International Women’s Day (IWD) 2022 gives us yet another opportunity to recognise and celebrate the varied and substantial contributions women make to our world. Indeed, it has been rightly recorded that women hold up half of the sky whether it be in the home or the workplace. On this occasion of IWD 2022, the GAWU hails the contributions of women in Guyana and all across the world. We pay tribute to their tenacious attitude as they continue to tackle alongside men the myriad of challenges our world faces. Indeed, without women we contend that the advances of mankind may not have been as advanced as we are at this point in time.
We recognise the United Nations (UN) has chosen the theme of “Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change” as the theme for this year’s IWD. We consider given the present-day realities there is an undoubted need to explore ways in which innovation can work for gender equality, boost investment in gender-responsive social systems, and enhance public services and infrastructure that meet the needs of women and girls.
Of course as we observe IWD 2022, we recognise a little more than a decade remains to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, including goal five on gender equality. Recent data indicated that at the current pace of change, closing the global gender gap will take a staggering 108 years, and 202 years for economic gender parity. At this time, globally 740 million women currently make their living in the informal economy with limited access to social protection, public services and infrastructure that could increase their productivity and income security. We note that women do 2.6 times more unpaid care and domestic work than men, with only 41 per cent of the world’s mothers with newborns receiving maternity benefits. Dishearteningly, one in three women are likely to face violence in their lifetimes, yet public services, urban planning and transport systems are rarely planned with women’s safety and mobility in mind.
To meet the needs of women and those most marginalized at the bottom of the pyramid, public services, infrastructure and social protection require innovative approaches to increase the quality and affordability for women users, respond to constraints that women face in accessing those services, due to the heavier load they carry in household duties and unpaid care work, and ensure that women can easily obtain the information and resources they need to take advantage of the opportunities offered by new technologies. Women and girls must also have a voice in how innovations are shaped, so that they can truly benefit and contribute to real change.
We are convinced that the women of the world and working-women especially remain a formidable force in mankind’s struggles to address unequal relationships and to bring about a just, democratic and peaceful world. With this in mind, we take this opportunity to express solidarity with our womenfolk worldwide.
On the occasion of this year’s celebration of International Women’s Day, the GAWU sends greetings to the women of Guyana, to its women members and greetings also to the women the world over, especially those who are in the frontlines, to further the cause of women and for overall social progress and peace.
