Women's Day has its roots in socialism. Maybe it's time to go back to them

GlobalPost
Activists attend a rally to mark the International Women's Day in Tbilisi, Georgia, on March 8, 2016.

Celebrating International Women's Day? Sorry, but we're about to rain on your parade. 

More than 100 years after the first International Women's Day — which began as a socialist movement for women's rights and has since evolved into slick-looking corporate-sponsored events — one thing hasn't changed: The world has a long way to go.

Several global studies released Tuesday highlight the sad reality that too many women face in the workplace, classroom and home.

That includes women in the United States, where International Women’s Day has its roots.

The Socialist Party of America organized the world’s first National Women’s Day in 1909 in honor of garment workers who had taken to the streets of New York City the year before to demand better working conditions.

Over the next few years the idea of celebrating the achievements of women and pushing for their equal rights with men went global — Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland celebrated the first International Women’s Day in 1911 and Russian women adopted it in 1913 as they campaigned for peace ahead of World War I. The United Nations began celebrating International Women's Day on March 8 in 1975.

There's no question that progress has been made toward gender equality since then. For example, more girls are getting an education than ever before and women are allowed to vote in most countries.

Still, deep inequalities persist.

In its latest Women at Work Trends 2016 report, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said women continued to “face significant obstacles in gaining access to decent work,” with only “marginal improvements” in the past 20 years.

“In many regions in the world, in comparison to men, women are more likely to become and remain unemployed, have fewer chances to participate in the labor force and — when they do — often have to accept lower quality jobs,” the ILO said.

“Progress in surmounting these obstacles has been slow and is limited to a few regions across the world.”

The report, which looked at 178 countries, goes on to highlight discouraging statistics about women in the workforce.

The ILO found the global female employment rate was 25.5 percentage points lower than the male score, which marked an improvement of only 0.6 percentage points since 1995. 

Women are also more likely to be unemployed, with a global jobless rate of 6.2 percent for women compared with 5.5 percent for men. And although women make up less than 40 percent of the global workforce, they hold 57 percent of part-time positions.

Men may dominate the workforce, but women in developing and developed countries still work longer hours than men when paid and unpaid work are combined.

Pay inequality also persists. with women earning 77 percent on average of what their male colleagues make. The ILO estimates it will take more than 70 years to close the gap, assuming current trends continue. 

The lack of gender parity is also evident in leadership positions.

One-third of businesses have a total of zero women in senior management, a situation that hasn’t changed much in the past five years, while the proportion of senior roles held by women stands at 24 percent, an improvement of just 3 percent, according to US-based accounting firm Grant Thornton.

It’s even worse in politics. Fewer than a quarter of national-level politicians were female in August 2015, up from 11.3 percent in 1995, UN data show.

Some of these issues might have their genesis in the education system.

A UNESCO study found school textbooks used in developing countries often showed men as business leaders, politicians and scientists, while women were more likely to be portrayed in "nurturing" roles such as cooking and looking after children, the BBC reported. 

International Women's Day: It's a reminder of how much there's left to do.

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