Women’s Rights | Unwrapping Conflict

As a child I was fortunate to have many positive female role models in my life which never lead me to question or think that my gender would restrict me in what I wanted to do with my life. However as I have grown up and entered my adult life I’ve become conscious of the existing gender inequalities operating in society which impact the lives of women.

In honour of International Women’s Day I write and share this piece with you.

By Danielle Bonner

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Around the world women have diverse and dynamic roles, in our daily lives we have women playing important roles from being mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, aunts and cousins, to being role models, providers, leaders, workers, carers, inventors, the list is endless. Indeed there are women all around the world making a positive difference, many of whom we will never know their names yet the people around them will feel the benefit of their actions.

Every year on the 8th March, the world celebrates International Women’s Day, but why do we have or need such a day? A simple answer could be to say because there is no country in the world that has reached gender equality[1], so we need to continue to raise awareness over the issue.

However this leads us to ask the question what is gender inequality and how does it affect women differently? Here I look to unravel this question and explore why the celebration of International Women’s Day is so important.

What is Gender Inequality and how does it affect women?

I recently saw a comment made about the double standard of gender equality and why there is no International Men’s Day or a drive to get more boys into education like the drive to get more girls into education. Firstly just to note there actually is an IMD it’s on 19th November but it’s just not publicised very well!

However the comment made me think about what ‘Gender Equality’ really is and how does it affect women? I came to the conclusion that ‘Gender Equality’ should be the mutual respect and absolute undiscriminating empowerment of all genders. Gender Equality should be about a person not being scared or restricted in doing something just because of their gender while no person should be prevented from doing something just because of their gender.

In reality however this is not the case, there are many gender inequalities faced and experienced by women on a daily basis. We still live in a world that being born a female automatically ensures that your life will face certain inequalities that you may not have otherwise of faced had you been born a male. While in some places in our world being born a female you are considered less valuable than being a male.

And in some extreme cases female babies do not even make it into this world because during pregnancy parents discover that the sex of their unborn child is female and decide to end the pregnancy which is known as Female infanticide,[2] or at birth the female baby is killed Femicide [3]

There are many other challenges and forms of inequalities faced by women around the world, here are just a few.

Employment- Pay Gaps– “Women earn on average 15% less than men and at the top of the pay scale, 21% less.”[4]
Restricted Economic Opportunities- there are 128 countries with at least 1 legal difference restricting women’s economic opportunity.
Increased Psychical and Sexual violence– Global statistics show that 35% of women have experienced sexual violence in their life time. Only 52 counties criminalise rape within marriage. 2.6 Billion however live in a country that doesn’t.
Under representation in political decision-making- Only 22 per cent of all national parliamentarians were female as of January 2015 (UN Women)[5]
Lack of Access to Education– 1 in 5 girls of lower secondary age is out of school, 1 in 3 girls in the developing world is married by the age of 18.
Health- Every year, almost 300,000 women lose their life due to preventable complications during pregnancy & childbirth. (Care International)

With such inequalities continually effecting women’s lives, we must continue to work for gender equality and social change, to ensure that no matter what sex/gender you are, you are considered a valuable member of society, both given and treated with the respect that all human rights grant. We must work together as a society locally and globally to deconstruct all social, structural and cultural norms that allow these gender inequalities to continue.

How is women’s inequality being addressed?

At an international level governments and world organisations have pledged their support to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, an agreement and framework which sets out 12 key areas of concern and “remains the world’s best blueprint for achieving gender equality and empowering women.”[6]

At a community grassroots level however we also need to start addressing the social attitudes we hold towards women. Women need to be better openly supported and valued at every level of society.

Women’s empowerment and equality will benefit the whole society

So what is IWD and why do we need it?

Let’s be clear international women’ day is not about women vs men or criticising the opposite sex. Rather it is about supporting the roles and acknowledging the achievements of women within our diverse world. It is also because women continue to experience inequality simply because they are women that we take this day to raise awareness and show support for the rights of all women across the world, which helps to bring such inequalities to an end.

Over the years I’ve had the privilege to meet and interact with women from around the world, from the local business woman Beba in Mostar Bosnia and Herzegovina, overcoming the effects of conflict to rebuild her family home and turning it into a successful business, the women in Afghanistan working every day and risking their lives in support of ending violence and bringing peace to their country. To the women I work with and meet every day doing valuable work that they often don’t even realise is making such a positive difference for our society.

And while we should support the rights and empowerment of women everyday it is nice that for one day of the year on the 8^th March the world unites and collectively comes together to honour women all around the world. Encouraging women no matter where in the world they are, to be empowered, to realise their full potential and to value the contribution they make to our world.

