Women's Long and Winding Road to Equality
International Women's Day highlights importance of investing in women.
March 14, 2011 -- Most of the demonstrations associated with the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day celebrated the huge advances women have made throughout the past century. In the United States alone, women gained the right to vote, joined men in the workplace, and closed the education gender gap.
But in many parts of the world, the centennial celebrations highlighted the struggle still raging to elevate women beyond the status of second-class citizens. Marches in Egypt and Ivory Coast, for example, were met with counter-protests, insults and violence.
"It's important every year for there to be a day that marks women's power and positive aims for women," said Janet Walsch, deputy director for Human Rights Watch's Women's Rights Division. "The harassment at the protests highlighted the problems that women face every day."
In Egypt, women's rights activist Nehad Abo Alomsan planned for a "Million Woman" march in Tahrir Square to remind Egyptians of the instrumental role women played during the January revolution. Only several hundred women showed up, and they were soon met with mobs of male counter-protesters, telling them to "go home, that's where you belong."
"We just want to draw the attention of the decision makers and appeal to the women that if they keep silent now then they will lose everything. Women stood shoulder to shoulder by the men, but post-revolution when it came to the decision-making process they were excluded," Alomsan told Al Jazeera during Tuesday's march.
The Egyptian constitution guarantees women equal rights, but that does not insure equality for women.
"On paper things look really good but in most societies in the world the law is only a starting point," said Samer Ali, an associate professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin .
Egyptian society defines women's roles as subversive to men. Women have higher rates of illiteracy, 62 percent compared to 38 percent for males, despite laws providing for equal education.
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