International Women's Day

Thursday was International Women's Day - the Day when the United Nations and many other organisations take especial notice of the problems faced by women all over the world, particularly in developing countries. Here, of course, there are frequently marked differences in the levels of literacy between men and women as well as other differences in health, employment, education and human rights.

Too often in Europe the need for International Women's Day is scoffed at by people who should really know better. "Why don't we also have an International Men's Day?" they ask superciliously. I once responded to such a person by asking how he (for as might be expected it was a man) would like to be a woman living in Afghanistan, possibly not allowed an education and a marriage arranged over your head. Maybe even not allowed to visit a male doctor (if anyway one is available) but instead told to let your husband tell the doctor about your symptoms.

Thankfully it is now generally acknowledged that women's education is one of the very best investments that can be made in a country to improve generally its wealth and well-being. The emancipation of women also brings with it advantages in terms of fewer children being born and so less pressure on the health and education systems in those countries.

When I was about ten I remember the song 'Que sera, sera' - Whatever will be, will be. It was meant to be encouraging and uplifting - to give you a sense of the possible. Opportunities for women are now greater than they have ever been but still there is a long way to go. Women are succeeding in high positions as never before, but very frequently they are also having to do so either at the expense of raising their children or of not having any. While men cannot biologically bear children a great deal of the business of family and domestic chores are still done, or still organised by, women. There is a gender gap here too. Again progress is being made but the proportion of fathers outside the school gates is almost as small as the proportion of women in the high boardrooms. Things are changing, but meanwhile we still need an International Women's Day.

Posted by Fennie Somerville