive change.
Despite the fact that half of the world's population is female, women's rights have become marginalized as a "minority issue." Many young women feel that the label of "feminist" is, at best, irrelevant to their lives and, at worst, a stigma to be avoided at all costs. Sullied by stereotypes of hairy, arm-pitted man haters, the concept of feminism and its principles of equality and anti-sexism need to be refreshed and reclaimed by a new generation. Feminism shouldn't be an F word. We should embrace it.
From Milwaukee to Malawi, women are being short-changed on life chances. From India to Illinois, women face violence just for being female. Of the 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty worldwide, the vast majority are female. For many, just getting an education is a real struggle, major decisions such as who to marry and when to have children are made for them by others, and without economic independence or a say in their own future, the chances of women escaping the poverty trap are virtually nonexistent.
Whether you're a woman or a man, this affects you. And you are part of the solution. The impact of inequality is felt by every woman worldwide -- your friends, your family, your colleagues, your neighbors, the people you emailed today, the woman in the car next to you, the faces you saw on television and the voices you heard on the radio. How many have been abused or faced discrimination today?
The 100th anniversary of International Women's Day is a moment in time. Let's make it a moment that counts. Let's make it a moment that lasts.
Annie Lennox is a singer, song-writer and performer, a renowned international icon, and the winner of numerous prestigious awards, including several Grammies and an Oscar. Annie is also an internationally recognized and highly respected political and social activist. As a Global Ambassador for Oxfam, Annie has taken part in a wide range of activities, events and international trips, working hard to raise awareness about on AIDS and women's issues.
I know this is against everything a woman is, but don't just sit around and share your feelings, grow some balls and kick some butt. More power to ya! You go Girl!
Thank you
And if women divorced men not just when they had stepped over the line physically but also began the abuse cycle with verbal putdowns, that would end that cycle.
Nobody can do it for us but.......us.
I can agree however, that there are some legitimate concerns and the cause has been damaged by women who either hate men, want to be men, or want to 'uni-gender' the world. There are those, too, who disgracefully want to achieve moral equivalency for sexual promiscuity by couching it in the gender eqaulity issue. Shameful.
I have to ask - What's wrong with being a woman and what's with her being her own gender, different from a man? To me, June Cleaver is the ultimate feminist. Equal but different.
'Women' whining about not being a man, who want to be men - from wearing men's suits to sleeping around - are a dime a dozen and it's time for them to stop hijacking a legitimate cause.
I'm glad that you are at least aware that there are some "legitimate concerns". Sad to see that the message of feminism has been so peculiarly distorted by the media that an intelligent young woman such as yourself has fallen for the purposeful propaganda against it.
Forgive me if I incorrectly assume that you are young. I made that assumption because I sincerely doubt, given other comments of yours I've read elsewhere, if you had been alive at the time when June Cleaver and her family were icons in the U.S. that you would have been happy with her lot in the non-television reality of those times.
But, that aside, going back to poverty and gender issues. Here are just a quickly chosen few of thousands of articles on the subect that might help put things into perspective as to why successful poverty reduction efforts (for women, men, and children) are indeed intimately tied to efforts to help women overcome gender inequities and empower themselves:
http://www.unifem.org/gender_issues/women_poverty_economics/
http://www.undp.org/poverty/focus_gender_and_poverty_publications.shtml
http://www.genderandwater.org/page/2801
http://www.adb.org/poverty/gender-equality.asp
"Many young women feel that the label of "feminist" is, at best, irrelevant to their lives and, at worst, a stigma to be avoided at all costs. Sullied by stereotypes of hairy, arm-pitted man haters..."
It is not stereotypes about feminism that have turned young women off feminism. It is the trivialities an victomology of modern feminism that have done that. I know many women in their twenties and thirties who reject the feminist label not because they associate it with "hairy arm-pitted man-haters" but because they associate -- quite fairly -- with a never ending stream of petty complaints about trivialities that do not address the realities of their lives.
When Jezebel post articles that cite a zero-calorie chocolate bar as examples of misogyny (true story!), many young women don't see the relevancy to their lives and think that maybe feminism is a bit petty and superficial.
While internationally there are still many struggles facing women, most American women are not in a position to do anything but get depressed by such stories. Modern feminism seems powerless abroad and trivial at home, and so many women naturally question its relevancy to their lives.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/04/pdf/equal_pay_day.pdf
Violence against women is trivialized on a daily basis. The misogyny on some of the threads at this website alone is frightening. Women have not attained power or positions of any significance relative to their population in politics, business, law, or higher education.
Modern feminism is not trivial in the US. That is, as long as you are paying attention.
Violence against women is not trivialized, except perhaps in the sense that violence as a whole is trivialized. It is much easier to find images of violence against men used for humor and entertainment than image of violence against women - it takes a real commitment to being biased to make the claim you are making.
It is you that should try paying attention.
Feminism isn't jezebel.
By the way, I don't understand the point annie Lennox is trying to make by using this stereotype about feminists.
Sad all around.
With feminists of the Friedan, Dworkin and Allred type figuring prominently among these Others.
It is natural to fall in love and want to form a lasting union when you are at your physical peak. It is unnatural to delay or abstain from this choice because of ideology.