Today is International Women’s Day.
You may have noticed that there are a lot of International “Day”s popping up: “National Frozen Foods Day” was on Sunday, and later this month there’s an International Goof Off Day.
International Women’s Day isn’t an arbitrary “Day” invented in the age of the internet to spark funny conversations on Facebook. It was founded more than 100 years ago to celebrate the battles on the forefront of gender equality.
At the time, garment workers in the United States were striking for fair wages, and women in dozens of countries were fighting for the right to vote or hold public office. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire alone, there were 300 demonstrations on International Women’s Day.
Today, the fight for women’s rights looks different – in huge part because we’ve come so far. But make no mistake, there is progress we have yet to make. Women are still facing discrimination throughout the world, and in different cultures those fights look different.
Here are some of the current campaigns from around the globe:
Sue is fighting to stop “honor killings” – a practice that allows family members to murder women for dishonoring their families by refusing an arranged marriage, renouncing their faith, or dressing in ways considered inappropriate:
More than 52,000 Care2 members are calling on refugee camps to put a stop to the sexual assault of female refugees:
Alex started a petition demanding that Canada’s long-overdue investigation of the murder and disappearance of 1,200 Aboriginal women uncover why these women were denied protection and justice for so long:
More than 127,000 people are demanding Facebook take immediate action to shut down the account of Roosh V, a man who is encouraging men to assault women and advocating for rape to be made legal on private property:
A coalition in Northern Ireland is fighting to protect a mother who could be imprisoned for 5 years for making sure her daughter had access to a safe abortion:
Please join us in celebrating International Women’s Day by first taking a moment to appreciate how far we’ve come, and how many women have fought tooth and nail to secure the rights that we have today. Then join us to build on those victories by adding your signature to one or more of these campaigns – or start your own petition to push for women’s rights in an area you didn’t see represented here.
Thank you for all that you do to defend and advance women’s rights around the world.
Jen and the Care2 Petitions Team
Care2.com, Inc.
275 Shoreline Drive, Suite 300
Redwood City, CA 94065
http://www.care2.com