I strongly believe that the empowerment of and fulfilment of women’s rights will have an overarching positive effect not just for their lives but also for the benefit of society as a whole. It is therefore time we all supported the advancement of women’s equality.

“Remember women of the world you are great and together we can and will overcome Gender inequality”

[1] Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, http://time.com/3735042/gender-equality-un/

[2] Find out more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/medical/infanticide_1.shtml

[3] Find out more at http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/77421/1/WHO_RHR_12.38_eng.pdf

[4] Launch of first major OECD report on gender and education – Thursday 5 March 2015, http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/launch-of-first-major-oecd-report-on-gender-and-education.htm

[5] Source see more at http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation/facts-and-figures

[6] http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/speeches/2015/03/08/helen-clark-statement-on-international-women-s-day-/

Who ever thought social media could be an International Peacebuilder?

Like many I had used social media as tool for keeping in contact with friends, however over the last few years I’ve come to see its use in a new light and have experienced the great opportunity it provides to create peace in some of the most hostile of locations.

So what is social media? well it can be described as “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking”(Oxford Dictionary) and some of the most recognised forms of social media include Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Google⁺, Linkedin, WordPress and Instagram.

Connecting social media with peacebuilding

My experience began after I graduated from Ulster University with a Masters Degree in Peace and Conflict Studies in December 2011 and in response to the difficulty of finding employment in my area of study I decided to get proactive and find ways of networking and keeping up to date with developments in peacebuilding.

I had read articles talking about Twitter and its growing power as a communicating tool but I had always viewed it as some sort of geeky tech and something only celebrities used to keep their fans updated. However I thought I’d have nothing to lose by giving it a go and soon I would discover how beneficial it would become. I can remember feeling a little bewildered when I first started using twitter, being confused about the concept of being followed and following and how I was going to engage with users. At times I even felt like I might be just writing to myself, however it didn’t take long before I started gaining followers and exchanged conversations with people in relation to peacebuilding.

To date I’ve gained some 800 followers ranging from individuals and organisations located all over the world whom are involved in Peacebuilding activities and I’ve even had the opportunity to meet two female peacebuilders who follow me at an international peace conference held in Derry city in 2013.

New opportunities

In May 2012 I was introduced to Pax Populi a small peace organisation based in America who support peace in Afghanistan through an online English tutoring programme for Afghan students. Afghanistan had always been my area of interest during my studies so I was happy to offer to become a volunteer.

I offered to help build the organisations profile with a particular focus on using twitter and Facebook as tools to promote its work and develop the organisations communication with an international audience. In a short period we gained new supporters and became connected with people and organisations within Afghanistan which gave us new insight into the challenges within the country which then allowed us to develop peace initiatives in response to these challenges.

For an organisation like Pax Populi which relies on its volunteer to deliver its peace objective, a grassroots engagement strategy using social media has become a vital tool to enable the organisation to reach a large audience. To date social media has provided an effective and economical way to increase peace awareness and connect with people in Afghanistan who may want to join its tutoring program. Because both facebook and twitter also have large youth usage and audience their use becomes a key resource to provide an effective platform to reach a new generation in Afghanistan who want to see peace in their country. To date the organisation has over 1500 followers on facebook and some 700 followers on its twitter accounts and there has also been a rising increase in Afghan program participation and awareness through the active use of these social media platforms.

Social media further shows that there is an untapped wealth of people who want to support peace both in their own community and internationally for example;

In 2013 we even produced two successful social media projects, in March in celebration of Women’s Day we delivered the “Be Inspired” project which highlighted the experiences of women in Afghanistan and their struggle to secure equal rights. And in September delivering the ”Voices for Peace” project, which showcased the work being done by Afghans to build peace and delivered a series of posters featuring people from Afghanistan, Australia, America, Argentina, England, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Nepal, Namibia, Nigeria, and Pakistan which shared their visions for the advancement of peace.

: Sharing my voice on International Peace Day 2013

My expectations on the power of social media grows all the time and in late 2013 I was contacted by the Red Elephant Foundation women’s organisation who having seen my advocacy work on twitter, asked me to write a feature about my work and current affair views for their website, something I was extremely honoured to do.

Through networking I’ve also had the opportunity to help others embrace the power of social media and helping to set up and administrate facebook pages for budding peacemakers in Afghanistan most notably a page called ” AfghanistanThroughMyLens” which promotes peace in Afghanistan through photography with pictures taken by Afghan’s themselves. The page has been very successful and attracts over 1400 likes to-date.

: Copyrights to AfghanistanThroughMyLen

For me social media has shown itself to be a powerful tool for the promotion of peace and provided me with the ability to advocate and network in an international arena which is allowing me and other fellow peacebuilders to make a positive difference.