IWD Message - Community Action for Gender Equality

March 8 is International Women’s Day, and the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA) is observing the day within the context of natural disasters and the global processes negatively impacting on the region.

This is the year when the Second Review of the Beijing Platform for Action for the Advancement of Women takes place (Beijing+10). It is also the year in which the Review of the Barbados Plan of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) has taken place (SIDS+10) and the first Review of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs+5) will take place in September 2005.

There is one central goal to this bewildering array of processes – “a better life for the region’s people within the context of gender equality”. In spite of these processes, the face of poverty is becoming increasingly feminised as communities are overrun by poverty, violence, inadequate attention to health care, HIV/AIDS, illegal abortions, issues of sexual and reproductive health, education, employment, disaster management and environmental matters.

This persistent burden of poverty is fed by another international process which ironically also has as its goal “a better life for the region’s people”. This is globalization and trade liberalization as manifested through the World Trade Organisation (WTO), established in January 1995.

As the many women’s movements grapple with these inconsistencies, they have recognized the need for feminist action, moving beyond traditional borders to challenge the macro-economic structures of mass destruction, to partnership in community action for gender equality. The struggle is for social justice.

Women’s Day was born out of a rebellion against the inhumanity of labour conditions and to recapture the dignity of labour. International Women’s Day was first proposed in 1910 by German Socialist, Clara Zetkin and celebrated the following year by an estimated one million men and women who demanded women’s right to vote, to hold public office, and for an end to sex discrimination in employment and training. This was in response to the second-class status the system assigned to women.

Historically, many men, women and children have celebrated Women’s Day in true community spirit. Where are the Clara Zetkins of today? They are everywhere – in the pre-schools and golden age centres, the trade unions, the primary, secondary and tertiary level classrooms, the banana and ground provision fields, on the poultry farms, in the calypso tents and dance halls, protesting in the United Nations, and in the WTO, FTAA, negotiating spaces, reminding governments of their commitments to women’s advancement and gender equality.

It is time to more directly engage whole communities, across race, class, disability, age, sexual orientation, and religion. It is time to walk tall, gathering strength in collective community action.