INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY (IWD)

Women of the World Unite

" If you follow all the rules, you miss all the fun" - IWD Quote

Please wear a Purple Ribbon today, 08 March, the International Women's Day (IWD) and take a pledge for 'gender parity,' even though we have to wait for another 118 years to reach it: worldwide it will be, perhaps, reached by 2133.

Much progress has been made since Women's Day 'observance'  in New York on 28 Feb' 1909; since the first IWD was officially recognised in 1911; since the IWD was first held on 08 March in 1914; and since the UN proclaimed March 08 as the 'UN Day for Women's Rights' in 1977

But much more progress remains to be made. While women in Germany and in Britain won their right to vote - women's first demand - in 1918, in Saudi Arabia they received it only last year (2015). Today, only 20% of the Parliamentarians are women; only 17% of cabinet ministers are women; only 19 out of 196 heads of state are women; and only 55 of the World's richest 500 are women. Similar statistics hold in business, academia, administration and other fields.

Let me end on a happy note. On 06 March, our national airline, Air India, flew the world's longest flight by an all-women crew: Delhi - San Francisco. And on IWD, Air India will have 22 all-women flights. Thank You, Air India.