March 8, 2021
By Sarah Fecht
On International Women’s Day, we celebrate the achievements of women. And by “women,” we mean all who identify with that term.
Women bring creativity and critical services to all levels of society, from the home to the office, laboratory, and boardroom. Yet their achievements and contributions often go overlooked, unacknowledged, or even minimized. Today is a reminder to appreciate those who are typically forgotten or pushed to the side.
While we unite on International Women’s Day to celebrate, we also acknowledge that true gender equality does not yet exist anywhere in the world. One in three women will experience gender-based violence in their lifetimes. Women are still paid less than men for the same work, and they do 2.6 times more unpaid care and domestic work. In many countries, women do not have equal access to land, credit or economic and educational opportunities, so when disaster strikes, it’s usually women who often suffer t
Coronavirus Coverage
Margaret Sedziafa (left) and Ayo Ayoola-Amale, leaders from the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Chapter in Ghana, distribute supplies in Tema, a suburb of Accra. Photo: Margaret Sedziafa
From the ‘shadow pandemic’ of gender-based violence to the burdens of balancing greater care responsibilities, the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are increasingly clear and well-documented. In many ways, the story of the last year illuminates the ways in which individual women and women-led organizations have, through their daily work, sustained families, communities, and societies at-large through crises.
History cautions, though, that even while women are repeatedly lauded for their resilience during crises, the specific forms of knowledge and skills that they contribute are too often forgotten when periods of crisis eventually subside.