International Women’s Day – 8 March

On 8 March 2011 we will mark the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day (IWD). The 2011 United Nations (UN) theme for IWD is “Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women“.

Gender Links’ theme   is “Decent work, Decent lives: 100 years of herstory“.

The lack of recognition of women’s work leads to lack of public investment in the areas where women are concentrated, such as the informal sector, rural subsistence production, domestic reproductive work, or the care economy, and voluntary community work. This scenario calls for the review, amendment and enactment of laws and policies that ensure women and men have equal access to wage employment and for the recognition of women’s unpaid work.