International Women's Day: Celebrating Achievements While Addressing Persistent Gender Gaps

International Working Women's Day is a global day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. This day emphasizes accelerating the movement towards gender equality. Women's Day is also a day of women's awakening. Observed globally every year on March 8, International Working Women's Day promotes awareness of gender equality, women's rights, and women's empowerment.

The first Women's Day was observed on February 28, 1909. In 1910, Women's Day was given international recognition with the objective of ensuring women's suffrage. In recent times, activities for Women's Day are organized throughout the month of March. By the year 2026, the 116th edition of International Working Women's Day will be observed.

A century ago, the origin date was the Women's Day organized by the Socialist Party of the United States on February 28, 1909. This day was celebrated in commemoration of the struggle for the rights of women garment workers that took place in 1908. After that commemorative day, it began to be celebrated on the last Sunday of February instead of February 28, but since 1917, Women's Day started being celebrated on March 8, which continues to this day.

In 1910, the Copenhagen conference of the Socialist International granted it international recognition. At that time, the main objective of this day was to secure the right to vote for women, and later, this day gradually incorporated other issues related to women's rights. In 1917, Russian women staged a historic strike, raising the issue of women's food and clothing. In the same year, the Tsarist monarchy ended, and a republic was established. The new republican interim government decided to grant women the right to vote.

In 2001, the website InternationalWomensDay.com was established. A system was developed on this website to document women's rights movements and demonstrations happening anywhere in the world. The European Union, women's associations, and organizations are affiliated with this.

Looking at the condition of women in rural areas of Central Asia after a century of effort in women's development, the necessary infrastructure for investment has not been sufficiently developed. They are not equally represented in rural institutional structures. Their participation in agricultural management is low. Female agricultural workers are not paid wages equal to men. Equal access to appropriate employment, markets, and infrastructure for women has not been achieved. It is estimated that 60 to 87 percent of women working in agriculture are informal or family workers. Health and education have not always been provided adequately. Progress towards positive change is limited.

Women's leadership and political participation, from local to global levels, remain weak. The status of women's suffrage and representation in representative bodies, civil society, civil service, the private sector, etc., is not satisfactory. Although they are capable of providing effective leadership, their right to participate equally in democratic governance is curtailed.

The situation where women have to face many obstacles to participate in community, social, public, and especially political life has not ended. Education, contacts, and resources necessary to provide effective leadership are lower for women compared to men. Regarding women's political participation, according to the 2011 UN General Assembly resolution, ‘Women in every part of the world are largely marginalized from the political sphere as a result of discriminatory laws, practices, attitudes, and the consequences of low levels of education, gender stereotypes.’

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women supports the right of women to participate in public life, while the Beijing Platform for Action calls for the removal of barriers to equal participation. The Millennium Development Goals have partially assessed progress towards gender equality based on the proportion of women in parliamentary representation. 

Although the proportion of women's representation in parliamentary elections is specified, the distribution of tickets to ensure their victory is negligible compared to male candidates. Women candidates need training to develop their competitive capacity. ‘UN Women’ has been advocating for legislative and constitutional reforms to ensure fair access for women as voters, candidates, elected officials, and civil service members in political spheres.

The condition of women in Nepal is much different than in the past. However, the gap of discrimination between women and men has still not been bridged in Nepal, as in many countries around the world. The pace of gender equality in every sector—social, economic, educational, political, administrative, etc.—is limited. Women constitute more than half of the total population in Nepal. Since Nepal is a developing country, the state of human resource development here is naturally lagging. But, comparatively, the condition of women is weaker than that of men. One major reason for the country's inability to develop is the weaker condition of women compared to men.

The status of women has not risen due to factors like caste discrimination, early marriage, and the greater importance given to sons. The status of women has fallen significantly due to gender inequality in the distribution of resources and opportunities. Although the Constitution of Nepal guarantees rights related to women, institutional development in line with this has not taken place. Although various efforts are being made with the international campaign's objective that women should have equality in every sector like men, the pace of this is extremely slow.

Discriminatory practices against women that have been carried out in the past are decreasing in recent years. However, situations that discriminate against women or leave them behind in political, economic, and social activities developed in the modern era still exist. 

In recent years, significant work has been done in Nepal in the field of women's rights and freedom. As a result, the change happening currently is directly visible. Currently, a significant number of Nepali women are educated. Women here are contributing not only in politics, education, army, police, and civil service but also in foreign employment. 

The twenty-first century has emerged as a golden opportunity for the holistic development of women. The fundamental reason for this is the feminist movement that began in the early twentieth century, and the significant milestone of this is this Working Women's Day. However, much work still remains to be done for women's rights.

Article 38 of the Constitution of Nepal 2072 mentions the fundamental rights of women, granting every woman equal rights of succession without gender discrimination, the right to safe motherhood and reproductive health, the right that no physical, mental, sexual, psychological, or any other form of violent act or exploitation based on religious, social, cultural tradition, practice, or any other basis shall be committed against women, that such acts shall be punishable by law, and that the victim shall receive compensation according to the law. 

Furthermore, it provides for the right of women to participate in all state bodies based on the principle of proportional inclusion, the right of women to access opportunities in education, health, employment, and social security, and the right to equal rights of the couple in property and family matters. The constitutional provision of fundamental rights for women is a very large and historic achievement for Nepali women and Nepali society. 

Women's participation is ensured from the ward level up to the National Assembly and even at the head of state level. Reservation is also provided for women in the civil service. The next step is the promptness that the state and political parties must show in the implementation of those rights.